Katja Laakkonen
Katja Laakkonen earned her Doctorate in Social Sciences in 2025. Her dissertation examined the multilocal everyday lives of Finnish nurses commuting to Norway. Before embarking on her academic career, Katja worked for 20 years as a registered nurse in intensive care units and operating rooms in both Finland and Norway. Her doctoral research revealed that Finnish nurses commuting to Norway are predominantly peri-menopausal women.
Katja now works as a postdoctoral researcher in our project Menopausing: Exploring Diversity, Awareness, and Activism. In this role, she continues to investigate the transnational networks of Finnish nurses between Finland and Norway. Her research aims to deepen understanding of how these networks of highly skilled, middle-aged women function and how mobility shapes both the professional trajectories and personal lives of nurses.
Contact: katja.laakkonen[at]uef.fi
Katja’s flash ethnographies and research insights
Who Cares About the Wellbeing of Middle-Aged Women?
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Katja Laakkonen with Erja Laakkonen, Reetta Haverinen and Iiris Lehto delivered a conference presentation examining the meaning structures of sponsored menopause-related content circulating in social media at the Social and Public Policy Winter School of the University of Eastern Finland, held on 18–19 March 2026.
Katja Laakkonen: Middle-age as an asset
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“At first, many of the terms used around me were unfamiliar, so I often looked them up later or sought explanations through other means. Gradually, however, the language began to make sense, and I came to recognise that my working-class background and professional experience was not a disadvantage in academia. On the contrary, it was increasingly regarded as an asset.”