Senior Lecturer / Yliopistonlehtori (ma.)
Department of Political and Economic Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Helsinki

I am a UK-trained political scientist (BA London, MA & PhD Ideology and Discourse Analysis Essex), active scholar with expertise in science publications and learned societies (board member of TSV). In terms of public engagements, I am visible in the media in Finland and on populism in particular, but I for six years I have engaged in my neighbourghood in Maunula, Helsinki, developing a model of participatory planning and local democracy (2012–2018). Since 2013, I’m also a mother. I believe in transparency in research and society. See my professional website.

Current research projects:

PI of Whirl of Knowledge in European Polarised Societies and Politics (WhiKnow), Academy of Finland programme call project on Media and Society (2019–22). The aim of this interdisciplinary project is to explore what polarises, how and with what emotions in Europe – around the EP elections in 2019 in particular – and to rearticulate the theory of hegemony for an era of hybrid media.

PI of Now-Time Us-Space: Hegemonic Mobilisations in Central Eastern Europe, Kone Foundation project (2020-23). This research explores community building and particularly populism and anti-populism in CEE Europe through physical and virtual spaces.

WP leader and researcher in the Academy of Finland-funded consortium Mainstreaming Populism (2017–21) based at the Universities of Helsinki (PI Juha Herkman), Turku and Jyväskylä.

Complimenting my specialism in Hungary over the last ten years I’ve engaged with Finland. Newest publications: on the Finns Party and populist rhetoric (launches a method of rhetorical-performative discourse analysis). Contributor on EJPR Political Data Yearbook, Finland.

Current research interests: My research ranges from cities to nations, rhetoric and discourse theory to time and space. Populism, political identities, politics of memory and nationalism, urban cultural policy, local and radical democracy, poststructuralist/ postfoundationalist discourse theory, interpretive research and pedagogical methods, Hungary, Europe.