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:

  • INDEED (Strengthening a comprehensive approach to preventing and counteracting radicalisation based on a universal evidence-based model for evaluation of radicalisation prevention and mitigation)
  • VORTEX (Coping with Varieties of Radicalisation into Terrorism 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 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 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 EuroStorie website

Reetta Toivanen

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

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”
  • 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

Matti Välimäki

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 websiteUniversity of Helsinki Research Portal, ResearchGate and Twitter

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

Johanna Vuorelma

University researcher

Ongoing research projects:

Johanna Vuorelma's homepage

Cherry Miller

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

Twitter: @cherrymmiller

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:

Past project:

Expertise and research interests:

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

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

Annastiina Kallius

Postdoctoral researcher

Ongoing projects:

  • Researcher in project "Racism without Others" (Koneen säätiö 2023)

  • 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 Twitter

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

 

Rohan Stevenson

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  

 

Mirka Muilu

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

 

Daniel Sallamaa

Doctoral researcher

Political history

Expertise and research interests:

  • Terrorism
  • Political violence
  • Extremism

Daniel Sallamaa on University of Helsinki Research Portal

 

Marianne Sandelin

Doctoral researcher

Political history

Marianne Sandelin on University of Helsinki Research Portal

Laura Nordström

Doctoral Researcher

Political Science

Expertise and research interests:

  • Global political economy
  • Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
  • Lobbying
  • EU institutions
  • Power of experts
  • Think tanks

Laura Nordström on University of Helsinki Research Portal

 

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

Visiting scholars
Miia Halme-Tuomisaari, 4.-15.9.2023 and 15.-26.4.2024

Associate Professor in Human Rights Studies, Lund University

Docent, Social and Cultural Anthropology (Universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä), International Law (University of Turku)

Research projects:

  • Book project ‘Looping for Human Rights: An Ethnographic Theory of Expansion’ (2023-2024, funder Riksbankens Jubileumsfond)
  • Book project ‘Movement in the Rights Direction: An Ethnography of the UN Human Rights Committee’

Expertise and research interests:

  • Contemporary Human Rights Phenomenon
  • History of Human Rights
  • Ethnography of International organizations, expertise and bureaucracy
  • UN human rights monitoring

Miia Halme-Tuomisaari’s profile at Lund University

Miia Halme-Tuomisaari’s webpage

Katri Eeva, 1.8.2023-29.2.2024

Postdoctoral researcher, Tampere University 

DPhil Oxford 

Research projects:

  • Transnational Knowledge Networks in Higher Education Policymaking (Research Council of Finland 2021-2025, Tampere University) 

Expertise and research interests: 

  • European union and education policy: actors, institutions, and policy instruments 
  • Europeanisation of education 
  • Higher education policymaking and governance 
  • Education policy networks and knowledge politics

Katri Eeva on Tampere University portal

Filippo Incontro, 30.7.-3.9.2023

Doctoral researcher, Comparative and European Legal Studies, University of Trento

History of Roman Law 

Expertise and research interests: 

  • Legal history 

  • Roman law 

  • Classical archaeology 

  • Ancient history 

  • Roman Epigraphy

  • North Africa 

  • Land law 

Filippo Incontro on University of Trento portal

Mikko Immanen, 1.4.-31.12.2023

PhD, History 

Research projects 

  • Probing the House of the Hangman: Jewish Émigrés and Post-Nazi Germany (2023-) 

  • Adorno’s Gamble: Harnessing German Ideology (Academy of Finland, 2019-22) 

Expertise and research interests  

  • Modern European intellectual history 

  • German history  

  • Critical social theory / Frankfurt School 

  • Radical conservatism 

  • Practical philosophy 

  • Modern philosophy 

 Mikko Immanen on Academia.edu