Auli Vähäkangas is the Principal Investigator in the MeDea project and Professor in Practical Theology and Vice Dean at the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki.
Vähäkangas’ research has focused on death and dying and on people in vulnerable situations. She co-led the South-African-Nordic research project Youth at the Margins. A comparative study of the contribution of faith-based organisations to social cohesion in South Africa and Nordic Europe (YOMA) (2013-2017) and a Finnish multidisciplinary project Meaningful relations: Patient and family carer encountering death at home (2017-2021).
Maija Butters holds a PhD in the Study of Religions and a Master's degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Helsinki. Her doctoral research focused on contemporary Finnish death culture, and more recently she has done research with Finnish Muslims. Currently, she serves as a University Lecturer at the University of Helsinki. As part of the MEDEA project, Dr. Butters will concentrate on the subject of Muslim cemeteries.
Dóra Pataricza is a postdoctoral researcher in History. She is currently working at Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, on a project titled “Antisemitism Undermining Democracy” that is funded by the Kone Foundation. In the current project she will be in studying Jewish burial customs in Finland.
Docent Helena Kupari has studied the Finnish Orthodox Christian community from various perspectives, including liturgical life, pilgrimage, and the religiosity of elderly women and converts. In the MeDea project, she will continue her exploration of aspects of Finnish Orthodoxy.
Kupari is University Lecturer in Study of Religion at the School of Theology, University of Eastern Finland.
Maija Penttilä is a sociologist of religion and holds the title of docent in Church and Social Studies. She is an expert in studying religion in migration, particularly focusing on Russian-speaking religious life in Finland, as well as Russian Christianity, including minority churches. She works as a university lecturer at the University of Helsinki. In the current project, she will study Orthodox cemeteries in Finland.
Helena Krohn’s research focuses on non-religious burial grounds. She has written her master's thesis on parents' experiences of formal care in the context of a child's early death, exploring how such care is perceived and its impact during a time of profound loss. She has been actively involved in the Ars Moriendi project. Under the supervision of Professor Auli Vähäkangas, Dr. Maija Butters and Assoc. Prof. Brenda Mathjissen, her work contributes significantly to the project’s exploration of minority burial practices and non-religious death.