Kirsi Pauliina Kallio
kirsipauliina.kallio(at)tuni.fi
Professor of Environmental Pedagogy and Education | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research and development projects: Ethical Sustaibnability Competences in Work Life and Higher Education (KESTO, 2021-2023), The Politics of Embodied Encounters in Asylum Seeking (POEMS, Academy of Finland, 2021-2025), Urban Cycling Citizen Science (ECIU SMART-ER, 2022-2023), Escape from the consumption society (2022-2023), The civic potential of climate mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE, Academy of Finland, 2022-2026), At the Margins of the Sustainability Transformation (2023-2024), Sustainability and climate education to schools in practice (2023-), Learning to run the nature school at South Ostrobothnia (2022-2024). She is also vice-chair of the The Finnish Nature Panel (2021-2023), and leads the Panel’s project on knowledge-based environmental citizenship and EC education in Finland, in collaboration with three other science panels (2023-2024),
“My research interests form around the human subject as a constantly developing political being with capacities to act, and relational political space that actualizes contextually in the form of communities and societies with various scalar dimensions. My current interdisciplinary work focuses on refugeeness (as an experienced condition), humanitarian border (as a topological constellation), relational age (from the perspective of youthful political agency and intersubjective spatial socialization) and lived citizenship (in the city-regional scale and as environmental agency). I am also actively involved in development projects where the perspective of Positive Recognition, based on co-creative research, is put into practice and further developed in different professional context. I edit the geographical journal Fennia, an open access peer review publication by the Geographical Society of Finland. The journal is affiliated with the Versus forum that publishes popular research-inspired articles and discussions. I also edit the book reviews section in the journal Space & Polity.”
Aila Spathopoulou
aila.spathopoulou(at)durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor (Research)| Department of Geography |Durham University, UK.
Current research projects: Bordering and governmentality around the Greek islands, Refugee or Return: Changing spatio-temporalities of European refugee asylum, The Civic Potential of Climate Mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE)
“I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Geography at the department of geography at Durham University working on issues of borders and processes of bordering, geographies of asylum, detention and return and creative methodologies. I completed my PhD in 2019 at the department of Geography at King’s College University of London and have held research postdocs at the department of Politics and International Relations at Goldsmiths University of London and Space and Political Agency Group at Tampere University (visiting researcher). I am, also, co-coordinator of the Mobility: Borders and Migration Research Area at the Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research in Athens. My research interests are oriented around five main areas: 1) Processes of bordering: The way in which the border shapes subjectivities, how we relate to one another and to our own self. The interlinks between border violence, addiction, self-harm and abuse. How border violence draws on scripts of gendered violence. 2) ‘Floating hotspots’: How ferries, ships, boats are used within ‘migration management’ (reception, asylum, detention and deportation procedures) across Europe (Greece and Estonia) and Scotland (UK). 3) Politics of refusals and location. 4) Decolonial education. 5) Feminist methodologies, creative methods, the use of fiction and auto-ethnography as a methodological approach.”
Essi Aarnio-Linnanvuori
essi.aarnio-linnanvuori(at)tuni.fi
University Lecturer of Environmental Pedagogy | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research projects: Challenging the Climate Crisis: Children’s Agency to Tackle Policy Underpinned by Learning for Transformation (CCC-CATAPULT), The civic potential of climate mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE)
“Essi Aarnio-Linnanvuori, Ph.D. (environmental change and policy) is a university lecturer at Tampere University, and an experienced environmental and climate change education expert. In her research, her long-term interest is to develop environmental education that is interdisciplinary, holistic, and considerate of identity, values, and worldview of the learner. Currently, she is involved in the international research project CCC-CATAPULT that examines children’s climate agency, value-action gap and means to exceed the gap. She works as a responsible researcher for the empirical study in Finland, including PAR research with young people and their teachers. In the consortium, she is actively involved in developing conceptual framework, empirical research, and communication. In addition, Essi is a member of the steering group of the interdisciplinary research network SIRENE. Essi defended her Ph.D. at the University of Helsinki in 2018. Before joining Tampere University in 2021, she worked as a senior education officer at WWF Finland.”
