People
Centre for European Studies hosts over 40 researchers in various research projects. The researchers are internationally well-known for their work and often interviewed in the media.
Leena Malkki
Director of the Centre for European Studies
Adjunct professor, Political Science
Ongoing projects:
- Finland and theories of political violence (FIPO)
- INDEED (Strengthening a comprehensive approach to preventing and counteracting radicalisation based on a universal evidence-based model for evaluation of radicalisation prevention and mitigation)
Expertise and research interests:
- Terrorism and political violence in post-war Europe
- School shootings
- Counterterrorism and counter-radicalisation policies in western countries
Leena Malkki on University of Helsinki Research PortalLeena Malkki website
Johanna Kantola
Professor of European Societies and their Politics
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Gender and EU Studies in the University of Tübingen, Germany, (2022-2025)
Ongoing research projects:
Expertise and research interests:
- European integration
- European Union, actors, institutions, governance
- European Parliament, political groups
- Gender and politics
- Gender equality policies, intersectionality
- Democracy, equality, anti-gender politics, feminist responses
Johanna Kantola's homepage
Johanna Kantola on Twitter
Email: johanna.kantola(a)helsinki.fi
Hanna Tuominen
University Lecturer in European Studies
Docent of political science (international relations) at University of Turku
PhD, Political Science
Ongoing projects:
- JuRe (Just Recovery from Covid-19? Fundamental Rights, Legitimate Governance and Lessons Learnt)
Expertise and research interests:
- Common EU foreign policy
- European values
- UN and human rights questions
- Europeanization of refugee policies
- Finnish EU and UN policy
Hanna Tuominen on University of Helsinki Research Portal
Kaius Tuori
Professor of European Intellectual History
Ongoing projects:
- Director at the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie)
- Director at the research project “Law, Governance and Space: Questioning the Foundations of the Republican Tradition” (SpaceLaw), funded by ERC
Expertise and research interests:
- European studies
- Legal history
- Legal anthropology
- Jurisprudence
- Roman law
- Classical archaeology
- Ancient history
Kaius Tuori on EuroStorie website
Pamela Slotte
Professor, Minority Studies, Theology, Åbo Akademi University
Docent of research in law and religion at University of Helsinki
Docent of theological ethics with philosophy of religion at Åbo Akademi University
Ongoing projects:
- Vice-director of the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (Academy of Finland 2018-2025)
Expertise and research interests:
- Law and religion
- Religious freedom
- Human rights
- Theory and history of human rights
- History of ideas
- Political theology
Pamela Slotte on EuroStorie website
Reetta Toivanen
Professor of Sustainability Science
Ongoing research projects:
- Subproject leader, Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie)
- Leader, ALL-YOUTH consortium
Reetta Toivanen on EuroStorie website
Ville Erkkilä
University researcher
PhD, legal history
Ongoing projects:
- Team Leader at the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie) subproject 1 “Law and the uses of the past”
Expertise and research interests:
- History of historiography
- Conceptual history
- Legal history of Eastern Europe
Ville Erkkilä on EuroStorie website
Marco Piasentier
University researcher
Ongoing projects:
- Team Leader at the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie) subproject 2 “Discovering the Limits of Reason - Europe and the Crisis of Universalism”
Expertise and research interests:
- Post-Kantian European philosophy
- Social & political thought
- 20th Century philosophy, analytic and continental
- 'End of metaphysics'
- Science and critical thought
- Biopolitical theory
Marco Piasentier on EuroStorie website
Miika Tervonen
University researcher
Ongoing projects:
- Team Leader at the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie) subproject 3, “Migration and the narratives of Europe as an “Area of freedom, security and justice”
- Director of the research project ”Gatekeeping the Nation: Deportation at Finnish Borderscapes from the Cold War to Europeanisation” (GATE, Academy of Finland 2022-2026)
- Book project ”Writing the Past White: Nation, Race and Coloniality in Finnish National Histories”
Expertise and research interests:
- Migration, borders, and deportations
- Minority policies
- Nationalism
- Historiography
Miika Tervonen on University of Helsinki Research Portal
Timo Miettinen
Academy Research Fellow
Philosophy
Ongoing projects:
- the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie)
- Rethinking the Intellectual Foundations of Ordoliberalism (Academy of Finland, 2021-2026)
Expertise and research interests:
- Modern philosophy
- Continental philosophy
- Phenomenology
- Political philosophy
- Europe
- European integration
- Political economy
- Economic constitution
- History of liberalism
- Neoliberalism
- Ordoliberalism
Timo Miettinen on EuroStorie website
Timo Miettinen on Twitter
Irina van der Vet
Research Coordinator
Ongoing research projects:
- INDEED (Strengthening a comprehensive approach to preventing and counteracting radicalisation based on a universal evidence-based model for evaluation of radicalisation prevention and mitigation)
Irina van der Vet on LinkedIn
Mina Prokic
Postdoctoral researcher
Ongoing research projects:
- INDEED (Strengthening a comprehensive approach to preventing and counteracting radicalisation based on a universal evidence-based model for evaluation of radicalisation prevention and mitigation)
Markus Ojala
Postdoctoral researcher
Ongoing projects:
- Rethinking Politicisation in the European Public Sphere (2020-2024)
Expertise and research interests:
- Political communication
- Role of media in international politics
- Economic policy ideas and the public debate
- Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
- Transnational elites
Markus Ojala's homepage
Valentine Berthet
Postdoctoral researcher
Ongoing projects:
Expertise and research interests:
- European Parliament, political groups
- Gender and politics
- Supranational gender equality policies
- International norms, Istanbul Convention on violence against women, sexual harassment, abortion
- Democracy, EU values, anti-gender politics, feminist responses
Valentine Berthet in EUGenDem
Valentine Berthet on Twitter
Barbara Gaweda
Postdoctoral researcher
Ongoing projects:
Expertise and research interests:
- Gender politics in East-Central Europe
- Gender equality policy
- Intersectionality
- Social rights and policies in Europe
- Politics of sexualities
- Nationalism and post-state socialism
Barbara Gaweda in EUGenDem
Barbara Gaweda on Twitter
Kari Möttölä
Visiting scholar, Professor
International relations, Foreign Policy Analysis
Expertise and research interests:
- The Finnish foreign and security policy
- Finnish defence policy, NATO
- The common security and defence policy of the European Union
- European security and the Russian-West relations
- The US position in great-power relations
- Nuclear arms control
Kari Möttölä on University of Helsinki Research Portal
Liliia Antoniuk
Doctoral researcher
Ongoing projects:
Expertise and research interests:
-
European Union, actors, institutions, values
-
European integration
-
Eastern enlargement of the European Union
-
Democracy, human rights
-
Gender and politics
-
Gender equality policies, intersectionality, anti-gender politics in Eastern Europe
Liliia Antoniuk in EUGenDem
Gaëtan Gamba
Research Assistant
European Studies
Research interest:
- EU – UN relations
- EU enlargements
- International Politics
Valpuri Alanen
Technical assistant
Ongoing projects:
- Finland and the theories of political violence
- Theories of political violence and the New Left wave violence in Western Europe
EuroStorie researchers and staff
The full list of researchers and staff of the EuroStorie (Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives) is available here
SpaceLaw researchers and staff,
The full list of researchers and staff of the SpaceLaw Project (Law, Governance and Space: Questioning of the Republican Tradition) is available here