Profile

Anna-Maija works as a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland. She is the coordinator of the multi-disciplinary bachelor program (social psychology, social pedagogy, and sociology) in UEF’s Kuopio campus. She has expertise in qualitative social network analysis and together with colleagues has developed the configurational perspective in studying personal relationships. She is interested in family understandings in different settings and life-stages, friendships, family trajectories, marriage and weddings, and paths to parenthood. Her previous project focused on the families of new-borns (in Helsinki) whose mother was not in a hetero marriage at the time of the birth.  She is also a long-time board member of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Families and Intimate Lives and the chair of the Finnish Society for Research on Families and Personal Relationships.