Assistant Professor, Docent Daniela Alaattinoğlu wrote her application with her one-month-old daughter in a baby sling. With the support of the Faculty, she was awarded funding in the first round of applications.
Daniela Alaattinoğlu, Assistant Professor and Docent at the Faculty of Law of the University of Turku, has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) research grant.
The grant is a €1.5 million ERC Starting Grant, awarded for five years to a top researcher at an early stage of their career.
“This was my dream. The ERC funding means that I can put together my own research group and carry out a project that I have been planning for a long time. It is a great honour," says Alaattinoğlu.
The project investigates the mechanisms that lead to the legal inclusion and exclusion of the Sámi people. The Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, which operate simultaneously in Finland, Sweden and Norway, offer a unique opportunity for comparative law research.
How have countries governed the Sámi, and how has governance evolved? How have the Sámi peoples mobilised to improve their legal position? These are the questions Alaattinoğlu and her group are focused on.
Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are a relatively new phenomenon in the Nordic countries. This could therefore be considered a period of legal transition.
“Nobody has studied this from a legal or comparative perspective. The case is important because it raises important questions about state liability and compensation.
The funding will enable the creation of a research group consisting of two postdoctoral researchers, one doctoral researcher, and a research assistant and coordinator. The research project, including recruitment, will start in early 2025.
The group is also looking for researchers other than legal scholars, as the interdisciplinary approach can draw on the expertise of sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and political scientists, for example.
Recruits are required to have knowledge of two or more Nordic languages and preferably one of the Sámi languages. The aim is also to involve Sámi researchers.
Differences and similarities
In Finland and Sweden, the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are currently carrying out their work, which is expected to be completed next year. In Norway, the Commission's report has already been submitted to Parliament, which will consider the recommendations made.
“The mandates of the Commissions differ slightly from country to country. In Finland, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has a very broad mandate, but the budget is the smallest of the three countries. The work is very much focused on the present moment," says Alaattinoğlu.
“Key questions include what kind of discrimination the Sámi people face today, and how the climate crisis, for example, affects the Sámi as a people.
In Norway, the emphasis is on reconciliation, and the perspective is forward-looking. The report deals not only with the Norwegianisation of the Sámi, but also of other minority groups. It means dissolving the minority culture and assimilating a population into the majority and its culture.
The Swedish Commission's work focuses exclusively on the Sámi, especially from a historical perspective.
In addition to the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, there have also been important legal decisions concerning the Sámi people in the Nordic countries in recent years. More is yet to come.
Some Sámi organisations therefore use what is known as strategic litigation to promote their rights, in which they take legal action to promote specific, carefully selected cases in order to achieve a longer-term goal.
Alaattinoğlu wants to build a theory of legal inclusion and exclusion that can be used in future research.
Alaattinoğlu has designed the research project in a way that allows her to use her own strengths as a researcher and her previous research in a new way. She also uses concepts familiar from her previous research, such as transitional justice.
“This means how society overcomes old oppression by addressing what went wrong and why. It is a reflection of the changing legal culture.
In addition to the scientific advisory board, a stakeholder advisory board will be appointed for the research project, which may include representatives of Sámi organisations or international experts from different national commissions.
Hard work and careful preparation
The application process was extensive and Alaattinoğlu received support both from the University's Research Services and especially from colleagues in the Faculty.
She wrote the first version of her application in spring 2023 before her parental leave. The timing of the process was not optimal, as important comments on the application text came only a month after the birth of Alaattinoğlu's daughter.
“I thought for a while whether I was really going to do this now. But then I wrote part of the application with my baby in a sling.
The two-stage application process also includes an interview. Once there, the researcher already has a good chance of getting funding.
Alaattinoğlu prepared carefully for the interview and practised her answers, for example, at a Faculty research lunch where colleagues quizzed her on the application.
The thorough preparation was rewarded.
“This is the highlight of my career so far. Of course, I also have ambitions for the future, and I want to develop as a legal scholar.
Alaattinoğlu was awarded the ERC funding in the first round, which is unusual. Her aim was to get feedback on her application and an A grade, which would take her to the next stage of the application process. A lower score will lead to a penalty in the next application rounds.
What advice would Alaattinoğlu give to others considering applying for ERC funding?
“You need to have a very clear idea of what you want to do and why it is scientifically significant.”
Especially in the later stages of the application process, interviewers are busy and have a lot of applications to go through. You need to be able to justify in crystal-clear terms why the project of this applicant in particular should be funded.
Law studies almost left unfinished
It was a close call that Alaattinoğlu did not become an actor. After upper secondary school, she applied to the Theatre Academy – and she made it all the way through to the final stage in the highly competitive and multi-stage application process.
When she ended up to the Faculty of Law, she almost dropped out. The first-year courses in contract and commercial law did not inspire Alaattinoğlu, and it was Johanna Niemi's socio-legal course that made her realise that this could be her thing.
Alaattinoğlu is particularly interested in the relationship between law, society and justice. How do law and society evolve together and depend on each other?
“The justice system can even create injustice. I want to explore how legal means can be used to break down injustices,” says Alaattinoğlu, who has studied minorities in particular.
Daniela Alaattinoğlu
- Leads the Mobilie Futures: Diversity, Trust and Two-way Integration research project's work package at the University of Turku
- Edits the Nordic journal of legal science Retfærd
- Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Turku in January 2023
- Iceland Research Fund Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2020–2022
- Docent of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Turku 2022
- Has worked in various research projects at the University of Turku
- Came to the University of Turku in autumn 2019, after starting work on a research project commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to reform the definitions of sexual offences
- She has taught courses on human rights and law at several universities, including Åbo Akademi University, the University of Florence, and Sciences Po university in Paris.
- Doctor of Laws from the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, in 2019
- Worked for the human rights organisation TOHAV in Istanbul 2013–2014
