Professors and Tenure track professors
Currently three professors form the backbone of Åbo Akademi University’s Minority Studies research profile. They are:
Emmanuel Acquah Associate Professor (tenure track) in Minority Studies at the Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies.
Dr. Acquah’s research focuses on the development of teacher competencies in their work with multicultural/multilingual learners. Most of this work lies in the integration of coursework in culturally and linguistically responsive teaching into teacher preparation and its impact on students’ awareness and practices. His research also focuses on investigating the knowledge of current and practicing teachers regarding culturally and linguistically responsive teaching in order to devise appropriate professional development supports. Currently, he is working on developing an educational language game. Acquah has a multidisciplinary research background in education and social sciences and has a strong background in Mixed-methods research design and data exploration.
Magdalena Kmak Professor of Public International Law, with a specialization in Migration and Minority Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Business, and Economics, and Law.
Dr. Kmak received her PhD in 2009 from the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. She holds the title of Docent in law and globalization (University of Helsinki). Her current research focuses on the multifaceted relationship between law and mobility, in particular in the context of global migration and minority regimes. Her research interests encompass mobility, migration and exile studies, public international law, human rights and international and European refugee and migration law. Kmak is a PI and Consortium Director in a project ‘Diversity, Trust and Two-Way Integration (Mobile Futures)’ funded by the Strategic Research Council established within the Academy of Finland (2021-2027). She is also co-founder of the Nordic Network on Climate Related Displacement and Mobility.
Pamela Slotte Professor of Religion and Law at the Faculty of Arts, Psychology, and Theology.
Dr. Slotte is vice-director of the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (2018-2025), eurostorie.org. She is also an affiliated senior research fellow at the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki, and she holds the title of Docent of research in law and religion (University of Helsinki), and of Docent of theological ethics with philosophy of religion (Åbo Akademi University). She is one of the co-applicants and researchers in the NOS-HS funded project Complexity and Beyond in Studies of Religiosity in the Nordic Countries (CBSR) (2021-2023).
Her research interests include issues of national and international legal protection of freedom of religion or belief, non-discrimination, and equality, as well as more generally the relations between law and religion in history and today. She has published widely in the field of systematic theology, history of ideas, political theology, the field of law & religion as well as on the topic of human rights from a number of perspectives.
Camilla Haavisto Assistant Professor in Minority Studies 2017 at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Economics, and Law and the Faculty of Arts, Psychology, and Theology.