Contacts & supervision

Need help? Looking for a supervisor? On this page, you'll find the contact information for the administrative personnel the doctoral programme, as well as information on the steering group of the programme.

If you are facing challenges in your supervision relationship, please contact your doctoral programme director or senior advisor. It is possible to change supervisors.

You can find admission instructions on the left column, under "Admissions to doctoral studies".

If you have read all the instructions, and you still have questions on applying for doctoral studies,

please contact admission services: phd-admissions@helsinki.fi.
Director of the programme
Contact information

In the below listing of steering committee members, each person’s name is a link to their profile in the university’s People finder.

University of Helsinki Doctoral School, Doctoral Programmes in Humanities and Social Sciences
(general information on doctoral education):
uhds-office@helsinki.fi

Doctoral Student Services for the Faculty of Social Sciences
(questions related to applying for doctoral study rights, and the examination of doctoral theses):
valt-postgrad@helsinki.fi

Senior Advisor:
Tuuli Holttinen
citycentre-dp@helsinki.fi
How to find a supervisor?

Finding supervisors willing to guide you through your thesis project is one of the most important steps when preparing your application. But it’s not always an easy feat. Here are a few tips on how to go about it:

  • Start early. And when we say early, we’re talking about months rather than weeks. Finding the right match can be a time-consuming business.
  • Do your research. You are more likely to get a positive response if the researchers you approach actually share your research interests. Think of approaching the prospective supervisors in a sense like you would applying for a job – sending the same generic message to various recipients is unlikely to provide the hoped-for results. Acquaint yourself with the supervisors' research profiles, and try to pick the people you approach based on actual mutual research interests.
  • Pay attention to detail. At least one of your supervisors has to be in a permanent or long-term employment to the faculty awarding your prospective target degree, and at least one needs to hold the title of docent or similar scientific qualifications – i.e. be a senior researcher in your field. When you find potential supervisors, make sure in the further discussions that at least one of them fills these conditions.
  • Be precise. Supervisors get a lot of email. When you approach a prospective supervisor, present your topic and motivation in a clear, succinct manner to allow them to easily estimate whether your topic is such that they would be interested in supervising it and whether if it seems feasible.
  • Be patient and prepare for disappointments. In the process of finding a supervisor, you are likely to receive several negative responses – or, sometimes, no response at all. Sometimes your topic is simply not a good match for the person you approached, and sometimes the supervisors have their quota of new students already full. If you get a negative response, move on. Be also aware that, especially if your research topic is of a field that’s not widely represented here, it’s also possible that you will not find a supervisor. In that case, your only option is to continue your search and apply later – or set your sights to a different university with better prospects.

Available below is a listing of current supervisors in the doctoral programme. The list is by no means definitive, and is only there to help you get started. The name of each supervisor has been linked to their individual research profile in the University of Helsinki Research Portal to help you find out more about their research interests.

From the research portal, you can also look up people for example using keywords related to your research. Keep in mind that the research portal lists all researchers affiliated with the University of Helsinki – including current doctoral students, who should not be considered as prospective supervisors. If the person is employed, you will see their job title on their profile page.
Current supervisors

Contact person of the research area: Mervi Pantti

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Supervisors at the Swedish School of Social Sciences (Svenska social- och kommunalhögskolan):

Other experts:

The research area welcomes students with a background in social psychology or related disciplines interested in the ways diversity is constructed and managed and intergroup relations are organized in communities, organizations and societies.

Contact person of the research area: Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti

Contact person of the research area: Sarah Green

Contact persons of the research area: Anne Kouvonen and Heikki Hiilamo

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Contact person of the research area: Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Other experts:

Contact person of research area: Kris Clarke

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Other expers:

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

 

Other experts:

Contact persons of the research area: Janne Hukkinen and Petri Ylikoski

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

 

Other experts:

Contact persons of the research area: Matti Nelimarkka and Mikko Myrskylä. Further information on Social Data Science and Statistical Demography available at the Centre for Social Data Science (CSDS).

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Contact person of the research area: Ilkka Arminen 

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Other experts:

Contact persons of the research area: Sirpa Wrede and Lena Näre

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Other experts:

Contact persons of the research area: Janne Kivivuori and Antti Latvala

Other experts:

The board of the research area:

Other experts:

Contact person of the research area: Petteri Repo

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Other experts:

Contact person of the research area: Kati Rantala

Supervisors at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Other experts: