People

Director of the Centre for European Studies

Docent, Political Science

Ongoing projects:

• VORTEX (Coping with Varieties of Radicalisation into Terrorism and Extremism)
• RADIA - Finnish Knowledge Centre for the Prevention of Violent Radicalisation and Extremism

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 Portal

Leena Malkki's website

Email: leena.malkki(a)helsinki.fi

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:

• PI at the University of Helsinki for CCindle: Co-Creating Inclusive Intersectional Democratic Spaces Across Europe, EU Horizon Europe (2022-2026)

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 on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Johanna Kantola's homepage

Johanna Kantola on X

Email: johanna.kantola(a)helsinki.fi

Jean Monnet Professor

Docent, 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

Email: hanna.t.tuominen(a)helsinki.fi

Professor of European Intellectual History

Ongoing projects:

• Director at the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie)

Expertise and research interests:

• European studies
• Legal history
• Legal anthropology
• Jurisprudence
• Roman law
• Classical archaeology
• Ancient history

Kaius Tuori on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Kaius Tuori on EuroStorie website

Email: kaius.tuori(a)helsinki.fi

Professor of Religion and Law, 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 University of Helsinki Research Portal

Pamela Slotte on EuroStorie website

Email: pamela.slotte(a)helsinki.fi

Professor of Sustainability Science at HELSUS and Department of Cultures

Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 

Ongoing research projects:

• Subproject leader, Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie)
• Non-resident visiting fellow, European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)

Expertise and research Interest

• Legal anthropology
• Indigenous Studies
• Sustainability and human rights 
• Anti-racism in Europe
• Minority cultures and languages
• Arctic 

Expert positions

• European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) 
• Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development

Reetta Toivanen on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Reetta Toivanen on EuroStorie website

Email: reetta.toivanen(a)helsinki.fi

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 University of Helsinki Research Portal

Ville Erkkilä on EuroStorie website

Email: ville.erkkila(a)helsinki.fi

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”
• Principal investigator of the research project ”Gatekeeping the Nation: Deportation at Finnish Borderscapes from the Cold War to Europeanisation” (GATE, Research Council 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 politics
• Nationalism
• Historiography

Miika Tervonen on EuroStorie website and University of Helsinki Research Portal

Email: miika.tervonen(a)helsinki.fi

Postdoctoral researcher 

Ongoing projects:

• Researcher in the project ”Gatekeeping the Nation: Deportation at Finnish Borderscapes from the Cold War to Europeanisation” (GATE, Research Council of Finland 2022-2026)

Expertise and research interests:

• Development of migration politics and legislation 
• Forced migration 
• Practices of the authorities regarding foreigners
• Science communication 
• Political communication and parties

Matti Välimäki on EuroStorie website, University of Helsinki Research Portal, ResearchGate and X

Email: matti.t.valimaki(a)helsinki.fi

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 University of Helsinki Research Portal

Timo Miettinen on EuroStorie website

Timo Miettinen on X

Email: timo.pa.miettinen(a)helsinki.fi

University researcher

Docent, diversity education

Ongoing projects:

• Head of Management and Training at RADIA, the Finnish Knowledge Center for the Prevention of Violent Radicalisation and Extremism

Expertise and research interests:

• Radicalisation
• Identity and worldview formation
• Dynamics of belonging and othering
• The extremist mindset
• Resilience
• Education, training and pedagogy
• Youth studies

Saija Benjamin on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Email: saija.benjamin(a)helsinki.fi

Research Coordinator

Ongoing research projects:

• RADIA - Finnish Knowledge Centre for the Prevention of Violent Radicalisation and Extremism

Irina van der Vet on LinkedIn

Email: irina.vandervet(a)helsinki.fi

University researcher

Ongoing research projects:

• Irony in international politics (2021-2025)
• Safeguarding welfare in times of pandemics: towards collaborative governance of syndemics (WELGO, 2021-2024)
• Principal Investigator, Sotilaallisen vallan kieli suomalaisessa demokratiassa (2022-2026)

Johanna Vuorelma on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Johanna Vuorelma's homepage

Email: johanna.vuorelma(a)helsinki.fi

Academy Research Fellow

Ongoing projects:

• GenParlDip (Gendering Parliamentary Diplomacy in EU27-UK Relations)

Expertise and research interests:

• Parliaments as gendered+ organisations
• Contemporary developments and challenges in parliaments
• Innovations in methodologies to study parliaments
• Parliamentary diplomacy
• Party politics
• UK Parliament, European Parliament

Cherry Miller on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Cherry Miller on X

Email: cherry.miller(a)helsinki.fi

Postdoctoral researcher

Ongoing projects:

• Researcher in CCindle: “Co-creating inclusive intersectional democratic spaces across Europe”, EU Horizon Europe (2022-2026) 

Expertise and research interests:

