Projects
Picture by Aiju Salminen
Being able to work with local, national and international scholars is a privilege. Over the past fifteen years, I’ve been part of preparing a number of national and international proposals for research and development projects. I’ve worked in many projects in many roles, from a consultant and collaboration partner to posts as a researcher, as principal investigator, and in project management.
Mapping, making & mattering: Arts and research-activism for addressing sexual harassment in pre-teen peer cultures 2019-2023, 474,410€, The Academy of Finland.
Academy project.
Project leader: Tuija Huuki
Post-doctoral researhcers Suvi Pihkala
Post-doctoral researcher Helena Louhela
Doctoral researcher Eveliina Puutio
Doctoral researcher Marian Tumanyan
Media Producer Sami Hänninen
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KEY WORDS: gender, sexuality, harassment, violence, girls, boys, childhood, pre-teen, posthuman, new materialism, sexuality, feminism, arts, arts-based methods, education
This research scrutinises the ethical, political, and methodological affordances of arts-based practices in exploring and addressing sexual harassment in the peer cultures of pre-teen children aged 10 to 12. It focuses explicitly on how we can produce new academic knowledge on sexual harassment in pre-teen peer cultures via co-productive arts-based workshops—and on how arts-based activities can help children form relationships free of sexual harassment. Applying insights from new materialist and posthuman theory, this project will also examine how arts-based methodologies can become political practices that evoke change in pre-teen peer cultures. Duringthis multi-phase project, the findings will be shared with international, national and local experts and communicated through peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, art exhibitions, an edited volume, a children’s conference, and pedagogical and policy-ready resources.
Gender-based violence in pre-teen relationship cultures: How history, place, affect and arts interventions matter 2016-2021. 492,340€, the Academy of Finland.
Personal grant of Academy Research Fellow.
KEY WORDS: gender, violence, girls, boys, childhood, posthuman, new materialism, affect, sexuality, feminism, ethnography, arts-based methods
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This research develops new knowledge of how gender-based violence shapes pre-teen relationship cultures (age 10–12). Applying insights from new materialist and post-human theory, the project investigates how gendered violence emerges through social, material, historical and affective power relations that impact children’s lives in expected and unexpected ways. These theories will be empirically explored to deepen understanding and practice of how to address gender-based violence in young relationship cultures. Central here is an ethical, political and pedagogical intent to explore the affordances of arts-based participatory methods to enable the safe articulation of often sensitive and taboo experience, both among children and policy makers and practitioners. During this multi-phase project, findings will be shared with international and local experts and communicated through peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, art exhibitions and pedagogical and policy-ready resources.
Gender Equity, Conflict and Power among Young Children. Post-doctoral research, Academy of Finland 2012–2016. €280 300.
Personal grant of Post-doctoral researcher.
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KEYWORDS: Gender, violence, bullying, power, conflict, boy research, girl research, inter- and intra-gender approach, ethnography, childhood
The research will contribute to the understanding of how gender cultures, gendered peer hierarchies, gender conflicts and compassion all mediate and shape children’s relationships with each other. Building on the findings from a previous Finnish and UK pilot project on five and six year olds’ gendered relationship cultures, this research will further investigate how everyday expressions of compassion and cruelty are experienced and negotiated over time from the time the children are six until they are eight. The project will generate qualitative data over two years by using innovative ethnographic, participatory and creative multimedia methods. During the project, findings will be shared with international experts in Hong Kong and the UK. They will be communicated through conference papers and peer-reviewed journal articles and will be made accessible to teachers and other practitioners.
2020-2021: Editor of journal Sukupuolentutkimus-Genusforskning
Editors: Tuija Huuki, Suvi Pihkala ja Outi Ylitapio-Mäntylä, Editorial manager Ilmari Leppihalme, Reviews editors: Aino Isojärvi ja Silja Kukka
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2012–2016: Gender Equity, Conflict and Power among Young Children €280,300, the Academy of Finland. Huuki PI
ALLiES- developing teachers’ and parents’ alliance for early violence prevention in pre-school, EC Daphne III 2010–2012. €723 000.
From Violence to Caring. Academy of Finland 2007–2010. €280,000.
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Project leader: Vappu Sunnari.
Gendered Violence in Schools and Teacher Education in the Barents Region . A research network, NorFA 2001–2004. NOK 1 700 000.
Gendered Power Relations and Violence in Schools and Teacher Education. The Academy of Finland, 2001–2003. €104 600
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Project leader: Vappu Sunnari.
As a research partner:
Structural racism and its impact on Indigenous Health – a comparative study of Canada, Finland and Norway. Centre for Arctic Medicine, Thule Institute, led by research professor Arja Rautio.
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BulStop – Developing multi-sensor measuring and smart algorithms to detect violence. University of Oulu, Department of Electrical Engineering, led by professor Esko Alasaarela.
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Belong and Values of Childhood, The Academy of Finland and Nordforsk 2012-2015. The University of Oulu, Faculty of Education, led by professor Eila Estola.
TASUKO, the Finnish Ministry of Education 2009–2011. A national research and development project promoting gender sensitivity in Finnish universities providing teacher training.
Networks
PhEMaterialism -An international network of researchers, practitioners, educators, artists and activists engaging with feminist post-humanism and new materialism research methodologies in education.
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Suomen Miestutkimuksen Seura [The Research Association for Studies of Men and Masculinities in Finland]
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Sukupuolentutkimuksen seura [The Association for Gender Studies in Finland]
Finnish Parents’ League