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About me

I started my fixed-term contract as a senior lecturer in Gender Studeis in autumn 2020, which continues until summer 2024. 

Responsibilities

I teach and coordinate several courses in Finnish, as well as act as an examiner, also for written assignments, for the following courses: YKT.215 Gender Studies: Theories and Concepts; YKT.228 Gender, Body and Intersectionality; YKT.YKE.501 Genders and Sexualities; YKT.SUT.313 Sexuality and Intimate Relations. 

Fields of expertise

I am currently working on the history, archiving, and exhibiting of diverse genders and sexualities. My previous research projects have focused on emerging lesbian and gay communities, the changing position of homosexuality in Finnish society, and the sexualities and genders in flux. I have led a research project on affective inequalities in intimate relations, supervised doctoral theses on relationships of heterosexual and bisexual women, feminist activism, and sexological knowledge production. 

Top achievements

YKY community 2015 award, together with Leena Rodriguez, for the ideas and accomplishments benefiting the executive development and wellbeing of the School for Social Science and Humanities (YKY) and its various working communities, Executive Group, 2015.

The Annual Good Teacher Award 2012, University of Tampere Foundation (voted by students). 

Archival Deed of the Year 2012, honorary mention, Committee of the Day of the Archives, for the continuous work to preserve and make visible the histories of gender minorities and sexual minorities in collaboration with Finnish Labour Museum and Labour Archives.

Main positions of trust

Visiting co-editor of SQS , the journal of the Finnish Queer Studies Association in 2020 and 2021. 

Chair of the association Friends of Queer History , the work of which is currently funded by Kone Foundation. 

Research fields

Queer studies, lesbian studies, queer history. 

Research career

Funding received for own research projects:

Affective Activism: Sites of Queer and Trans World-Making , leader of a research group, Academy of Finland/University of Tampere, 1.9.2021(–31.08.2025).

Affective Attachments: Sexualities and Genders in Flux, PI, Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku, 1.1.2018–31.7.2020. 

Just the two of us? Affective inequalities in intimate relationships, leader of a research group, Academy of Finland/University of Tampere, 1.9.2015–31.3.2020. http://affective-inequalities.fi/en/

Queer Narratives: Intimate and Social Lives of Women with Same-Sex Sexual Attractions in Tampere 1971–2011, PI, Academy Research Fellow, Academy of Finland/University of Tampere, 1.9.2012–31.12.2017. 

From Thinking Archives to Doing Archives: Queer Action Research on Finnish Archiving Practices, PI, post-doc researcher, Academy of Finland/University of Tampere, 1.11.2005–31.12.2006 (leave of absence 1.4.—31.7.2006 and 1.1.2007—31.10.2007). 

Mental and Material Spaces in Constructing Local Homosexualities, PI, post-doc researcher, Academy of Finland/University of Tampere, 1.11.2003–31.10.2005. 

Member of a reserarch team:

Homo Politicus: Sexual Citizens as Agents in Public Politics, senior researcher, in Politics of Philosophy and Gender (PPhiG) research team (PI: Tuija Pulkkinen), in Centre of Excellence in Political Thought and Conceptual Change (led by Kari Palonen and Tuija Pulkkinen), Academy of Finland/Universities of Jyväskylä and Helsinki, 1.1.2006–31.12.2011.

From Welfare to Work (PI Marianne Pieper), University of Hamburg, Finnish partner, 1.6.–31.6.2003. 

Marginalized Sexual Cultures: The Constructions and Deconstructions of Sexual Otherness, doctoral student and post-doc researcher (PI Tuula Gordon) Academy of Finland/University of Tampere, 1.1.2002–31.10.2003. 

Latest publications