I am a university teacher and a final-year PhD candidate in Finnish language. My research focuses on questions of Finnish as a second language and race in vocational education and related working life. In fall 2025, I am teaching courses in Finnish as a second and foreign language at the Open University.
In 2023–2024, I was a Fulbright Scholar in the Educational Linguistics Division at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Before starting my PhD, I worked in various research and teaching positions in the Nordic countries and Canada. In 2020–2021, I was a researcher on two team-ethnographic projects funded by the Research Council of Finland: the Building Blocks project, which explored work-related language learning in vocational education, and the Crossing Borders project, which focused on art-based research methods, language, and belonging. Prior to that, I worked in Finnish language programs at the universities of Toronto, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.
My PhD examines language ideologies, raciolinguistic ideologies, and language education policy surrounding second language speakers of Finnish in vocational education and training. In the sub-studies, I explore how language is embedded in vocational work, how Finnish language proficiency is constructed as meaningful in assessment events, and "Finnish as a second language user" as a raciolinguistic category. The research thereby takes part in broader discussions on education and work life equity. I analyze ethnographic data by applying critical sociolinguistic research methods. My supervisors are Prof. Minna Suni (Finnish language) and Prof. Sari Pietikäinen (Discourse Studies).
The PhD is part of the research project Building Blocks: Developing Second Language Resources for Working Life (PI Prof. Suni). My work is funded by the Ellen and Artturi Nyyssönen Foundation, the Finnish Literature Society, the OLVI Foundation, the Fulbright Finland Foundation, the American-Scandinavian Foundation (Suomi-Amerikka Yhdistysten Liitto), and the Finnish Cultural Foundation as well as the Department of Language & Communication Studies and the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä.
