Mila Seppälä
mila.t.seppala@utu.fi Office: 285 By appointment ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2919-297X |
North American Studies; Political Science; youth activism; social movements
John Morton Center for North American Studies
I am a Ph.D. researcher at the Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, working on my dissertation at the John Morton Center for North American Studies at the University of Turku. My research focuses on youth activism in the United States and the development of political imagination in the gun violence prevention movements in the United States. I have worked on multiple publications together with the Campus Carry project led by my supervisor Professor Benita Heiskanen, I am a part of the JMC Research Network and a guest lecturer in the North American Studies (NAMS) minor program. The academic year 2021-2022 I spent at The University of Texas at Austin as an ASLA-Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Research Fellows grantee. At UT Austin, I conducted fieldwork for my dissertation and studied in the American Studies program. I finished my Master's in 2018 and my Bachelor in 2016 in the Department of English, specializing in discourse studies.
The main objective of my dissertation is to examine how the movement for gun control and gun violence prevention has evolved and changed in the 21st century. The starting point for the research is the watershed movement of the March For Our Lives (MFOL) demonstrations to end gun violence that were organized after the Parkland, Florida high school shooting in 2018. The marches became the largest student-led protests since the Vietnam War. In the dissertation, I consider how the involvement of Generation Z (b. 1997–2012) has shifted the way advocacy for gun reform is conceived and done. Tracing the movement from its beginning in the 1960s, I compare how 1) perceived political opportunities tied to generational experiences, 2) rapidly changing information environments and 3) questions of identity related to gender, class and race have influenced the actions and goals of the movement.
At the JMC, I have taught the course Reading Seminar on Social Movements in the United States since 1905. I have given guest lectures on youth activism, African American Hair and worked as an instructor on the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election course and the 2022 Congressional Elections course. I also worked as a TA for Professor Benita Heiskanen on her Race, Class and Gender course and for Senior Researcher Lottamari Kähkönen on her Poor and Working-Class Whites in the U.S course in the NAMS program. During my doctoral research, I have completed the Basic of Univeristy Pedagogy course.
- Partisan Bias in the Reporting of the Parkland School Shooting (2025) Seppälä, Mila
(Other publication) - Aktivistinuoret murtavat Yhdysvaltain asepolitiikkamuurin (2024)
- Elävää tiedettä
(Other publication) - Partisan Media Bias in the Framing of the Parkland School Shooting and the March For Our Lives Movement (2024)
- Journal of Mass Violence Research
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Trust in Government Matters When it Comes to Attitudes towards Gun Policy (2024) Seppälä, Mila
(Other publication) - USA:n aselaki ja itsepuolustuksen dilemma – Stand your ground -lain kääntöpuolet (2024)
- SAM magazine
(E1 Popularised article) - A Small Country, a Whole Lot of Guns: Experiences from Finland (2023) Seppälä Mila
(Other publication) - Nuorten suosima TikTok on USA:n poliittisen kiistelyn keskiössä (2023)
- Turun Sanomat
(E1 Popularised article) - Support for Gun Reform in the United States: The Interactive Relationship Between Partisanship and Trust in the Federal Government (2023)
- Political Behavior
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Aseväkivallan ja sen ehkäisyn monet kasvot (2022)
- SAM magazine
(E1 Popularised article) - Creative Political Participation on TikTok during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election (2022)
- WiderScreen
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Radical Political Imagination and Generational Utopias: Gun Control as a Site of Youth Activism (2022) Up in Arms: Gun Imaginaries in Texas Seppälä Mila
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - ”The Objective Reasonableness of a Reasonable Officer: The Role of Graduation on the U.S. Statutory Limits on the Use of Force by Law Enforcement” (2022) Contemporary Approaches to Legal Linguistics Seppälä Mila, Krizsan Attila
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Exploring Austin, Texas by Bus (2021)
- Fulbright Finland News
(D1 Article in a professional journal) - “Like a Double-edged Sword”: Student Testimonials on Campus Carry in Texas (2021)
- Journal of American Studies
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Yhdysvaltalaiset nuorisoliikkeet eivät ole yhden asian liikkeitä (2021)
- Turun Sanomat
(E1 Popularised article) - Pettymysten keskellä etelän nuoret näyttävät tietä demokraateille (2020)
- Turun Sanomat
(E1 Popularised article) - Yhdysvaltain poliisin voimankäyttölakeja tiukennettava (2020)
- Turun Sanomat
(E1 Popularised article) - Aselait ovat poliittinen päätös (2019)
- Turun Sanomat
(E1 Popularised article) - Kuopion koulusurman käsittely jäi kesken (2019)
- Journalisti
(E1 Popularised article) - Kuopion koulusurman käsittely jäi kesken (2019)
- Journalisti
(D1 Article in a professional journal)