Malla Lehtonen graduated from the University of Turku in 2015 with an MA in Cultural History. In her studies, she focused on U.S. environmental history, and her MA includes interdisciplinary studies in Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development. Lehtonen wrote her Bachelor’s Project on Garrett Hardin’s 1968 essay The Tragedy of the Commons and her Master’s Thesis on Hardin’s work as an activist for abortion rights in the U.S. between 1963 and 1974. Lehtonen is interested in the history and current developments of environmental thought and discourses, as well as social movements, in the U.S.

Before joining the JMC as Project Researcher, Lehtonen worked as Project Coordinator for the “Aboagora” project at the Department of Cultural History (University of Turku). Prior to that, she worked as a fixed-term Education Coordinator at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Humanities. She also served as Coordinator at the JMC in 2015–2016.