Research team

Photo: Tapio Nykänen

Sanna Valkonen

Sanna Valkonen is a Sámi scholar from Northern Finland. She is a professor of Sámi research at the University of Lapland and an adjunct professor (docent) of research on Sámi society at the Giellagas Institute. Sanna has a PhD in political science (2009) and she specializes in developing the field of social scientific Sámi research since 2001 drawing from community-based engagement and understanding. Her research focuses on Sámi society, politics and thought. Her recent publications include the book The Sámi World (Routledge 2022, co-edited).

Áile Aikio

Áile Aikio (she/her) is a post-doctoral researcher in the Sámipolity project at the University of Lapland, Finland. Her research interests include Sámi cultural heritage and art, decolonization and indigenization of heritage institutions and practices, and multispecies coexistence. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences and an MA in Ethnology. Prior to her doctoral studies, Aikio worked as a Curator at the Sámi Museum Siida, first in collections and later as the Head Curator, overseeing exhibitions and museum education, including planning, curation, and educational program development.

Saara Alakorva (former Tervaniemi)

Saara Alakorva (Piera-Jovnna-Leena Saara) is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Lapland and has a master´s degree on International Relations. In her Ph.D. research Alakorva is interested in the Sámi political history and contemporary Sámi political thinking.  As a Sámi scholar herself, Alakorva has deep knowledge on issues of the modern Sámi society. She has also practical experience of working with indigenous issues nationally and internationally.

Photo: Minna Rasmus

Veli-Pekka Lehtola

Veli-Pekka Lehtola (born 1957) is Professor of Sámi Culture in the Giellagas Institute at the University of Oulu, Finland. Lehtola is a (North) Sámi from Aanaar or Inari in Northern Finland.

As a researcher, Lehtola is specialised in the history of the Sámi and Lapland, in modern Sámi art, as well as in the development of the Sámi representations. He has published the book The Sámi People – Traditions in Transition in 2004 (University Press of Alaska). His main work in Finnish, Saamelaiset suomalaiset – kohtaamisia 1896-1953 (Sámi Finns – Encounters in 1896-1953 (SKS) was published in 2012. Lehtola has published thirteen books and over a hundred scientific articles in Finnish, Sámi and English, also translated to Swedish, French, German, Hungarian and Russian.

Lehtola was the head of the project of the Academy of Finland, Domestication of Indi­genous Discourses? Processes of Constructing Political Subjects in Sápmi (2015-2018), a joint project with the University of Lapland. In 2015-2016 he led the project Developing the Research Services of the Saa­mi Culture Archive of University of Oulu, funded by the Academy of Finland.

Anne-Maria Magga

Anne-Maria Magga is a postdoctoral researcher in the Sámipolity project at the University of Lapland. In her research, she will study the political thought in Sámi reindeer herding. Her research focuses on the resurgence of Sámi siida system and traditions in reindeer herding. In her PhD thesis Siidan lait (Vastapaino, 2024) she examined Sámi reindeer herding laws and legal principles in three Sámi communities in northernmost Finland. She is a Sámi reindeer herder from Näkkälä co-operative, Enontekiö.