Inkeri Rissanen
inkeri.rissanen(at)tuni.fi
University Lecturer of Multicultural Education | Faculty of Education and Culture | University of Tampere
Current research projects: Challenging the Climate Crisis: Children’s Agency to Tackle Policy Underpinned by Learning for Transformation (CCC-CATAPULT), The civic potential of climate mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE)
“My main research areas are intercultural education, religious and worldview education and school pedagogy. Currently I am particularly interested in developing a (social)psychology approach to social justice and equity focused intercultural education: CORE explores how teachers’ implicit beliefs of the malleability of individuals, groups and cultures shape their pedagogical thinking and practice. Malleability beliefs are among the factors that are also investigated in CCC-CATAPULT, an European consortium which researches young people’s climate agency, and endeavors to develop culturally responsive and worldview aware approaches to climate education. I co-lead the research group Multiculturalism, Transnationalism and Transformation in Education together with Mervi Kaukko; research in this group is focused at questions of diversity, equity and education in individual, collective, institutional and societal level.”
Vilhelmiina Vainikka
vilhelmiina.vainikka(at)tuni.fi
Postdoctoral Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | University of Tampere
Current research project: The civic potential of climate mobility (HUMANE-CLIMATE, 2022–2026)
“I am a human geographer and work as a post doctoral research fellow in the Academy of Finland funded The civic potential of climate mobility (HUMANE-CLIMATE) led by Kirsi Pauliina Kallio. I have previously worked on discourses of mass tourism, natural force rhetorics and massification by media in tourist-refugee nexus in crisis, culturally sensitive tourism planning, suburban-aware development and mass tourist portrayals in the art of Erika Adamsson. My long term interest is the individual-mass(es) continuum in several contexts. Alongside research, I also have extensive experience of university teaching from Finland (University of Turku, University of Oulu, University of Lapland) and Denmark (Aalborg university). Before my academic career I worked as a part-time travel agent. My current research interests are concerned about different challenges such as climate change and traumas, their contextual understanding and how to promote co-living in the given circumstances for example with art-based methods or empathy as a tool. I am very interested in interdisciplinary collaboration and research. I am affiliated to Space and Political Agency Research Group (SPARG), Spatial Socialization and Environmental Citizenship Research Collective (SPECS) and Research Network for Justice, Space and Society (JUSTSPACES).”
Kimmo Härmä
kimmo.harma(at)tuni.fi
Lecturer, Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | University of Tampere
Current research project: The civic potential of climate mobility (HUMANE-CLIMATE, 2022–2026)
“I work at Tampere University in the Faculty of Education and Culture, both in the Kasvu unit and at the upper secondary school of Normaalikoulu. In the Kasvu unit, my duties include teaching qualitative research methods and supervising bachelor’s theses on environmental and art education. In addition, I am a researcher in the HUMANE-CLIMATE project, which studies the development of climate refugee education. At the upper secondary school of Normaalikoulu, I teach geography and biology courses, from which research material is simultaneously collected for the aforementioned research project. My most important research interests include critical thinking, argumentation skills, and conceptualizing broad entities, which in environmental issues mean the coordination of nature and all human and societal activity. I also handled these topics in my dissertation and in the ARGEO project based on that. In addition to science, I see the cultural and view-of-life point of view as particularly essential as part of understanding environmental issues and people’s personal environmental identity. This is highly important, because without a personal relationship, a deeper understanding and genuine actions for the cause cannot arise.”
Gintarė Kudžmaitė
gintare.kudzmaite(at)tuni.fi
Postdoctoral Researcher | Faculty of Management and Business | Tampere University
Current research projects: The Politics of Embodied Encounters in Asylum Seeking (POEMS), The Civic Potential of Climate Mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE)
“My research focuses on migration and borders, and their social, historic, ethnolinguistic, socioeconomic and political aspects. Within the POEMS project, I analyse European policy documents, inquiring into the rhetoric of the EU and the portrayals of migrants within the EU’s political agendas on migration and asylum. In the HUMANE-CLIMATE research, I am also responsible for the policy analysis, looking at the European documents and strategies related to climate mobility. I investigate the (embodied) encounters between the European migratory regimes and migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and ask whether migrants can retain their agency within these contexts. In my past and present research, I have been also particularly engaged with the question of how hegemonic (state) migration and border narratives are met (challenged and questioned, but also sometimes accepted and appropriated) by those with lived experiences of moving and settling across borders. I am also part of the SPARG research group.”
Adriana Calvo Viota
adriana.calvoviota@tuni.fi
Postdoctoral research fellow | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research projects: The Civic Potential of Climate Mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE)
“I am a journalist and obtained my international PhD in Communication from the University of Deusto (Spain) in 2024. My thesis focused on how irregular migrant women develop digital communication strategies to cope with everyday life challenges in the destination country while being oppressed due to multiple intersections such as race, gender, and citizenship status. In recent years, I have worked on various studies related to communication, gender, and migration studies, such as the inclusion of e-migrant populations, the use of WhatsApp groups by migrant women as a support tool during their migration process, and the representation and involvement of migrant women in feminist mobilizations. More recently, I have been examining how online hate speech and misogyny on social media target female political leaders, and the role of higher education systems and policymakers in integrating refugees and asylum seekers in the European Union from a gender perspective. Currently, I am working as a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University in the HUMANE-CLIMATE project, where I am analyzing how European policies respond to climate (im)mobilities.”
