Katja Laakkonen

I am currently employed as a postdoctoral researcher in the project Menopausing: Exploring diversity, awareness and activism (2024–2028), hosted by the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Within this project, my research aims to advance understanding of how highly educated Finnish nurses who commute to Norway construct and maintain transnational networks. A central question guiding my work is: How does mobility shape the professional trajectories and personal lives of middle-aged nurses?

This inquiry builds upon my doctoral dissertation (2025), which explored the multilocal everyday practices of Finnish nurses residing in Finland while engaging in long-distance commuting to Norway. The dissertation, an ethnographic monograph, contributes to scholarly debates on the mobility of highly skilled healthcare professionals, gendered everyday life, and transformations in labor markets. It demonstrates how nurses actively negotiate routines and responsibilities, reconfiguring the reconciliation of work and private life across two welfare-state contexts.