Satu Ranta-Tyrkkö

Position within Board of Directors and Terms of Serving: Board member of IASSW 2026-2029 on behalf of university-level social work degree programs in Finland

Affiliation and Position (other than IASSW): University lecturer, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä (JYU), Finland; previously (1998-2017) teaching and
research positions at the University of Tampere, Finland

Membership of organisations (other than IASSW):
– Deputy board member, Finnish Asian Studies Network 2022-
– Board member, Global Partnership for Transformative Social Work, 2019-2025.
– Board member, Nordic Centre in India, https://www.nordiccentreindia.com/ 2019-2024, deputy board member 2014- 2016.
– Board member, Siemenpuu Foundation https://siemenpuu.org/en/ 2017, deputy board member 2018

Educational Qualification/s: (Degrees): Title of Docent (social work, University of Jyväskylä, 2017); PhD (Social Work, University of Tampere, 2010); MSocSc (Social Work, University of Tampere, 1997); Professional Specialization: applied drama (Tampere University of Applied
Sciences, 2004)

Languages written and spoken: Finnish, English

Interest Areas (social work teaching, research and practice): Role of social work in the sustainability transition; ecosocial work (/ecological/ environmental/ green social work); (post)materiality in social work; postcoloniality and decolonizing in social work; interfaces of social work and the arts; structural social work; community-based work; inter/transnational and glocal social work; diversity, histories and futures of work social work; widening participation in higher education; ethnography

Current Activities (social work teaching, research, practice, others):
Teaching: Supervising master’s and doctoral studies, responsible teacher in JYU MSW courses Social Work in Ecosocial Transition and International Social Work, promoting the accessibility of higher for students with migrant background (JYU pilot project).

Research: Over the years, including my doctoral research At the Intersection of Theatre and Social Work in Orissa, India: Natya Chetana and Its Theatre (2010, https://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-8003-4 ), and my postdoc, The Consequences of the Mining Industry for Disadvantaged Groups in Northern Finland and Northern Odisha (Academy of Finland 2014-2017), my research has concentrated mainly on the following, often overlapping thematic areas (for publications, see orcid.org/0000-0002-8519-7257):
1) Sustainability transition and the development and applications of the ecosocial framework in social work
2) Inter- and transnational, simultaneously local and global (=glocal) social work
3) Post- and decolonial theory in social work, and
4) Interfaces of social work and the arts.