Anita Välikangas

Information om forskning och undervisning

I am a philosopher of science. I am interested in the politics of knowledge production, philosophy of social sciences and sustainability science, social epistemology, and history of science during the Nordic Enlightenment.

I am currently finalising my doctoral thesis "The quest for relevance: Can research help us in solving grand challenges?", and it is currently under review. I looks at the relationship between research funding and research organisation. I am interested in finding out what relevance means for researchers and research institutions. I am a strong supporter of the social sciences and humanities, and believe they should have a greater role in challenge-based funding.

In 2023, I worked as a research coordinator in "ReSES: Rethinking the servicability of economics to the society". In this project, we organised a series of events on the societal role of economics in the society. In 2020-2021, I worked as a doctoral researcher in "Prediction in a Changing Climate". The project studied philosophy of climate sciences, and I was interested especially in the aspect of policy-relevance. In 2017-2019, I worked in "Interdisciplining the university: Towards sustainable knowledge production", which looked at how interdisciplinarity changes (and does not change) university governance and the standards set for academic knowledge.   

I have received several personal research grants that have allowed me to work with my doctoral thesis. These foundations include: Finnish Cultural Foundation, Oskar Ölflund stiftelse, and Jenny and Antti Wihurin rahasto. 

Teaching

I have taught several courses in philosophy (Masters and Bachelor level). These include: "Philosophy of climate sciences" (2021, together with Tero Ijäs), "Philosophy seminar I" (Bachelor level, 2019), "Introduction to Philosophy of Social Sciences tutorial" (together with Aki Lehtinen, 2017 and 2018).

I would be very happy to supervise Bachelors' or Masters' theses: Send me email, if you have a topic connected to my areas of expertise!