Research group
JOHANNA NURMI
Principal investigator
University lecturer in sociology, University of Turku
johanna.m.nurmi@utu.fi
+358 50 472 4719
Johanna Nurmi is PI of the Youth in polycrisis project, participating in the project fieldwork in Morocco and in writing publications. Nurmi’s research themes include topics related to health sociology and the communal experience of crises. She has examined crisis experiences and their consequences in her doctoral dissertation (2014), which examined collective trauma and cultural memory after school shootings.
Nurmi has published numerous scientific articles on the topic, as well as a monograph Shared Experiences of Mass Shootings: A Comparative Perspective on the Aftermath (Routledge, 2018), which examined crisis processes following mass violence through an international comparative framework. Nurmi has also examined health-related controversies and alternative health practices, and co-edited a forthcoming book on contested health topics (Terveyskiistat; Gaudeamus 2026).
Nurmi has distinguished herself in the sensitive and ethical examination of emotionally charged research topics and has extensive experience in ethnography and interview research in particular. Nurmi served as PI of the Health, Knowledge, and Expertise research project (Emil Aaltonen Foundation, 2017 -2021). She is editor-in-chief of the Finnish sociological journal Sosiologia.
FAITH MKWESHA
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Turku
faith.mkwewsha@utu.fi
Dr. Faith Mkwesha is a postdoctoral researcher in the project Youth in Polycrisis. She is a literary Scholar and an expert on representation, did her PhD, at University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2016), Department of English Literature and Culture. Thesis title: Zimbabwean women writers from 1950 to 2015: Recreating gender images. She also teaches courses: Gender and Race; Contemporary Research in Ethnic Relations: Decolonising Knowledges; Postcolonial literature; Indigenous Knowledge; Black/African Feminism and Gender Studies.
She has published articles on these themes, written social commentary articles and featured in media. She is one of the editors of the book (Racism, power and resistance) Rasismi, valta ja vastarinta (Gaudeamus 2021) with Suvi Keskinen and Minna Seikkula.
She is a human rights advocate and founder of SahWira Africa International NGO that supports young people of immigrant background and black/African women in Finland. She promotes Black Women’s Human rights, Ubuntu, Antiracism, positive representation of Africa and Black/Africans, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. She is currently a member of the working group coordinating Antiracism and Collaboration Network Activities established by the Priminister’s office to compliment The Finnish Government Action plan promoting equality and combating racism to build a more equal Finland, also a Board Member of ENAR-European Network Against Racism.
KAIJU HARINEN
Postdoctoral researcher, Migration Institute
kaiju.harinen@utu.fi
Kaiju Harinen works as a postdoctoral researcher in the project Youth in Polycrisis, based at the Migration Institute of Finland. Her role in the project includes organizing anf facilitating reading groups and collecting data in both Morocco and Finland, analyzing the data, publishing findings, developing pedagogical approaches, and producing educational materials.
Harinen defended her doctoral dissertation on Francophone West African literature at the University of Turku in 2018. In her postdoctoral research project INTERACT: Intersectional Reading, Social Justice and Literary Activism (2022–2024), funded by Kone Foundation and based in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Turku, she developed an anti-racist reading group method. This method draws on material collected from reading groups and ethnography conducted in reading groups.
Harinen has published numerous social commentaries and scholarly articles addressing societal issues. She is currently editing two books that focus on empirical literary studies and reading research, intersectional activism, and transformative pedagogy.
ELLI PELTONEN
Doctoral researcher, University of Turku
elli.w.peltonen@utu.fi
Elli Peltonen is a doctoral researcher in the project Youth in Polycrisis. In her doctoral dissertation, Peltonen examines the experiences of young people living in Finland during a time of multiple crises and how these shape their visions of the future, with particular attention to the roles of solidarity, empathy, and hope.
Peltonen received her Master of Social Sciences degree in January 2025 from the University of Turku, where she specialized in economic sociology. Her studies focused particularly on themes related to migration, gender studies, and sustainable development. The analysis of power structures and mechanisms that sustain inequality, along with the promotion of social justice, have been central to Peltonen’s work. In her Master’s thesis, she examined migration remittances by challenging the dominant economic–administrative perspective and instead emphasizing the social context, the sense of belonging, and the structures that reproduce inequality. Furthermore, she also examined racism and the continuity of colonial processes as part of the governance of migration.
Alongside her studies, Peltonen has worked within a government agency on human rights and equality issues, as well as in the NGO sector on inclusion and democratic education with young people with migrant backgrounds.
RABIAA MARHOUCH
Researcher, University of Paul-Valéry Montpellier
Rabiaa Marhouch holds a PhD in French and Comparative Literatures (Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III). She is an editor, literary columnist, and advisor in academic and cultural programming. Her work focuses on contemporary literatures, which she examines through the dynamics of circulation and reception of narratives and imaginaries between Africa, Europe, and other cultural spaces.
She contributed to the conception and launch of the Chair of African Literatures and Arts at the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, and collaborates regularly with the Moroccan National Human Rights Council, for which she designs and organizes colloquia and cultural programs that highlight African cultures and humanist values. Committed to international academic collaboration, she spoke at the 10th Scientific Summit held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (2024) on collaborative research in Africa, and at the World Congress of Writers in Moscow (2025), where she presented a reflection on the dialogue between universities and writers within a global network.
As both writer and scholar, she is the author of the essay Nina Bouraoui: The Temptation of the Universal (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2023) and the novel The Heart of the Volcano (La Croisée des chemins, 2021). She has also edited several collective volumes, including What is Africa? Reflections on the African Continent and Perspectives (2021), Rabat, Cultural Capital of Africa and the Islamic World (2022), Is the Universal Humanist Ideal Unfinished? (2024), Sembène Ousmane: A Plural Tribute (2025), as well as literary anthologies for peace and coexistence published with the support of the Swiss foundation Corymbo.