I work as a doctoral researcher in the field of ethnology and anthropology at the Department of History and Ethnology. My research interests include various research topics related to health, well-being, medicine and bioethics.
In my dissertation research, I examine voluntarily childless persons applying for sterilization in Finland. I am particularly interested in what sterilization means for voluntarily childless people, what kind of process applying for sterilization is, and how those who have undergone the procedure feel that it has affected their well-being. In addition, the study also examines doctors' professional views on sterilization as a contraceptive method for childless persons. The purpose of the research is to produce information on how voluntarily childless persons' own thoughts and experiences about sterilization relate to the current Finnish Sterilization Act and the medical discussion around the procedure. At the same time, the research contributes to the discussion about norms related to reproduction, gender and the body, and pays attention to how these norms, values and meanings are constructed in a certain cultural context.
