Research
Research is one of the core activities at Uniarts Helsinki. Research at the university focuses on the arts and art pedagogy; it can be artistic or developmental.
Research Centres
Uniarts Helsinki carries out internationally acclaimed academic and artistic research that has societal impact. The special nature of the research carried out at the university is based on direct and rich interaction between research and art.
Uniarts Helsinki invests in research particularly within its three profile areas, which are music history, artistic research and arts education.
CERADA
The Center for Educational Research and Academic Development in the Arts (CERADA) focuses on research into arts education and research-based development of higher education in the arts. The research carried out in CERADA therefore responds to the demands for development in arts education and higher education in the arts, as well as professional development for artists and arts teachers.
CfAR
Centre for Artistic Research (CfAR) aims to support and develop activities related to postdoctoral artistic research in Uniarts Helsinki.
CfAR is created in order to form a communicative and operative community, where practice and practitioners, research and researchers can interact in various and fruitful ways. It calls together all the postdoctoral artist-researchers, no matter if they work in the professional field outside Universities or within them, by contract or as an affiliated researcher, with or without external funding, in Finland or abroad.
History Forum
Uniarts Helsinki’s History Forum advances research on the history of music and other fields of arts. It also supports the networking between researchers working in the field both in Finland and on a global scale, and helps them integrate themselves into the field of historical research. A central mission of the history forum is to deepen the methodological competence in historical research and the awareness on the most current research practices and ways of utilising sources.
Introducing researchers
Research in the Academies
In addition to three Research Centres research is carried out in the Uniarts Helsinki's academies. Researchers and doctoral trainees from different fields form an internationally unique research community that works together with a global network.
The high-quality research sector sets a basis for Uniarts Helsinki’s education and practice-oriented development work.
Academy of Fine Arts
At the Academy of Fine Arts, research is closely linked to the academy's disciplines and related theories, methodologies, and teaching as well as the development of tools, materials, and ways of expression. Research, as such, is considered the starting point for contemporary art. Interaction between different forms of art and the relationship between art and society is the domain for ongoing experimental research. In addition to contemporary art's dialogical relationship to its audience, performance practices and spatiality are linked to research both methodologically and pedagogically.
Sibelius Academy
Research is an essential part of the creative work carried out at Sibelius Academy. As a result of the versatile expertise of the faculty, different theoretical approaches, methodologies, and research methods are in constant coexistence and interaction. Interaction between research and music is lively. Research at Sibelius Academy focuses on the following areas:
- Making, teaching, and learning of music
- History of musical practices and structures of music
- Relationship between music and the mind, musical interaction, and
- Philosophy and aesthetics of music.
Theatre Academy
Artistic research into performing arts is an important part of the development of Theatre Academy's disciplines and their descendants. With its vast international networks, Theatre Academy is an inspiring research community that is committed to communal values. The researchers are in active dialogue with the academy’s degree programmes and outside art and research communities as well as society at large. The objective of research at Theatre Academy is to develop and renew the arts and related methods and teaching and, by doing so, to provide an artist-led contribution to knowledge.
Research networks
Uniarts Helsinki and its three academies operate in several national and international research networks.
Below you can find information on the most important networks:
Contact information
Vice-Deans, Research
Professor Mika Elo (Academy of Fine Arts)
Professor Tuire Kuusi (Sibelius Academy)
Professor Leena Rouhiainen (Theatre Academy)
Heads of Doctoral Schools
Professor Tanja Johansson (Sibelius Academy MuTri Doctoral School)
Lecturer Päivi Järviö (Sibelius Academy DocMus Doctoral School)
Professor Leena Rouhiainen (Doctoral Studies in Artistic Research of Performing Arts)
Professor Esa Kirkkopelto (Doctoral Programme in Artistic Research TahTO)
Professor Mika Elo (Academy of Fine Arts Doctoral Programme)
Shared Doctoral School and Research Services
Head of Research Services Merja Sagulin
Expert Katja Kiviharju
Expert Jenni Mikkonen
Senior Research Funding Advisor Tiia Saarinen
Project Coordinator Tii Syrjänen
Project Coordinator Johanna Rauhaniemi
Coordinator Annika Fredriksson
Academy-Specific Doctoral School and Research Services
Research Coordinator Michaela Bränn (Academy of Fine Arts)
Study Amanuensis Jukka Tuominen (Academy of Fine Arts)
Senior Advisor Sirpa Järvelä (Sibelius Academy DocMus Doctoral School)
Senior Advisor Hannu Tolvanen (Sibelius Academy MuTri Doctoral School)
Academic Affairs Coordinator Elina Raitasalo (Theatre Academy)
Senior Advisor Riitta Pasanen-Willberg (Theatre Academy)
Academic Affairs Coordinator Laura Viertola (Theatre Academy)