Areas of expertise
Biography
At the Department of Comparative Literature, I hold the title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) in minority literatures. My doctoral dissertation on Caribbean women’s writing was publicly defended in 2012. My research interests include such topics as intersectionality, questions related to identity in minority literatures, postcolonial and queer studies, and the Caribbean novel. I am particularly interested in conceptual contexts – what kinds of epistemologies are included in concepts such as “queer”, “intersectionality” or “the postcolonial”.
In my free time, I enjoy theatre, Pilates and the company of my friends. I am also a member of the board of Third Space, a multi-arts group whose central focus is on the internal dialogue between and the investigation of the relationship between art and science.
Teaching
My teaching and other experience at the University of Turku are versatile. At the Department of Comparative Literature, I have served as a lecturer, research fellow, university teacher, researcher and associate teacher. I have been teaching at the Department of Comparative Literature since 2000. In addition to literary studies, I have wide-ranging experience in interdisciplinary teaching, particularly in the field of gender studies, where I worked as a university lecturer in 2018.
Between 2007 and 2008 and in 2010, I served as the coordinator of the Centre of Excellence project at the School of Arts Studies. At the time, my most important duties were linked to the development of both undergraduate students and doctoral candidates, as well as my research. Furthermore, my previous university appointments include the position of student advisor at the Faculty of Humanities, and I find that I am still highly motivated by any projects where I can work together with students.
Research
My current research focuses on methodological debates concerning intersectionality: its genealogy, epistemology, pedagogic uses and applicability. I am particularly interested in the narrative organisation of scholarly debates on intersectionality.
Between 2015 and 2017, I was granted the opportunity to serve as a member of the research collegium TIAS (Turku Institute for Advanced Studies), and in 2014, I participated in the research project Out of the Ordinary: Challenging Commonplace Concepts in Anglophone Literature at the Department of English. I have served as a member of the board of the Society for Queer Studies in Finland for many years, and I have also served as the co-editor-in-chief of the SQS Journal and as a member of the editorial board of UTU Publishing. I am also Finland’s country representative in the lambda nordica society and a member of editorial board of the lambda nordica journal.