Kati Mikkola Email & Phone Number

I work as the Director of Communications at the Finnish Literature Society (SKS) and hold the title of Docent in Folklore Studies at the University of Helsinki. Reporting to the Secretary General, I lead SKS’s external and internal communications, and am responsible for public outreach, stakeholder relations, as well as SKS’s brand and visibility. I am a member of SKS’s management team and oversee the operations of the communications department.In my academic publications, I have researched various topics, including the roles of ethnic and linguistic minorities in Finnish folklore and archival collection policies, self-taught folklore collectors, textbooks by the Finnish author and historian Zacharias Topelius, and vernacular perspectives on secularization and religious change. My doctoral thesis in Comparative Religion (2009) focused on resistance to innovations in Finland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.I have extensive experience working within multidisciplinary academic communities and projects. From 2005 to 2008, I participated in the Research School of Cultural Interpretations, funded by the Ministry of Education. I served as a researcher on three multidisciplinary projects at the University of Helsinki, funded by the Academy of Finland (2002–2004, 2009–2011, 2012–2015). Additionally, I worked on the Kone Foundation-funded project Cultural Heritage of Differences: Archives Making Cultural Inclusions and Exclusions (2015–2016). From 2017 to 2019, I conducted research on popular perspectives on secularization and religious change in Finland, funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. For nearly ten years, my academic home base was the multidisciplinary research department at the Finnish Literature Society (SKS).I worked as a Counsellor of Education at the Finnish National Agency for Education (OPH) from 2019 to 2021. My main responsibilities at OPH involved overseeing religious education and psychology as school subjects, as well as cultural heritage education, global education, and school safety issues.I have teaching experience across various educational levels. From 2001 to 2006, I taught Religion, Ethics, Philosophy, and Psychology in upper secondary schools. Additionally, I have lectured at universities and in-service teacher training programs. I have also contributed to the development of textbooks for schools, created pedagogical materials for teachers, and written articles on didactics. From 2019 to 2024, I served as the 1st Vice-Chairman of the Matriculation Examination Board.

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  Turun Yliopisto - University Of Turku

  Comparative Religion