People

About me

I work as Professor in Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Tampere University (TAU). I am also Director of TaSTI (Tampere Centre for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies). My research contributes to interdisciplinary studies on knowledge production, technologies and valuation regarding health, biomedicine, gender, and embodiment. My work has focused on scientific and technological modification of reproduction and aging; for example, through prenatal screening, genetic testing, IVF, biological medicines, and stem cell-based delaying of aging. I explore the societal implications of these practices particularly from the perspectives of biopolitics, bioindustrialization, feminist new materialism, and speculative futures. Methodologically, my work ranges from historical sociology to multi-sited ethnography with emphasis on combining different types of qualitative materials.

I am engaged in the popularization and public dissemination of my research in various ways. I have been invited to talk about the ethics and societal effects of biomedical technologies in various public events as well as training events for clinical staff in University Hospitals and patient organizations. I have written about my research in blog texts published for instance in Alusta! and Ilmiö online medias.

I hold a DrSocSc in Sociology from the University of Helsinki, where I worked as Academy Research Fellow (2015-2018) and University Lecturer in STS (2015). I have been a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, King’s College London and University of Cambridge.

Further information from personal site.

Research profile:

sociology, science and technology studies, gender studies, social theory, power analytics, materialisms

Projects:

VALDA - Valuating Lives through Infertility and Dementia: Science, Law and Patient Activism, funded by the Academy of Finland (2017-2022). More information on the project here.

ReproFutures - Reproductive Futures, funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (2019-2022), led together with Dr Riikka Homanen. More info on the project's own website and social media @reprofutures 

A New Agenda for Understanding Industrialised Tissue-Based Products, funded by the Wellcome Trust (2019-2021), led by Dr Neil Stephens, Brunel University London.

Books:

Meskus, Mianna (2018) Craft in Biomedical Research: The iPS Cell Technology and the Future of Stem Cell Science. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Irni, Sari, Meskus, Mianna & Oikkonen, Venla (eds.) (2014) Muokattu elämä: Teknotiede, sukupuoli ja materiaalisuus. [Molded Life: Technoscience, Gender and Materiality]. Tampere: Vastapaino.

Meskus, Mianna (2009) Elämän tiede. Tutkimus lääketieteellisestä teknologiasta, vanhemmuudesta ja perimän hallinnasta [Science of Life: A Study on Medical Technology, Parenthood and the Government of Heredity]. Tampere: Vastapaino.

Selected publications:

Meskus, Mianna, Oikkonen, Venla, & Temmes, Maria (2024) The Processuality of ‘Sex’ in Biomedicine: Exploring Stem Cell Research, Cancer Medicine and Vaccine Safety Research. Body & Society, https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X241293033.

Mäkelin, Marianne, Helosvuori, Elina & Meskus, Mianna (2024) Strategic naturalizing in the Anthropocene: Managing cells, bodies and ecosystems. Sociological Review, 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261241261815.

Hautamäki, Lotta & Meskus, Mianna (2024) Living temporality: Speculative engagements with elderly people on bioscience and the body. Time & Society, 33(2), 191-211.

Meskus, Mianna & Tikka, Emilia (2024) Speculative approaches in social science and design research: Methodological implications of working in ‘the gap’ of uncertainty. Qualitative Research, 24(2), 209-228.

Homanen, Riikka & Meskus, Mianna (2023) Population anxieties in constituting Nordic welfare state futures: Affective biopolitics in the age of environmental crises. BioSocieties, 19, 232–258.

Meskus, Mianna (2023) Speculative feminism and the shifting frontiers of bioscience: Envisioning reproductive futures with synthetic gametes through the ethnographic method. Feminist Theory, 24:2, 151–169.

Meskus, Mianna & Oikkonen, Venla (2020) Embodied material encounters and the ambiguous promise of biomedical futures: The case of biologically derived medicines. New Genetics and Society, DOI: 10.1080/14636778.2020.1778459.

Meskus, Mianna, Marelli, Luca & D’Agostino, Giuseppe (2017): Research misconduct in the age of open science: The case of STAP stem cells. Science as Culture, 27:1, 1-23, DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2017.1316975

Jauho, Mikko & Meskus, Mianna (2017): Tieteen- ja teknologiantutkimuksen näkökulma terveyteen. In Sakari Karvonen, Laura Kestilä & Tomi Mäki-Opas (Eds.) Terveyssosiologian linjoja [Science and Technology Studies Perspective on Health]. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.

Ketokivi, Kaisa & Meskus, Mianna (2015) The dilemma of ’the capable actor’: Relational persons and the imperative of individual agency. Contemporary Social Science, 10(1), 39-51.

Meskus, Mianna (2015) Agential multiplicity in the assisted beginnings of life. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 22(1):70–83.

Meskus, Mianna (2014) Technoscientific shaping of human nature – but what does nature stand for? Origins: Finnish Studies in Art Education, 3, 1-6.

Meskus, Mianna (2012) Personalised ethics: the emergence and the effects in prenatal testing. BioSocieties, 7(4): 373–392.

Meskus, Mianna (2009) Governing Risk Through Informed Choice: Prenatal Testing in Welfarist Maternity Care. In Bauer, Susanne & Wahlberg, Ayo (eds) Contested Categories. Life Sciences in Society. Farnham & Burlington: Ashgate, pg. 49-68.

Meskus, Mianna (2005) To Exclude or to Enclose? Medicalisation of Abortion in Finland, 1900-1950 . Scandinavian Journal of History, 30(1): 45-60.

About me

I'm a science and technology studies (STS) and gender studies scholar. I'm the PI of the project Gendered Chronic Disease, Embodied Differences and Biomedical Knowledge (GenDis), funded by the Academy of Finland and Kone Foundation. My Academy Research Fellow's project (2018-2023) explored cultural debates about vaccines and changing ideas of immunity and risk.

Research topics

chronic pain, gendered chronic illness, endometriosis

vaccine debates, vaccines in culture

population genetics, ancient DNA, genetic ancestry tests

evolutionary theories in culture and society

bodies, materiality, affect, narrative

Research fields

Science and Technology Studies

Gender Studies

Cultural Studies

Research career

Associate Professor, TaSTI, Tampere University (2022-)

Academy Research Fellow, Tampere University (2018-2023)

Core Fellow, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2016-2018)

Docent in Gender Studies, University of Helsinki (since 2015)

Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher (2012-2016)

University Lecturer, Gender Studies, University of Helsinki (2011-2012)

Kone Foundation Postdoctoral Researcher (2011)

PhD, Gender Studies, University of Helsinki (2010)

About me

I hold a PhD in philosophy (1998) from University of Tampere and received the title of docent in philosophy in 2002. My current research interests include ignorance studies and social epistemology relating to expertise and the politics of digitalisation in the post-capitalist society. My philosophical expertise covers social epistemology, the philosophy of technology and the phenomenology of embodiment.  

Responsibilities

 Research and leadership in research  

Field of expertise

The Philosophy of Technology, Social Epistemology, Phenomenology, Ignorance Studies, Body Studies  

Research topics

The Philosophy of Technology, Social Epistemology, Phenomenology, Ignorance Studies, Body Studies  

Research unit

TaSTI: Research Centre for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies Tieteenalat

Research career

My dissertation in philosophy (Bodies Moving and Moved, 1998) was a pioneering research focusing on contemporary dance within the context of the philosophy of the body. In my postdoctoral research, I have evolved a phenomenological approach to the technology of philosophy, published in several articles and as the monograph, Meduusan liike (2006). My aim has been to rethink the theoretical foundations of human-technology interaction from a phenomenological perspective and body studies. Drawing on the philosophy of technology, critical theory and phenomenology, my recent research on the philosophy of technology has focused on virtual environments, wearable technologies, big data, the digitalisation process of schools, smart cities, artificial intelligence and care robotics. 

Since 2008, I have led five research projects to develop theoretically and epistemologically relevant conceptualization and approaches to understanding embodied capabilities and competences required of professionals in post-capitalist economies. In the research project ‘The Working Body in the Post-industrial Economy’ (WORKBOD, 2011-2014), funded by Academy, in collaboration with co-researchers we used various case studies and theoretical frameworks to outline a detailed and more general view of how digitalized work cultures modify the conditions for working bodies in the 2010s. 

Throughout my research career, I have focused special attention on how researchers in empirical sciences and philosophy can cooperate in studies to develop research questions, frameworks and outcomes that are practically, empirically, theoretically and/or methodologically ambitious. Approximately half of my published books, papers and scientific articles are collaborative efforts. I have co-written research papers and articles with about 40 researchers in various disciplines, including management studies, education, sociology, information sciences, engineering, media studies, social policy, cultural anthropology and political sciences. 

Responsibilities

I work as a Academy Research Fellow at the Tampere University Research Center for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. My Research Council of Finland fellowship project explores the development of complementary and alternative medicine as a research field. I was Project Coordinator in the EU-funded research project Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Europe VAX-TRUST. I co-lead a research project on criticism of medicine, Health, Knowledge and Expertise with Dr Johanna Nurmi years 2018-2021. I am an active member of STI Tampere Network, which gathers Tampere University people interested in science and technology studies and innovation studies.

Field of expertise

My research concerns scientific controversies, criticism of science and the societal status of science. In particular, I study controversies related to health, criticism of medicine and knowledge production in different alternative health practices. I am interested in the boundaries of science and the status of experts and expertise in contemporary societies. In my research, I combine sociology and philosophy of science, science and technology studies and higher education studies. I also focus on sociology of health, especially on sociology of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and vaccine hesitancy. I have edited the volume Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Knowledge Production and Social Transformation with Jenny-Ann Brodin Danell from Umeå University and Caragh Brosnan from Newcastle University, Australia (2018).

Research unit

Tampere University Research Centre for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI)

Research fields

science and technology studies, sociology, medical sociology, higher education studies