Individual Researchers

Below you can browse Finnish researchers focusing on play and childhood studies. These pages are continually updated. If you would like your name to be included here, please contact info@museoleikki.fi.

Leena Alanen

Leena Alanen is a sociologist and Professor Emerita of Education at the University of Jyväskylä. Since the 1980s, she has been a central figure in developing childhood studies. Her research interests include the sociology of childhood, intergenerational relations, and the intersections of gender and generation.
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Katriina Heljakka

Katriina “Kati” Heljakka is a Finnish researcher of toys, play, and playfulness. Her work focuses on toys, play, and playful learning, as well as gamification and phenomena of gaming culture. Heljakka has also worked as a game designer and creative director in the toy and game industry. She has participated in several artistic projects, such as toy photography and playable art installations in Finland, Portugal, and the United States.
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Essi Jouhki

Essi Jouhki is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä. Her research areas include oral history, the history of childhood and youth, and the history of education. She has especially focused on the history of Finnish playgrounds and their role in shaping urban childhood in the 20th century.
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Tuomas Laine-Frigren

Tuomas Laine-Frigren works as a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Research Council of Finland at Tampere University. His research focuses on the history of childhood and mental health, child migration, and expert discourses, institutions, and policies related to childhood in 20th-century Finland and Europe.
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Marjatta Kalliala

Docent in Early Childhood Education Marjatta Kalliala is a Finnish researcher specializing in early childhood education and children’s development. She has made significant contributions to research on early childhood education, particularly regarding children’s wellbeing, pedagogy, participation, and interaction, as well as the role of families in child development.

Ulla Lipponen

Folklorist Ulla Lipponen specialized in school culture, and in particular in the study of youth cultures and identities. She examined how school culture and young people’s everyday lives are constructed, and how gender, age, social background, and other factors shape young people’s experiences and identities at school.

Antti Malinen

Antti Malinen is a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Research Council of Finland, specializing in the history of childhood, child protection, and family life. He also maintains the History of Childhood website dedicated to the history of childhood.
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Veera Moll

Veera Moll researches the built environment, especially the ways children have been included in urban planning and urban spaces across different periods. She has written, for example, about the history of children’s playgrounds and their significance in the urban space.
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Heta Mulari

Heta Mulari is a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University. She specializes in the cultural history of girlhood, urban youth cultures, children’s and youth cinema, and embodied and participatory research methods.
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Helena Saarikoski

Helena Saarikoski specializes in youth and girl cultures as well as popular culture. Her research topics include girls’ paths of life, young people’s coping strategies, and social exclusion. Her publications include Young People’s Paths of Life in Recession-era Finland and Choreographies of Young Femininity. Spice Girls Fans as Makers of Girlhood.

Jaakko Suominen

Jaakko Suominen is Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Turku. He specializes in the cultural history of media and information technology, particularly the history of digital gaming cultures, retrogaming, and the cultural history of social media and online forums.
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Kaisa Vehkalahti

Kaisa Vehkalahti is a docent at the University of Oulu and University of Lapland. Her research focuses on the history of childhood, youth, and education, as well as rural youth in the Nordic countries. She leads several interdisciplinary research projects examining the intersections of generations, place, and gender in rural areas.
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Leea Virtanen

Folklorist Leea Virtanen focused particularly on school culture, young people’s experiences at school, and how traditions and practices are formed in everyday youth life. She studied how school traditions—such as festivals and ritual practices—affect young people’s identity and sense of community.