BIOS

Wednesday, 14 December 2022

Gert Biesta is Professor of Educational Theory and Pedagogy in the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, and Professor of Public Education in the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University Ireland. His work focuses on the theory of education and the theory and philosophy of social and educational research. He is interested, amongst other things, in teaching, teacher education, curriculum, education policy, the arts and education, religious education and education policy. His writings have been translated in a range of different languages. Recent books include Letting Art Teach (2017), Educational Research: An Unorthodox Introduction (2020) and World-Centred Education: A View for the Present (2021).
Visit Biestas webpage 

Grant White is a senior lecturer and director of master's degree programs at Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology. He teaches about history of Christian ritual practices and the subjects related to it, including history of theology, ritual studies, and the material dimensions of ritual practices. He has taught courses in contemporary spirituality and art at the University of the Arts Helsinki and has taught at other institutions of higher education in Finland, England, and the United States. One of his areas of research concerns the uses of traditional religious practices and systems of thought by late-modern people. 

Frank Brümmel is an artist and in search for something like an educational element in sculpture, a possible apparatus of elements, something that might be named an educational dispositive. Frank has been teaching since over 10 years in different posts and serves at the moment as lecturer in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. Since 2021 Frank studies also as a doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. Frank will host The Applied Non-Didactics Research Day.

Hanna Vahvaselkä is a sculptor, living and working in Eastern Finland. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, in 1999. At the moment she is a second-year doctoral candidate at Uniarts. She also has an MA degree in arts education. The background of Vahvaselkä´s artistic practise is in craft and material based contemporary art. Her main material is wood. During the Research Day she will organize a small participatory experiment with wood for everybody. 

Sanna Vuolteenaho (voice, Doctoral student, Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki) and Tapani Heikinheimo (cello, Docmus Doctoral School of Classical Music, Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki) are performing improvised music inspired by KuvA Research Day program. “What does fine arts sound like?” is an interplay between music, movement, fine arts, and space in interaction with the audience: the most fascinating part is when you don’t know what’s created next. The performance can take place during the day at different breaking points.

Tapani Heikinheimo has worked as a senior lecturer of cello and pedagogy at the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, and teaches also at the Sibelius Academy. The topic of his dissertation in 2009 was Intensity of Interaction in Instrumental Lessons. As a result of his exploration, improvisation became an important factor in his work as a pedagogy and as a performing musician. He leads improvisation projects and performs as a cellist and improviser constantly.

MFA, MA Henna Laininen is an artist-researcher and creative writing teacher who is finishing her PhD dissertation at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. In her doctoral thesis, Laininen investigates how to support the learning of a sustainable lifestyle by the means of communal creative writing. The artistic part of her thesis consists of sound art works, creative writing workshops and an online creative writing teaching material for addressing environmental issues with young people. During the Research Day she will present the newly published Climate Change in Me creative writing teaching material and guide a small creative writing exercise ”Improvisation on Words for Emotions” for participants. For further information read webpage

Magnus Quaife is the Professor of Artists Pedagogy at the Academy of Fine Art, University of the Arts, Helsinki. He is an artist, educator, and researcher. Quaife is a founding director of the organisation Teaching Painting, and on the steering committee of the International Network of Foundation Educators (INFE). He worked at Manchester School of Art for over 15 years and has been visiting lecturer/professor at institutions including the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art, the Academy of Fine Art Munich. His artistic practice has been described as that of a conceptual artist interested in paint and as being connected through an approach that is akin to an archaeology of the modern and contemporary, and he is represented by the Workplace Foundation’s Community of Artists.