As an Associate Professor of Museology, I am developing a museology that transcends the boundaries between research fields and between science and art, to deepen understanding of the concepts, phenomena, and institutions that underpin intergenerational and multispecies wisdom.
My aim is for the museology experts graduating from the University of Jyväskylä to renew and strengthen the role of museums and other memory institutions as a force for change in society. In my role as a teacher and supervisor, I encourage learners to develop critical and ethical scholarly thinking and to pursue responsible expertise that considers the diversity of humanity and the living world, as well as planetary boundaries.
I am an archaeologist by training, and over the course of my career, I have worked for the Finnish Heritage Agency, the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Literature Society and the Finnish Science Centre Association, where I served as Secretary General. Currently, I am also serving as editor-in-chief of the yearbook Suomen Museo-Finskt Museum. I welcome the opportunities to collaborate with museums, science centres, and all communities that care for their diverse heritages.
I study how museums and wider society decide what is worth knowing and remembering, and whose stories are forgotten. My research focuses on critical heritage studies and museology, and I specialise in identifying the power structures, ideologies and worldviews embedded in concepts, classifications, discourses and practices.
In my work, I explore the potential of a multispecies museum in promoting ecosocial Bildung. In the context of science communication research, I analyse the history of the science centre concept and the nature of science centres, focusing on their role in representing scientific knowledge and science as heritage. I also consider forms of museality outside the museum institution, as well as the relationship between heritage preservation and protection and the inevitable processes of change and loss.
