Virpi Timonen
Professor Trinity College Dublin
Having left Finnish Lapland (Rovaniemi) at the age of 16, I completed my schooling at the United World College of the Atlantic (Atlantic College for short) in Wales, and went on to study at the University of Heidelberg; Durham University (BA, St. Mary's College) and Oxford University (MPhil and DPhil, Magdalen College). My doctoral thesis and early publications analysed welfare state restructuring in the Nordic context, ensuing from the 1990s recessions in Finland and Sweden. I started lecturing in social policy in Trinity in 2003 and founded the Social Policy and Ageing Research programme in 2005. My current research focuses on intergenerational solidarity, experiences of and roles in old age, and policy pertaining to older adults, but I also have an interest in the entire life course, especially in the context of intergenerational family relations. Examples of latter include my research on grandparenthood (in particular, in the context of nuclear family breakdown); on the never-married older adults; and on how parents socialise their children in matters pertaining to sexuality and relatioships. These elements of my research agenda complement each other as some are micro-, others macro-focused. This sensitivity to individual and family level experiences in the context of social policies and welfare state structures invests my work with the ability to illuminate the inter-relationship of policy structures and individual agency in ageing societies. I also have extensive experience of working in inter-disciplinary contexts, most recently with health sciences researchers in a project trained at mapping out optimal care for people with motor neurone disease. I have published 60+ peer-reviewed articles in ISI-ranked international journals and chapters in books by major academic publishers. The leading journals I have published in include Social Science & Medicine, Ageing & Society, Family Relations, Qualitative Health Research, Journal of Aging Studies, Social Politics, Research on Aging, Health and Social Care in the Community, the Journal of Family Issues, the Journal of Social Policy, Qualitative Research and the European Journal of Ageing, among other important journals; I have authored or co-authored five books including a major introductory textbook titled Ageing Societies: A Comparative Introduction (Open University Press, 2008); and co-edited (with Prof. Sara Arber) the first book on grandparenting in global contexts (Policy Press, 2012). I have collaborated in the Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA), with a focus on the social engagement, contributions and care of older adults. I have undertaken policy-relevant research for several government bodies, been a visiting researcher at the University of Turku, Finland and at the Australian National University, and participate actively in international scholarly organisations, in particular the International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committee 11 (Sociology of Ageing). I was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (FTCD) in May 2009 in recognition of achievements in research. In 2012, following peer-review, I was granted the title of Adjunct Professor, Social and Public Policy, at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In addition to supervising PhD students at Trinity (eight successful completions to date), I am a member of PhD supervision panels at the University of Jyväskylä, and the University of British Columbia (Canada).
