Professor of History and Social Studies Education, University of Turku, 2022–

Visiting Professor of History Education, Linnaeus University, Sweden, 2020–2022

Associate Professor of History and Social Studies Education, University of Turku, 2019–2022

University Lecturer of History and Social Studies Education, University of Helsinki, 1999–2019

Docent (Social Studies and History Education), University of Turku, 2014 

Docent (Historical Anthropology), University of Jyväskylä, 2000

PhD (Sociology), University of Essex, 1994

For further information and publications 1999–2019, see: ORCID 0000-0003-0995-3265

My long-time research interests include intersections of historical consciousness and moral consciousness that was explored in the research project History in Moral Encounters, directed by Professor Niklas Ammert at the Linnaeus University and funded by the Swedish Research Council (2018–2021). In the project were collaborating Niklas Ammert, Silvia Edling, Jan Löfström and Heather Sharp. The foundations of the project were outlined in the Special Issue on Historical and Moral Consciousness, in Historical Encounters, vol. 4 issue 1 (eds Ammert, Edling, Löfström & Sharp, 2017), and the results were published in a number of peer reviewed articles (see my ORCID) and in Ammert, Edling, Löfström & Sharp (2022) Historical and moral consciousness in education: Learning ethics for democratic citizenship education. (London: Routledge); and, Ammert, Edling, Löfström & Sharp (2023) Att lära från, om och med historia. Historiemedvetande, moral och didaktik (Malmö: Gleerups).

The aforementioned topic connects closely with my work on historical apologies and the notions of historical responsibility as a perspective on historical consciousness, for example in the Journal of Curriculum Studies 2014:4, Citizenship Studies, 2011:1, and in the edited volume, Jan Löfström (2012) Voiko historiaa hyvittää? (Can history be repaired?), Helsinki: Gaudeamus University Press. 

The research project on intersections of historical and moral consciousness resulted also in an international network, Democracy in the past, the present, and looking to the future: A network on historical, moral, and democratic consciousness in history education, research and policy; funded by Swedish Research Council (2023–2025), and steered by Niklas Ammert (PI), Fredrik Alvén, Silvia Edling, Jan Löfström, and Heather Sharp. Members of the network have contributed in 2025 to a Special Issue on Historical and Democratic Consciousness in the journal Citizenship, Social and Economics Education. An other network relating to the connections between democracy education, history education and social science education, has been the exploratory workshop serie, Educating active and democratic citizens in challenging times: exploring the past, present and future of social studies in the Nordic countries" funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (2022–2023), steered by Jakob Maliks (PI), Tom Gullberg, Brit Marie Hoveland, Jan Löfström, and David Rosenlund. With Heidi Eskelund Knutsen as a new member, the steering group will embark on a project of editing an all-Nordic volume on the theme.

Further relating to my interest in democracy education, I'm currently leading a subproject in the research consortium Education for deliberation: practices of inquiry in dialogue-based democratic education, funded by the Finnish Research Council (2024–2028); the Consortium involves colleagues at the universities of Oulu, Tampere and Turku (Katariina Holma, Veli-Matti Värri, Tuukka Tomperi, Julia Jaakkola, Hanna-Maija Huhtala, Jan Löfström). For more information on the research project see: deliberate.fi.

I serve as the PI of the Finnish team in the European research project, Youth and History II (coordinated by Dr. Piero Colla), that replicates the European survey of 1995, titled Youth and History. The Finnish team includes Jukka Rantala, Tanja Taivalantti, Johanna Norppa, Aleksi Marti, and Najat Ouakrim-Soivio. The survey questionnaire has been piloted in 2024 and the survey is envisaged to take place in Autum 2025.