Sonja Pietiläinen

MSc
Doctoral researcher

Geography
Faculty of Science

I am a doctoral researcher at the Geography Research Unit. My doctoral research studies political geographies of the far-right, focusing on the relationships between space, power and nature. In my current research I use far-right as an umbrella term for radical and extremist right-wing parties and groups whose ideology and political activity is based on nationalism and anti-immigration. I am interested to study what role does climate change, nature and ecology play in their politics and political strategies. My research is based on empirical material collected in the Finnish and Russian contexts.

I am also a member in the Zetkin collective, which studies far-right's climate denialism and its relationship to fossil fuels.  A book based on our research was published by Verso in spring 2021 (White Skin Black Fuel: On the Dangers of Fossil Fascism).

Research interests

  • political geography
  • far-right
  • nationalism
  • climate change
  • political ecology

Researcher information

picture of sonja

Contact information

E-mail

sonja.pietilainen@oulu.fi

Postal address

P.O. Box 3000
FI-90014 University of Oulu
Finland