People

PROJECT LEADER

Joa Hiitola

Joa Hiitola (he/they) is a Professor of Social Work at Tampere University and leads the SAUMA project. Hiitola’s research has focused on family relationships, refugeehood and migration; relationality in science and technology studies and in the context of genetic testing; and the well-being of LGBTQI+ people, particularly trans youth.

RESEARCHERS

Iida Kauhanen

Iida Kauhanen works as a postdoctoral researcher in the SAUMA project, funded by the Kone Foundation. …

Venla Koivuluhta

Venla Koivuluhta works as a postdoctoral researcher in the SAUMA project focusing on refugee children and young people. Venla completed her PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK in 2025. Her doctoral research, funded by the ESRC, focused on undocumentation in Egypt. Venla is particularly passionate about ethnographic research, and feminist and decolonial methods and theory. She has previously worked on the themes of migration, gender, and everyday life.

Anni Rantaniemi

Anni Rantaniemi works as a doctoral researcher in the SAUMA project. Rantaniemi holds a Master of Social Sciences degree and is a licensed social worker. ….

Ilo Söderström

Ilo Söderström (D.Soc.Sc.) works as a postdoctoral researcher in social work at Tampere University. Their research interests include sexual and gender diversity, normativity, accessibility of social work services, and anti-oppressive practices. In the SAUMA project, Söderström examines the experiences of LGBTQI+ young people living in residential child welfare institutions using co-research and action research methods. The aim is to explore what brings joy and hope to the everyday lives of LGBTQI+ young people placed in residential care, and how professionals can best support their well-being and self-expression.

Alongside the SAUMA project, Söderström works on the Nordic research and development project AFFIRM-ED, which has developed an online course on gender and sexual diversity for social and healthcare professionals and is implementing it in higher education programmes in the social and healthcare sectors.

Valtteri Vähä-Savo

Valtteri Vähä-Savo (D.Soc.Sc.) works as a researcher at the Research Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Studies at the Tampere University. His research interests include the relationship between knowledge and power, new materialist approaches, and the position of minority groups in society. In recent years, Vähä-Savo has been working on his Evaluation of Inner Truth -project, which examines the experiences of trans people and asylum seekers concerning situations where they have been evaluated by experts or public officials. In the SAUMA project, he focuses on the theoretical and methodological development of the project, which combines new materialist approaches with social work research on foster care.