Description of research and teaching

I am a University Researcher and Team Leader at the EuroStorie Centre of Excellence, University of Helsinki, and a docent of Nordic  Studies. I'm a historian interested in migration, minorities, nationalism, coloniality and borders in the Nordic nation/welfare states.

I lead the Academy of Finland -funded project Gatekeeping the Nation: Deportation at Finnish Borderscapes from the Cold War to Europeanisation (GATE, 2022-2026). The project addresses the lack of long-term understanding of deportations as state practice through undertaking the first systematic long-term analysis of deportation policy and practice in the case of Finland.

I am also working on a monograph Writing the Past White: Nation, Race, and Coloniality in Finnish National Histories, supported by a Kone Foundation scholarship. The book examines how historians have constructed national and racial narratives of the past through inclusions, exclusions and silences.

My work has been awarded the Vuoden tiedekynä –academic writing award (2017) and the Finnish State Award for Public Information (2013). I received my PhD at the European University Institute (2010) and have worked as a visiting scholar at the Columbia University, the London School of Economics, and the City University of New York, among others.

I teach frequently and supervise MA and PhD theses. In 2021-2022, I was the Chair of the Nordic Migration Research -network. Besides academic work, I engage in museum and artistic collaborations, and have co-hosted the popular science podcast Päivystävät dosentit (Yle Areena).