Kukka Ranta

>> On parental leave from September 2024 to February 2025 <<

I work at the University of Lapland as a junior researcher and doctoral researcher with a grant from the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation. I am a research member of Puistokatu 4 - a space for science and hope.

With my doctoral dissertation, I find out what kind of challenges the "green" energy transition means for the Sámi: How the industrial land use plans accelerated by the energy transition take into account the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the Indigenous Peoples, and what the neglect of the FPIC reveals about assimilating social structures in Finland from the perspective of settler colonialism.

The indigenous people Sámi have multiple burdens to carry. Over the past centuries, every generation and region in traditional Sámi Territories has had its own experiences of forced assimilation and loss of lands. Current generations are still trying to adapt their culture to the environmental changes of the past, but at the same time have to face new challenges brought by climate change.

With my research, I aim to make assimilating social structures visible, and to promote the realization of the Sami People's right to self-determination in Finland.

I also occasionally work as a non-fiction author, as well as a freelance journalist and photographer.

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. 

EDUCATION
2013 Master of Social Sciences, Development Studies, University of Helsinki
2009 Bachelor of Arts, General History, University of Helsinki

TEACHING
2023 Introduction to Sámi and Indigenous studies, 5 credits, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland
2016 Qualitative research extract, 6 credits, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki