Miika Tervonen

I am a Senior researcher at the Migration Institute of Finland, and a docent of Nordic Studies at the University of Helsinki. My research centres on issues of migration, borders, nationalism and ethnicity in the Nordic nation/welfare states. I have taught and written extensively on these themes, and have been awarded the Vuoden tiedekynä –prize (2017) and the Finnish State Award for Public Information (2013) for my contributions.

I am currently on a research leave with a Kone Foundation scholarship (3/2020-2/2021) to write the monograph Whitewashed History: Nation, Race and Coloniality in Finnish Historiography. In the book, I examine the genre of national histories and approach historians as political actors, who have been in key position in building nationalist conceptualizations of the society and its past.

At the Migration Institute of Finland, I am the primary investigator of the Finnish team in the consortium project Displacement, placemaking and wellbeing in the city (2019-2022). I also lead the survey project Changing Finnish Emigrations (2020-2021), examining patterns of Finnish emigration which are transforming e.g. due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Brexit. I am currently further developing the projects Minorities as migrants and Gatekeeping the nation: deportation and forced removals at the Finnish borderscapes (applications pending).

I received my PhD at the European University Institute (2010) and have worked a a visiting scholar at the Columbia University and the London School of Economics. I teach frequently at the University of Helsinki, and supervise MA and PhD thesis, including the ongoing PhD projects of MA Tuire Liimatainen, MSSc Anniina Hyttinen and MA Ryan Ingerick.

I am a vice board member of the Nordic Migration Research –network, and a member of the Historians Without Borders in Finland. Besides academic work, I engage in museum and artistic collaborations, and have co-hosted the popular science podcast Päivystävät dosentit (Yle Areena).