Marjukka Laiho

The focus of my academic exercises is the process of doing research – that is, research settings and methods, as well as the positioning, power structures and partnership of the people involved in the research process. For me, it is important to make new openings and look for new ways of doing things – to be part of creating a better world and to enhance social justice and solidarity. Interdisciplinarity and equality are guiding principles in both my empirical and theoretical work. These perspectives might also be observed in my teaching and lecturing.

In practice, my research is rooted in the sociology of religion and the sociology of knowledge, through which I look at knowing about theology and the processes of theological knowledge production. The “sociology of theology” forms the core of my research, but I look at the world – and the academia and religious communities as part of it – more broadly from a power-analytic, i.e. critical, perspective. For this, I draw from my roots in political science.

Methodologically, I am oriented towards the border crossing, cosmopolitan and equality building, i.e. collaborative research approaches (see the Co-Research Network). In particular, I draw on reflexive, critical and creative methods; I like to experiment with these analytical tools. I characterize research as strongly interactive, intersubjective process where the boundary between the researcher and the researched becomes blurred. Experience, or the permeability of lived everyday life, serves as a guiding thread in my research; in our experience we are all equal as human-beings.

Orcid 0000-0003-2739-0400

On-going teaching in University of Eastern Finland

Master’s course (obligatory) 5 ects: Practical Theology, Lived religion and Social Scientific Research (head teacher, in Finnish) (2020 –>)
Bachelor’s course (optional) 5 ects: Methods Circle for Theology and Religious Studies (head teacher, in Finnish) (2024 –>)
Bachelor’s course (optional) 5 ects: Religion and Gender Studies: a Workshop (vieraileva luennoitsija, in English) (2024–>)