Hanne Appelqvist’s main research interests are Ludwig Wittgenstein, Immanuel Kant, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. In her publications, she has developed and defended the so-called Kantian interpretation of Wittgenstein's philosophy, which seeks to uncover the affinities between Wittgenstein's thought and Kant's transcendental idealism. Central themes in her work have been Wittgenstein’s views on logic and grammar, ethics, aesthetics, and religion. She has also published on philosophy of music, especially on Eduard Hanslick's musical formalism.
Hanne Appelqvist received her doctoral degree in philosophy from Columbia University in 2007. In her dissertation Wittgenstein and the Conditions of Musical Communication (Acta Philosophica Fennica 2008), Appelqvist defended a formalistic interpretation of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s remarks on music. Her recent publications include an edited collection Wittgenstein and the Limits of Language (Routledge 2020) and Wittgenstein and Aesthetics (CUP 2023). She is Docent of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki and the University of Turku. Since 2018, she has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, and since 2021 as the Chair of the Nordic Wittgenstein Society.
Svetlana Vetchinnikova has a broad background in applied, cognitive and corpus linguistics and finds inspiration in bridging different schools of thought. Overall, she is interested in the ways our cognitive properties manifest themselves in language use and shape language structure, which in turn has an effect on how we think. She likes clever ways of operationalizing complex phenomena and finding effective instruments in the academic toolkit to study them. Through her background, she takes a keen interest in interdisciplinarity and making it work.
Svetlana Vetchinnikova obtained her PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Helsinki in 2014. She did her postdoctoral work in research projects on variation and change in English and on chunking in speech processing. Before joining the Collegium, she worked as university lecturer at the Department of Languages and taught courses in applied linguistics. She is author of Phraseology and the Advanced Language Learner (2019, Cambridge) and co-editor of Changing English (2017, De Gruyter) and Language Change: The Impact of English as a Lingua Franca (2020, Cambridge).
Juhana Toivanen is responsible for managing and developing the academic program and communications of the Collegium. He facilitates collaboration among the Collegium’s researchers and develops contacts to other units of the University of Helsinki and to other institutes of advanced study. He coordinates the Collegium’s events program, which includes academic symposia, lectures and workshops, as well as the Kollegium Talks public event series at Think Corner and the annual HCAS Winter School for doctoral students.
Juhana Toivanen specializes in the premodern history of philosophy and intellectual history. His research focuses on ancient and medieval theories of the human and animal minds, political thought, and, most recently, virtue ethics. In addition to more than fifty research articles and book chapters, his major publications include the monographs Perception and the Internal Senses (Brill, 2013) and The Political Animal in Medieval Philosophy (Brill, 2021). He is currently investigating historical discussions on moral vices and aims to explore their potential applications in contemporary environmental ethics.
Juhana Toivanen obtained his PhD in philosophy from University of Jyväskylä in 2009. Before joining the Collegium, he worked in various research and teaching positions at his alma mater. He served as an Academy Research Fellow from 2018 to 2022 and directed the Academy Research Project Vicious, Antisocial and Sinful from 2020 to 2024. A former fellow of Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (2013), Toivanen has extensive international academic experience. In addition to 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.
Siiri Virta supports the HCAS team in the organization of academic events, day-to-day communications related to events and social media, and other administrative tasks at the Collegium.
Linda Lindholm's main responsibilities at the Collegium are strategic support for the Collegium director, coordination of on-site support and preparation of administrative matters.
Oskar Ahlberg is responsible for coordination of Collegium’s conference services and communications related to them, updating the website, giving travelling support, ordering tickets and keys, computers and facilities administration. Oskar is the secretary of the HCAS executive board.
When contacting Oskar Ahlberg in HCAS matters, please use the email address collegium-office@helsinki.fi.
Mella Mattila is responsible for recruitment processes, contracts, grants and fees, holidays and absences as well as cooperation with financial services.
To contact Mella Mattila in HR matters, please send email to the address hr-hcas@helsinki.fi.
Outi Salonen is responsible for budgeting and reporting as well as counselling in general financial matters.