Golaleh Makrooni
golaleh.makrooni@tuni.fi
Postdoctoral research fellow, Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University
Current research projects: Curriculum Development for Climate Change Education in Global South TFK
“I have a PhD in Education from Tampere University and have developed a special interest in exploring the dynamics of education in the context of migration. My doctoral research focused on the educational journey of first-generation immigrant students in higher education in Finland. The results of my research highlight the great importance of repositioning processes in intercultural contexts through continuous negotiations with self, others, and context. In addition to my doctoral research, I’ve been actively involved in various projects, such as developing a cultural mentoring model to boost immigrant employability in Finland Komeetta. Drawing on my diverse academic interests and teaching experience, I am also involved in curriculum, pedagogical studies, and climate change education. For the last three years, I have been the coordinator and co-teacher of an international online course funded by UniPID (Finnish Universities Partnership for Sustainable Development) and a TFK (Team Finland Knowledge) project, “Curriculum Development for Climate Change Education in Global South”. More recently, I have been collaborating with the Environmental Citizenship Research Collective (SPECS). I see ensuring values to promote equity in education as an effective contribution to the field of migration and integration, but also to develop sustainable actions for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.”
Pasi Takkinen
pasi.takkinen(at)tuni.fi
Doctoral student in educational philosophy | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: Doctoral thesis on education, post-sustainability and technology (2020 – 2025, Maj & Tor Nessling foundation)
“My research interest focuses on the question of how this era of the Anthropocene and environmental crises affects the prospects of education. Especially, should we already be discussing post-sustainability rather than sustainable development goals (SDG)? Also, could it be that one factor challengingsustainability efforts is the human-technology -relation? This question has stayed with me since I read Veli-Matti Värri’s book ’Kasvatus ekokriisin aikakaudella’ (2018) (engl. ’Education in the Era of the Ecological Crisis’), in which he portrays how in our culture technology is at the same time both trusted on and unreflected. So while environmental- and sustainability educators ask: ‘How should we live with the nature and living environments?’ one should also ask: ‘How should we live with technology and built environments?’. Here I see the opportunity to contribute educational thinking with understanding from the philosophy of technology. I am also a member of CreditEd-network.”
Sami Keto
sami.keto(at)tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: PhD on ecosocial education (Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation 2020-2024)
“I am interested in how anthropocentrism can be overcome in education. My PhD work contributes to the formation of the philosophy and practices of ecosocial education, where my closest collaborators are Raisa Foster and Jani Pulkki. I am also involved in e.g. Sustainable well-being (UEF) and Microbial Childhood research groups. In addition to dissertation research, I’m a non-fiction writer, and my latest book Enemmän kuin sapiens – kasvu elonkirjon jäseneksi is related to the topic of my dissertation.”
Johanna Kallio
johanna.kallio(at)tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: EnAct – Researching Environmental Activism and Self-Cultivation (Kone Foundation, 2020–2023)
“My main research interest are philosophy of education, theories of self-cultivation, and feminist theories in education especially from environmental perspectives. Currently I am working with my educational theoretic PhD research in which I am forming adult educational pedagogical model of biophilic self-cultivation. I am a grant researcher in Kone Foundation funded EnAct-project along with project leader Antti Saari and researcher Jan Varpanen. In EnAct we are studying the self-cultivational methods of coping with the devastating knowledge of the current state of eco crises among environmental activists. I was specially in charge of the project part in Tampere Arts-Oriented Secondary School during 2020–2021. This collaboration eventually formed into an exhibition Kadonneet vuodenajat (Lost seasons) in collaboration with Nuorten kulttuurikeskus Monitoimitalo 13. Exhibition was open from September to October 2021 and it reached over 500 visitors. I’ve been a substitute board member in The Finnish Society for Research on Adult Education in 2020–2023. I am also an active founding member of POISED – Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education research group”.
