I have defended doctorial thesis in November 2018. Topic of my doctoral dissertation was youth band hobbies in Turku, Finland. The main research material includes a  fieldwork diary of participating observation, carried out in Turku Bandstand band competitions and Turku Band-stand Junior -reviews in the years 2011–2014, and the interviews of eighteen young band members.  Thee research has been carried out using ethnographic methods, and the main analytical tool is close reading.

In my dissertation I studied the construction of gender, the ways in which gender is a part of social action in the  field, and how it a effects choosing instruments and musical genres, as well as on-stage performances.  The main research results include homosociality, social construction of space, and genderdivided choices and opportunities in the  field of music hobbies. Gender is a significant factor in the process of choosing between hobbies and between contents of hobbies. For boys, their closeknit, homosocial stage of development helps them to enter the sphere of band hobbies, as does the fact that almost the entire  field of popular music works based on the standards of rock music.  These standards form a surface which is easier for boys to relate to. Girls, women, and others will adjust to these masculine standards, for example by trying to avoid highlighting their own gender in any way. One typical strategy for women is also to acquire strong institutional musical training, and, in a wider sense, to take over other masculine  fields of life as well.

Keywords: Gender, gender studies, everyday life, band hobbies, youth studies

After the dissertation I have been working as a freelancer, producing exhibiotion content for Finnish Music Hall of FAME. At the moment I am writing a book about Finnish women in the field of Popular Music. Working title of the book is "From Laila to Alma. Finnish Popular Music Field from 1950 to 2020 From Women`s Perspective". In the future I will study women`s careers in Finnish music industry  funded by Emil Aaltonen.