Taru Koivisto

Taru Koivisto is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Institute and a member of the CERADA research network. She is currently working in the project “Performing the political: Public Pedagogy in Higher Music Education” (2023–2027, funded by the Research Council of Finland). Koivisto has worked as a researcher in the project “Economic evaluation of cultural well-being activities” (Artwell, 2022–2023, funded by the Prime Minister’s Office), as a visiting researcher (funded by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, 2023) and as a researcher-developer in the project Kreativ personcentrerad vårdkonst (Åbo Akademi, 2021–2024). She has led a research project mapping the use of telehealth music therapy (2022–2023, Kela / The Social Insurance Institution of Finland research funding). 

Koivisto’s doctoral thesis, completed in 2022, was a multiple case study on the expanding music professionalism in the Finnish healthcare system. The sub-studies were carried out in a neonatal intensive care unit, an infection and orthopaedic ward in a hospital specialising in the care and rehabilitation of the elderly, and in a hospice setting. During her doctoral research, Koivisto was affiliated to the Arts in health, welfare, and care research group of the ArtsEqual project. 

Koivisto is a responsible teacher of music therapy in the Open Campus’s Näköaloja taideterapioihin [Perspectives into arts therapies] training and a co-teacher of the Global music program Cultural diversity and music research course. She is a member of the board of the Finnish Society of Arts Education Research and has been involved in many international and national research networks, third sector, and professional networks.