University lecturer

My areas of specialization include feminist musicology and cultural study of music. My research has focused mainly on music, media, childhood and everyday life. 

Before I started working at Gender Studies, I was based in the Department of Musicology at the University of Turku. My dissertation dealt with Finnish media and the 1995 Sibelius Violin Competition. The focus of this book was the construction of identities in terms of gender, nationality, ethnicity and race.

In my recently published book Vallatonta musiikkia. Lastenmusiikkikulttuuri 2000-luvun Suomessa [Childish music? Finnish children’s music culture in Finland] I focus on the construction of children’s gendered subjectivities, their opportunities and constraints vis-à-vis music. Methodologically, my study is based on fieldwork (interviews and observation), and my aim was to provide a versatile picture of children’s everyday musical lives. Within this context, "children’s music" refers to children’s musical experiences in its entirety in their everyday life, including the consumption of musical commodities intended for children.

In 2002-2004 I was, together with Helmi Järviluoma and Jouni Piekkari, leader of the participatory music research project Becoming Audible! The participants of the project consisted of asylym seekers, staff of university musicology departments, students of musicology and Finns. The project activated asylum seekers to develop new skills and maintain their functionality during the asylum process. The evaluation report of the project can be read here.

In 1998-2011, I lead a research project The Construction of Gender in Children’s Cultures , which is funded by the Academy of Finland. It is a multidisciplinary women’s studies project in folkloristics, literary criticism and musicology investigating the gender cultures of Chlildren of various ages.

Contact: taru.leppanen@utu.fi

List of publications (pdf file)