• Anti-gender politics
• European Parliament, political groups 
• Gender and politics 
• Democracy, EU values
• Qualitative methodologies

Valentine Berthet in University of Helsinki Research Portal

Valentine Berthet in EUGenDem

Valentine Berthet on X

Email: valentine.berthet(a)helsinki.fi

Postdoctoral researcher

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 on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Barbara Gaweda in EUGenDem

Barbara Gaweda on X

Email: barbara.gaweda(a)helsinki.fi

Postdoctoral researcher

Ongoing projects:

• Project "2020-luvun kilpailevat Eurooppa-visiot illiberaalin ja liberaalin tiedontuotannon valossa" (Emil Aaltonen Foundation 2024-2026)

Expertise and research interests:

• Social anthropology and ethnography
• Epistemology
• Liberalism and illiberalism
• Fascism
• Europe and EU politics
• Migration

Annastiina Kallius on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Annastiina Kallius on X

Email: annastiina.kallius(a)helsinki.fi

Academy Research Fellow
History

Ongoing projects:

• Probing the House of the Hangman: Jewish Intellectuals and Post-Nazi Germany (Research Council of Finland 2024-2028)

Expertise and research interests:

• Modern European intellectual history
• German history
• Critical Theory / Frankfurt School
• 20th century continental philosophy
• Radical conservatism

Mikko Immanen on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Mikko Immanen on Academia.edu

Email: mikko.immanen(a)helsinki.fi

Grant-funded Researcher

Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow (University of Granada, Spain)

Ongoing project:

• Beyond the Tiber: Socio-cultural Transformation and Urban Adaptation of the Trans Tiberim Area in Rome from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Kone Foundation Grant 2022-2025)

Expertise and research interests:

• The city of Rome
• Roman urbanism and architecture
• Landscape archaeology
• Ancient roads
• Roman intellectual life

Antonio Lopez Garcia on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Antonio Lopez Garcia on University of Granada Research Portal

Email: antonio.lopezgarcia(a)helsinki.fi

Grant-funded researcher
Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study-Nordic Fellow (2025–2026)

Ongoing projects:

• Roman urban inequality (Kone Foundation Grant 2025–2028)

Expertise and research interests:

• Ancient cities
• Ancient gardens
• Ancient dwellings
• Republicanism
• Inequality
• Ancient reception
• Ancient material culture

Samuli Simelius on University of Helsinki Research Portal

The webpage of Roman urban inequality project

Email: samuli.simelius(a)helsinki.fi

Doctoral researcher

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

Doctoral researcher

Ongoing projects: 

• VORTEX (Coping with Varieties of Radicalisation into Terrorism and Extremism)

Expertise and research interests:

• Counterterrorism policies in Europe
• Far-right extremism 
• Online ethnography 
• Platform capitalism 
• Urban safety and gentrification  

Rohan Stevenson on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Email: rohan.stevenson(a)helsinki.fi

Doctoral researcher
Media studies

Ongoing projects:

• Researcher in the project "Politicized Loneliness: Hatred, Violence, and Experiences of Loneliness Online" (Emil Aaltonen Foundation, 2023-2026)
• Dissertation project "Common sense: Hannah Arendt as a material media theorist" (Tampere University)

Expertise and research interests:

• Politics of technology
• Media infrastructures
• Political agency
• Media philosophy
• Science and technology studies
• Neomaterialism

Doctoral researcher

Ongoing projects:

• CCindle: Co-Creating Inclusive Intersectional Democratic Spaces Across Europe, EU Horizon Europe (2022-2026)

Expertise and research interests:

• LGBTIQ+ politics & rights, queer & trans activism
• Anti-gender campaigns, anti-trans movements
• Queer & trans research, intersectionality, discourse theory, affects
• Youth participation, gender-based violence, feminist pedagogies

Matti Pihlajamaa on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Matti Pihlajamaa on LinkedIn and X

Email: matti.e.pihlajamaa(a)helsinki.fi

Doctoral researcher
Doctoral programme in history and cultural heritage

Ongoing projects:

• On the Frontiers of Marginalisation, Invisibility and Exclusion: Disabled Women in the Roman Republic and Empire

Expertise and research interests:

• Disability and illness in ancient Rome
• Women in ancient societies
• Gender archaeology and archaeology of disability

Sofia Vierula on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Email: sofia.vierula(a)helsinki.fi

Doctoral researcher

Karla Malm on University of Helsinki's research portal

Email: karla.malm(a)helsinki.fi

Research Assistant

B.Soc.Sc., Master's student in Social Psychology

Ongoing projects:

• RADIA - Finnish Knowledge Centre for the Prevention of Violent Radicalisation and Extremism

Henrik Ali-Hokka on LinkedIn

E-mail: henrik.ali-hokka(a)helsinki.fi