The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies is pleased to announce that Dr. Juhana Toivanen has been appointed as the new Research Coordinator. Toivanen will assume the position in June 2025, succeeding Dr. Kaisa Kaakinen, who recently became Director of Communications at the Finnish Literature Society. As Research Coordinator, Toivanen will be responsible for managing and developing the Collegium’s academic program and communications.
Toivanen joins the HCAS from the University of Jyväskylä, where he has held various academic positions over the years. He served as an Academy Research Fellow from 2018 to 2022 and was the director of Academy Research Project Vicious, Antisocial and Sinful: The Social and Political Dimension of Moral Vices from Medieval to Early Modern Philosophy from 2020 to 2024. A former fellow of Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies (2013), Toivanen has extensive international academic experience. Alongside shorter research visits to Cambridge, Munchen, and Notre Dame, he has held longer-term positions, including a two-year visiting fellowship at EHESS in Paris and a three-year research appointment at the University of Gothenburg.
Toivanen specializes in the history of philosophy, medieval theology, and intellectual history. His research focuses on ancient and medieval theories concerning the human and animal minds, political philosophy, and virtue ethics. His major publications include the monographs Perception and the Internal Senses (Brill, 2013) and The Political Animal in Medieval Philosophy (Brill, 2021).
In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Toivanen will continue his research. He is currently investigating historical discussions on moral vices, and he aims to explore their potential applications in contemporary environmental ethics. “I look forward to the new challenges ahead, and I am proud to join the intellectually vibrant community of the Helsinki Collegium.”