Anette Mansikka-Aho
anette.mansikka-aho(at)tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: Challenging the Climate Crisis: Children’s Agency to Tackle Policy Underpinned by Learning for Transformation (CCC-CATAPULT)
“My key interests in research are in the field of climate education, especially the intergenerational aspects around this phenomena. I am currently working in the CCC-CATAPULT project, which is an European consortium. The project involves young people as researchers working with academics to examine young people’s experiences of and learning around the climate crisis. My responsibility in the project is to coordinate the youth group in a Finnish location. In the consortium I am writing my dissertation. In my dissertation I focus on challenging the universal educational relationship between the generations, where traditionally the older generation teaches the younger generation. I am also a member of POISED – Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education research group.”
Nicholas Haswell
nicholas.haswell(at)tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: Drawing Together: Relational Wellbeing in the lives of young refugees in Finland, Norway and the UK
“Nick Haswell works as a researcher at Tampere University, working on several projects concerning the education and wellbeing of children and adults with refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. As an experienced artist and trained art teacher, he is interested in the ways that expressive arts and story-making can be used in research contexts. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Tampere University with the aim to investigate the nexus between wellbeing and environmental relations in the lives of young refugees in Finland, Norway and Scotland. In addition to research activities, Nick co-runs a creative working group, We Who Smile, which organises art projects for children in reception centres around the Finland (We Who Smile website).”
Essi Nisonen
essi.nisonen(at)tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher, Faculty of Built Environment, Tampere University
Current research project: PhD on the development of architecture education (ARCH4CHANGE, 2020-2023 Erasmus+, T-Winning Spaces 2035 – Winning Spatial Solutions for Future Work)
“I’m an architect currently working at Tampere University as a teacher in sustainable housing design and a doctoral researcher. I’m interested in developing architecture education through perspectives of environmental education, and especially interested in exploring paths for integrating empathy and care as starting points of architects’ professional identity and praxis. My doctoral research focuses on the (professional) values and cultures transmitted through architecture education and their connection to architects’ ability to work within planetary boundaries and to promote eco-social justice. The aim of my doctoral research is to provide approaches for the development of architecture education especially in the contexts of the Anthropocene and the Capitalocene. I’m also a member of the ASUTUT research group.”
María Villa Largacha
maria.villalargacha(at)tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research projects: Cultivating Coexistence: On the Conditions of Possibility of Radical Unlearning through Embodied Experience
“I am an educator and independent curator. I have been developing research on experimental learning environments for multicultural groups, curatorial strategies, and education interventions in art venues. My academic background is in Philosophy (BA, MA) and Curating and Contemporary Art (MA). I have worked extensively with public culture and art programs in Colombia as editor, facilitator, and program coordinator. My current research focuses on an experimental method I have developed in recent years, the Embodied Knowledge Workshop, where critical pedagogy promoting coexistence, personal transformation, and agency intersects artistic practices and embodied experimentation.
I am invested in designing spaces for discussion, collaboration, sustainability, and social change through participatory methods and feminist postcolonial approaches. I teach creative writing and curatorial practices at MA level in Helsinki and I am the co-curator for the New Performance Turku Biennale.“
Miki Mäkelä
miki.makela(at)tuni.fi
Researcher | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: Urban Cycling Citizen Science (ECIU SMART-ER, 2022–2023)
“I am a Master of Administrative Sciences with a special interest in human geography, regional science and environmental policy. As a researcher, I am particularly interested in urban planning, participation, agency and citizen science, and the concepts of space and place. I am currently working on the ECIU-SMARTER research pilot, a European collaborative project exploring the potential of citizen science in the development of urban cycling. My job description includes stakeholder collaboration, data collection and co-development. I am also part of the SPARG research team.”
Nefeli Bami
nefniki(at)yahoo.gr
Research Assistant | Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: The Civic Potential of Climate Mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE)
“I am a social anthropologist sharing my professional life between humanitarian work and academic research. I have worked with several organizations in refugee camps in Greece on the field of community based protection and in grassroots projects with adults and children of refugee background. My main research areas are humanitarian bordering, intercultural encounters,humanitarian mediation, processes of community building, intercultural education and art therapy.”
Maria Sulonen
maria.sulonen(at)tuni.fi
Research Assistant| Faculty of Education and Culture | Tampere University
Current research project: The Civic Potential of Climate Mobility (HUMANE–CLIMATE), The Politics of Embodied Encounters in Asylum Seeking (POEMS)
“My key interests in the field of environmental education are arts-based climate education, the role of emotions in climate education and climate agency and activism among children and young people. At the moment I’m working as a Research Assistant in HUMANE-CLIMATE- research. My work assignments contain analyzing school teaching materials, going through EU and IPCC reports and doing preparatory work for future research use and updating the SPECS website. In addition I’m working as an inter-coder in POEMS project.”