Kukka
Ranta
Contact
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Areas of expertise
Biography
I work as a project researcher at the University of Turku in the LostToClimate project.
Also, I am a doctoral researcher at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Sciences, and a Master of Political Science from the University of Helsinki, majoring in Development Studies.
I conduct solution-focused ethnographic research in a collaborative manner. I specialize in human rights, especially indigenous rights, structural inequality, resource use, and environmental justice.
Additionally, I work as a non-fiction author, freelance journalist, and photographer.
Teaching
2023 Introduction to Sámi and Indigenous studies, 5 credits, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland
2016 Qualitative research excerpt I, 6 credits, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki
Research
In the LostToClimate project, I conduct ethnographic research on the non-economic impacts of climate change on local communities in the Arctic, focusing on the Sámi homeland in Finland.
My doctoral research l examines the socio-legal impacts of industrial land use pressures and the climate crisis in the Sámi homeland in the Arctic region. My research makes assimilating social structures visible in Finland and explores how green colonialism challenges the well-being of the Sámi people.
In 2025, I prepared a 112-page special report for the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published by the Government, on the impacts of industrial land-use pressures related to the energy transition on Sámi communities.
Earlier in 2023-2024, I worked as a Sámi rights advisor at the Amnesty International Finnish section and as a researcher and research coordinator in the joint Just Transition in Sápmi project of the Amnesty International Finland, Sweden, and Norway sections and the Sámi Council, whose report Just transition or 'Green colonialism'? was published in January 2025.