Four new titles of docent awarded by the Uniarts Helsinki Research Institute
In December 2025, the Research Institute awarded the title of docent in artistic research to Teemu Mäki, Nitin Sawhney and Ben Spatz. It also awarded the first-ever title of docent in historical research of the arts and artistic life to Sasha Mäkilä.
Uniarts Helsinki may award the title of docent to a professionally distinguished researcher or artist who participates in the university’s activities and engages in independent work. In Finland, a person with the high-level academic title of docent has special expertise in their own research or artistic field, and although not fully equivalent, the title is sometimes translated as associate professor in international contexts.
The title of docent does not imply an employment contract with the university, but the person is required, however, to participate in the university’s activities in the role of an expert in their respective field in whatever way is agreed on.
Director of the Research Institute Leena Rouhiainen hopes that docent expertise could be utilised more extensively in the teaching at Uniarts Helsinki, as well as in the supervision and assessment of thesis projects and doctoral dissertations.
“I encourage our units to actively tap into this unique potential that our group of experts offer,” Rouhiainen says.
Teemu Mäki: Art is the most flexible form of philosophy and politics
Teemu Mäkihasworked as a professional artist since 1990. Mäki graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1990 with painting as his selected technique, but he has a wide-ranging career as a visual artist, writer, researcher as well as a theatre, film and opera director. He completed a Doctor of Fine Arts degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in 2005. In 2008–2013, he was the professor of visual arts at Aalto University.
During and after his doctoral studies, he has actively engaged in artistic research. His artistic practice and research projects draw from all the different elements of his academic and professional work. His work is based on the idea that art is the most holistic and flexible form of philosophical and political practice.
Sasha Mäkilä: Professional growth by combining artistic and research activities
Sasha Mäkilä has over a 20-year international career as a conductor, and he has taught orchestral conducting in masterclasses for over ten years. Besides completing a conducting degree at the Sibelius Academy, he also has a master’s degree in musicology from the University of Helsinki.
Sasha Mäkilä earned a doctorate in music in 2018 at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with his dissertation titled Conducting Madetoja. Discoveries About the Art and Profession of Conducting. In 2020, he took on the role of a visiting researcher at Uniarts Helsinki, where his research centred on music philology and critical editions.
Combining artistic and research activities has played a major role in Mäkilä’s professional growth. His research and publications have focused particularly on Leevi Madetoja’s composition manuscripts, and he is currently working on critical editions of Madetoja’s piano trio and first symphony. His research interests also include the pedagogy and history of orchestral conducting.
Ben Spatz: An internationally esteemed pioneer in artistic research
PhD Ben Spatz is particularly known for applying critical theory and developing arts-based methodologies. Their professional background is in performing arts, and their publications have left an undeniable mark on the evolution of artistic research globally.
Their first book What a Body Can Do: Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research (2015) has been widely used in teaching in the fields of theatre, dance, music, education, sociology and cultural studies.
Ben Spatz has taught and given lectures at over 30 institutions in 20 countries. Their current focus is on race and colonialism theories, allowing them to explore the forms of knowledge production in artistic research on a planetary scale. Drawing on critical race theory, Spatz has a long track record of carrying out artistic research. Since 2012, it has centred on contemporary Jewish identity.
You can read more about the fourth recently selected docent, Nitin Shawney, in a separate interview.