Research Team: Critical Arctic Studies

Monica Tennberg

Research Professor

Arctic Centre

Educated as a political scientist (international relations) Monica has studied Arctic politics since early 1990s. Currently, she focuses in her research to Foucaultian perspectives to the Arctic working with concepts such as heterotopia, environmentality and governmentality.

Sohvi Kangasluoma

Postdoctoral Researcher

Arctic Centre

Sohvi Kangasluoma is a postdoctoral researcher in the project “Post-anthropocentric Water Relations in the Bothnian Bay”. Her research focuses on the environmental, geopolitical, and societal changes in northern waters, with a particular emphasis on understanding and incorporating more-than-human actors into the discussions. In the project, she concentrates on the role of ice in redefining human-nature relations within the Bothnian Bay. Previously she worked in the project ”Rethinking International Relations in an Era of the Planetocene: Case Arctic Ocean Up to 2050”. Sohvi holds a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki, awarded in 2023.

Heidi Konttinen

Researcher

Arctic Centre

Heidi’s two Master of Arts degrees are from the fields of design and sustainability. Her transdisciplinary research interests include the plurality of sustainabilities in the Arctic, which she approaches with a decolonial lens. Heidi has completed the first year of her doctoral research on the Arctic seal hunt, crafts and trade in the University of Helsinki’s Indigenous Studies research group, which has a strong influence on her work.

Marjo Lindroth

University Researcher

Arctic Centre

Marjo holds a doctoral degree in social sciences (International Relations). Her research focuses on the entanglements between power and development in global and Arctic politics. Her work has investigated the dynamics between politics and rights and the question of resilience in contemporary colonial conditions. In her recent work she has explored the political purchase of hope.

Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo

Postdoctoral Researcher

Arctic Centre

Hannah completed her PhD on public participation in large scale energy siting procedures at the University of Oulu in 2011. As an environmental sociologist with an interest in science policy and socio-legal studies she focuses on the Arctic region. Hannah teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Lapland.

Visiting Researchers

Auni Haapala

Full-Time Teacher

Faculty of Education

Auni holds an interdisciplinary master’s degree in climate change at the University of Copenhagen. Her ongoing doctoral research focuses on the roles of Arctic cities in the makings of global extractivism. Auni’s research combines feminist and urban studies with political ecology.

Tom Royer

Vieraileva tutkija

Tom is pursuing his PhD in Space Law at the University of Lapland, examining space sustainability and commercial spaceports in the European North (Norway and Sweden). Tom holds degrees in Political and Social Sciences, Space Law, and Digital and IP Law.

Joonas Vola

Postdoctoral Researcher

Faculty of Social Sciences

Joonas is a doctor of social sciences and a scholar of political science. His work concentrates on a deconstructive reading of the Arctic, politics of aesthetics and post-human relations.

Last updated: 26.11.2025