Antti Erkkilä (antti.erkkila@uef.fi)
Senior Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), 2012-2017, ALL-YOUTH and MAKUTANO research projects, 2018-2023, UEF EDUCase global pilot project, 2022, 2023.
Senior Researcher, Researcher, Coordinator for Global Sustainable Development, Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu, 1984-1994, 1997-2005.
Environmental Counsellor at the Embassy of Finland in Nairobi, Kenya, 2005-2010.
Chief Forester in Research and Forestry Adviser at the Directorate of Forestry, Namibia, 1994-1996, employed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Short-term consultancies: Cambodia, Eswatini, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia (1986-2016). Professional study tours to India (1982), Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras (1984), South Africa (1996, 2004), Uganda (2006, 2007), Rwanda (2010), Tanzania (2018, 2019), Namibia (1990, 1993, 1994-1996, 2002, 2005, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2019), Cameroon (2023).
Trainee in Canada (Pacific Forest Research Centre, British Columbia, 1983), Czechoslovakia (Faculty of Forestry, Brno, 1981) and Ireland (Forestry and Wildlife Service, 1979).
Responsive Natural Resources Governance research group, member.
Children’s and youth health learning environments
Eerika Albrecht (eerika.albrecht@uef.fi)
I am a postdoctoral researcher with environmental policy and law background. My research focuses on adaptive water governance, river basin management and hydropower. Previously I have studied peatland governance, transboundary water governance and youth participation in legislative drafting. My research interest cover topics from how law and politics are intertwined for example in legislative drafting or how public and private stakeholders of natural resource governance interact with each other to solve pressing environmental problems.
Keywords: Environmental social sciences, environmental policy and law, legislative studies, natural resource governance, argument analysis, discourse analysis
Heidi Toivanen (heidi.toivanen@uef.fi)
My doctoral dissertation Actualizing Religious Agency in Finnish Life Course Contexts examines religious agency in the Finnish life course and its evolution across generations.
Research objectives:
Religious agency
Religious biographies
Evolution of religion in society
Religion and families
Youth and confirmation training
Older adults and meaning in/of life
Heli Mutanen (heli.mutanen@uef.fi)
Heli´s research interests are located in the realm of youth education an working life pathways and of identity and agency studies.
Hille Janhonen-Abruquah (hille.janhonen-abruquah@uef.fi)
Main interest:
- Home economics approach to everyday life, Families and global migration, Youth’s comprehensive learning environment.
- Hands-on and interactive home economics hybrid learning & teaching.
- Global responsibility in education, Culturally responsive education, Cultural sustainability.
Irmeli Mustalahti (irmeli.mustalahti@uef.fi)
Irmeli Mustalahti, Professor of Natural Resource Governance has a PhD in participatory forest practices and impacts (University of Copenhagen, Denmark). She is a chair of Responsive Natural Resources Governance-Research Group (RNRG). Her main research and teaching interests are long-term empirical research on natural resources governance, environmental conflict resolution, and collaborative management of natural resources. Since 2003, she has engaged with the Academy of Finland funded research projects and being in close collaboration with various international research networks. Since 2015, she has been developing jointly, with an international researchers and PhD supervisors, a course series called ‘Environmental collaboration and conflict resolution’. For example, in 2012-2016, she led the Academy of Finland funded projects ‘Towards Responsive Governance in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation? Comparative case study in Tanzania and Nepal’ and ‘REDD+: The new regime to enhance or reduce equity in global environmental governance? A comparative study in Tanzania, Mexico and Laos’. Currently, she is among of the leadership of the multidisciplinary research project, ‘All youth want to rule their world, ALL-YOUTH, 2018-2023’, a consortium funded by the Strategical Research Council of Finland. She is also a leader of MAKUTANO research project in Tanzania which aims to develop methodological and theoretical approaches for environmental collaboration and conflict resolution.
Jenni Lahtinen (jenni.lahtinen@uef.fi)
I am a doctoral researcher at the department of social sciences. My dissertation locates in the fields of youth studies and sociology and it deals with vocational students well-being from the perspective of Capability -approach and ecological sustainability. The aim of the research is to hear young people’s own perceptions of their well-being and examine how vocational education supports young people’s opportunities to live a life they have reason to value. In addition the objective is to find out, how ecological boundaries emerge in the young people’s perceptions of their own well-being. The practices of vocational education to promote opportunities for just and sustainable well-being are analyzed.
My previous research projects has dealt with participation and belonging at child welfare services, young peoples’ experiences and well-being in the times of Covid-19 and young peoples’ educational choices as well as equality in carrier guidance.
Kati Tervo-Niemelä (kati.tervo-niemela@uef.fi)
Kati Tervo-Niemelä (former Niemelä; born 1972 in Seinäjoki) is a professor in practical theology at the University of Eastern Finland. Her contact email is: kati.tervo-niemela@uef.fi
She has previously worked as a senior lecturer in Church and Social Studies/Practical Theology (2012-2018) and as professor in Church and Social Studies (fixed term 4/2015-3/2017 at the University of Helsinki. Tervo-Niemelä holds a title of Docent in Religious Education (2002). Her research covers many areas of practical theology, religious education and church and social studies. Tervo-Niemelä has previously worked as a Senior Researcher at Church Research Institute (2000-2012).
Her main research interests have been (1) the clergy career and ministry formation; the work orientation and well-being; (2) religion and the lifespan; (3) religious affiliation and disaffiliation, (4) the youth and religion, (5) religious rituals and (6) religion and the media.
She has published actively both in international and national settings in the abovementioned areas, including seven monographs (e.g. Does Confirmation Training Really Matter?; Vieraantunut vai pettynyt? Kirkosta eroamisen syyt Suomen evankelis-luterilaisessa kirkossa; Teologiksi? and Uskonko niin kuin opetan? Seurakuntatyöntekijä uskon ja elämän ristipaineessa) and six co-authored monographs (including Questioning Mind and Religion in Finland), six edited or co-edited volumes.