Researchers

Valtteri Vähä-Savo

I am a university lecturer in social policy at the Tampere University and a member of the steering committee of the Tampere Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. I received my PhD in sociology from the Tampere University in 2016. I act as the principal investigator in the project Inner Truth Evaluation: Technologies of evaluation and testimonial practices in assessing the “inner truth” of individuals (ITE), funded by the Kone Foundation (2021-2024) and the Finnish Cultural Foundation (2024-2025).

I am a board member of the European Sociological Association RN-15: Global, transnational and cosmopolitan sociology. I have been a member of the Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology (TCuPS) for several years and I also belong to the Research Group for Epistemic Matters (REM). My research interests include the relationship between power and knowledge, science and technology studies, transgender studies, global and transnational sociology, new materialism, sociology of valuation and evaluation, and epistemic governance. 

Venla Koivuluhta

I am a researcher in the Mobile Futures project at the University of Oulu. I have also worked on and I’m currently collaborating with the project Inner Truth Evaluation: Technologies of evaluation and testimonial practices in assessing the “inner truth” of individuals (ITE).  

I received my PhD from the University of Exeter, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in 2025. My research is affiliated with The South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) and funded by The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). My background is in socio-cultural anthropology and Middle East studies, and my research interests include gender, citizenship, bureaucracy and belonging. I am a member of the Research Group for Epistemic Matters (REM).

Joa Hiitola

I am a professor of social work at the Tampere University. I have a PhD in gender studies (2015, University of Tampere, Finland) and I am a docent (associate professor) in social and public policy (University of Eastern Finland) and social work (University of Jyväskylä, Finland). My research includes forced migration, ethnic relations and ‘integration’ studies, citizenship scholarship, intersectional feminism(s), interpersonal violence, family relations and kinship studies, and, most recently, research on family separation of forced migrants.

I have studied ethically sustainable evaluation criteria in various fields of sensitive expert knowledge. I have analysed decision-making practices, expert knowledge and governance in out-of-home placements of children, and child’s best interest evaluations in asylum cases. I am also interested in antiracist pedagogies and different forms of activism. I am a member of the Research Group for Epistemic Matters (REM). Currently, I am part of a NOS-HS funded network studying transnational child protection.