• Academy Research Fellow 2021-2026 'Social Justice and Raciality in Post-utopian Latin America'
• Principal Investigator for the Academy of Finland research project 'Citizenship Utopias in the Global South: The Pursuit of Transformative Alternatives in Times of Disillusionment' (2019-2024)

• Principal Investigator for the Kone Foundation funded project 'Contested feminist activisms and Finland's changing gender equality partnerships in development cooperation' (2024-2027)

• Affiliated Researcher of Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki
• Affiliated Researcher of Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEG), University of Helsinki
• Title of Docent (Associate Professor) of International Development, University of Jyväskylä

My research operates at the intersections of development, politics, and power in Latin America and Africa. I am particularly interested in Indigenous and ethnic politics, anti-racism, inclusion and intersectional inequalities in the Global South, as well as decolonizing and locally grounded alternatives to mainstream development thinking and practice. I have conducted research in Bolivia, Cuba, and Kenya.

In terms of Finland's development cooperation and development policy, my research focus is on the strengthening of civil societies and democracy.

My ongoing Academy of Finland research project (2019-2024) investigates new forms of Indigenous, ethnic, youth, and feminist activism in post-popular uprising contexts of the Global South (Bolivia, Kenya, Tunisia). The research team consists of myself (PI), university lecturer Henri Onodera and PhD candidate Martta Kaskinen. The results will be published as an edited book Citizenship Utopias in the Global South: Emergent Forms of Activism in Times of Disillusionment (Routledge, Political Sociology -series, 2024). The project enhances the understanding of societal activism and changing citizenship in Global South.

During my Academy of Finland fellowship (2021-2026), my research focuses on social justice and raciality in Latin American revolutions (Bolivia, Cuba), with a particular focus on anti-racism. The project produces knowledge of racial inequalities and creates better conditions for racial justice.

The Kone Foundation research project Contested feminist activisms and Finland's changing gender equality partnerships in development cooperation (2024-2027) examines Finland's development cooperation and gender equality partnership in Kenya through the examination of bilateral, multilateral, private sector and civil society development instruments. Projects researchers include Martta Kaskinen and Carolina Buendía Sarmiento.

My first book Vivir Bien as an Alternative to Neoliberal Globalization (Routledge, 2018) examines Indigenous politics, state formation and transformative alternatives to mainstream development thinking through the ethnographic analysis of state discourses and bureaucratic applications of the notion of Vivir Bien/Buen Vivir (living well) in Bolivia. I investigated the potentials and challenges in the search for more just, inclusive and ecologically sustainable alternatives to growth-based development models in the global South.

I have taught in many courses at Bachelor, Master and Doctoral levels, including Social Movements, States, and Power in the Global South; Social Realities in the Global South; Development Policy and Cooperation; Classics of Development Theory; Introduction to Development Studies; Social Movements and State in Latin America; Ethnographic Methodology; Mixed Methods; Bachelor Seminar; PhD Seminar.