Doctoral researchers

The AGORA community supports junior and senior researchers, research fellows and affiliates interested in questions of social justice and equality. Researchers and key partners involved in the AGORA’s activities are introduced below.
Afsheen Ahmed

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Critical discourse surrounding internationalisation of Finnish Education System
  • Commodification, marketisation and exportation of Finnish Education Basic Schooling Concept
  • Ethical implication in exporting Finnish Education System globally

Dissertation topic: 

  • Ethical Concerns in the Export of Education: The case of exporting Finnish Comprehensive Schooling Concept abroad

Supervisors:

  • Anna-Leena Riitaoja
  • Helena Hinke Dobrochinski Candido
  • Birgit Schaffar-Kronqvist

Contact: afsheen.ahmed@helsinki.fi

Hanna Dromberg

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Adult ADHD
  • Psychiatrization 
  • Psychiatric governance
  • Critical discourse studies

Dissertation topic:

  • Making of 'adult ADHD’ through professional and lay expertise. I study the phenomenon of “adult ADHD” through the lenses of psychiatrization and governance. I will concentrate on the discursive practices which shape the concept of “adult ADHD” by focusing on media representations and voices of professional and lay experts of ADHD

Contact: hanna.dromberg@helsinki.fi

Anni Hirsaho

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Therapeutic governance
  • Psychologisation
  • Critical psychology

Dissertation topic: 

  • Dynamics of therapeutic governance in school psychologists’ work in upper secondary education

Contact: anni.hirsaho@helsinki.fi

Ilmari Huhtala

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Masculinities
  • Power
  • Children
  • Primary school

Dissertation topic:

  • "Masculinities in the margins" Children conceptualizing othered masculinities in Finnish primary school

Supervisors: 

  • Kristiina Brunila 
  • Marja Peltola

Contact info: ilmari.huhtala@helsinki.fi

Anni Kouhia

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Vulnerability
  • Therapeutic governance
  • Youth
  • Youth Cultures
  • Youth Work 

Dissertation topic: 

  • Youth, Youth Work and Ethos of Vulnerability

Supervisors: 

  • Kristiina Brunila
  • Katariina Mertanen
  • Birgit Schaffar-Kronqvist

Contact: anni.kouhia@helsinki.fi 

Janni Kurokallio

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Heteronormativity
  • Young people
  • Sociology of education
  • Queer theory

Dissertation topic:

  • Exploring heteronormativity: A Contemporary Study of Finnish Comprehensive Schools in the 2020s

Supervisors:

  • Kristiina Brunila
  • Marja Peltola

Contact: janni.kurokallio@helsinki.fi

Essi Mäkelä

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Privatization and marketization of education, edu-business
  • Education politics
  • Precision education governance

Dissertation topic:

  • Educational privatization and educational business (edu-business) in Finland, contextualized within the evolving landscape of changing educational governance toward precision education governance

Supervisors:

  • Kristiina Brunila
  • Katariina Mertanen

Contact: essi.m.makela@helsinki.fi

Kalle Mäkelä

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Governmentality, neoliberalism, youth support systems, psychologisation, entrepreneuralisation, citizenship, subjectification
  • Geneaology, History of the present
  • Philosophy and critical social anthropology  Postcolonial and feminist theory

Dissertation topic:

  • Governing young people through neoliberal management – A Genealogy of vulnerability of young people in Finland.

Ongoing projects: CoSupport

Contact: kalle.makela@helsinki.fi

Mihaela Nyyssönen

Doctoral researcher

Research areas: 

  • Digital technology and Artificial Intelligence in higher education
  • Teaching and learning in higher education
  • Critical feminist theory
  • Philosophy of education

Dissertation topic:

  • Higher education in transformation through Generative AI. A critical study about the impact of Generative AI on the core values of higher education

Supervisors:

  • Birgit Schaffar-Kronqvist
  • Helena Hinke Dobrochinski Candido

Contact: mihaela.nyyssonen@helsinki.fi 

Inka Tähkä

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Gender normativities
  • Masculinity
  • Gender equality
  • Therapeutic culture and youth mental health
  • Subjectivity

Dissertation topic: 

  • Navigating Idealized Masculinities and Mental Health in Therapeutic Culture: Tensions and Continuities for young Finnish men

Supervisors:

  • Kristiina Brunila
  • Leena-Maija Rossi
  • Marja Peltola

Contact: inka.tahka@helsinki.fi

Katariina Tiainen

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Philosophy of Critical Pedagogy
  • Paulo Freire's political pedagogy and his philosophy of hope
  • Democratic education
  • Critical Social Theory
  • Critical Feminist Theory

Dissertation topic: 

  • Dissertation explores democratic education from the stand point of the philosophy of Critical Pedagogy and provides new theoretical perspectives in conversation with Critical Social Theories and Critical Feminist Theories

Supervisors:

  • Kristiina Brunila 
  • Anniina Leiviskä
  • Crystal Green

Contact: katariina.tiainen@helsinki.fi

Veera Tervo

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Order and disorder (as counterparts)
  • Normativities 
  • Power relations on both school institution and classroom
  • Feminist theory
  • Sociology of education

Dissertation topic:

  • Disorder and order in schooling in Finland. The aim of my study is to construct new insight about the normative idea of order and disorder that produces power relations and exclusive binaries in the context of Finnish primary school.

Contact: veera.tervo@helsinki.fi

Saara Vainio

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Therapeutic cultures
  • Youth education
  • Critical mental health

Dissertation topic:

  • Developing the right skills? Problematizing youth mental health education in the era of crisis narrative

Supervisors:

  • Kristiina Brunila
  • Antti Saari
  • Katariina Mertanen

Ongoing projects: FuturEd

Contact: saara.vainio@helsinki.fi

Hillevi Vyyryläinen

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • (Neuro)psychiatrization, psy-knowledges and subjectification
  • Depoliticization, decontextualization and commodification of mental distress and diversity
  • The governmentality of the concept of marginalization
  • Inclusive education

Dissertation topic:

  • The neuropsychiatrization of Finnish welfare services

Supervisors:

  • Juho Honkasilta 
  • Markku Jahnukainen

Contact: hillevi.vyyrylainen@helsinki.fi


 

Cynthia Trilliani

Doctoral researcher

Research areas:

  • Immigration, gender and feminist studies
  • Motherhood ideology

Dissertation topic:

  • Immigrant mothers’ educational experiences and sense of belonging in Icelandic higher education, in conjunction with their identity construction and strategies for balancing multiple responsibilities to achieve academic success.  Research also investigates the impact of intersectional approach or lack thereof in educational policies and practices on educational experiences of students of minority background

 

Kirsi Yliniva

Doctoral researcher

Research areas: 

  • Children's agency 
  • Political agency
  • The Anthropocene
  • 21st century challenges
  • future of education
  • Neuro-affective turn in education
  • Biopolitics of childhood
  • Biopower
  • Michel Foucault

Dissertation topic: 

  • Potentials and limits for political agency of children in the Anthropocene

Supervisors: 

  • Maija Lanas (University of Oulu)
  • Kristiina Brunila (University of Helsinki)

Contact: kirsi.yliniva@oulu.fi