Johanna Niemi (Niemi-Kiesiläinen) joined the faculty in Turku 2014 as professor of procedural law. She was  Minna Canth Academy Professor 2015-2019. Johanna Niemi holds LLM, Lis.L and JD all from University of Helsinki and trained on the bench in Rovaniemi district court in 1984. She has worked at University of Helsinki 1985-2004 and as vice dean responsible for teaching (2010-2013). Between 2004 and 2010 she worked as professor of law at the Umeå University, and at National Research Institute for Legal Policy. In 1997–1998 she was Fulbright scholar at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Niemi has held several expert functions in the academic community. She was member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (2013-2018) and member of the Finnish Academy Committee on Cultural and Social Sciences (2016-2018). She has evaluated research at the universities of Uppsala and Örebro. She is  consulted as an expert in the Committees of the Parliament and by the Ministries. Niemi has been honored as the teacher of the year by students’ organization Pykälä in 2000. She has been the supervisor of 12 doctoral theses. Johanna thinks that the most interesting challenge to legal thinking comes from the feminist legal studies that have a close connection to gender studies. She thinks that all lawyers should be familiar with the main ideas about the importance of gender in our thinking and society, including the legal sphere.