Studia Generalia: Indigenous perspectives to sustainability sciences

The Sustainability Transformation Doctoral Education Pilot (SusTra) offers open Studia Generalia lectures in autumn 2025. The best experts in the field offer the lecture series, tackling the pressing sustainability challenges we face. These 14 online lectures will provide impactful insights into creating a sustainable life and society across various domains, including work, business, leadership, administration, legislation, social imagination, well-being, and education.
These Studia Generalia lectures are based on an open Sopuli PhD course organised by SusTra Doctoral Education Pilot, a collaboration of 10 universities and Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, www.uef.fi/sustra

• Osallistu luennolle tästä: https://uef.zoom.us/j/64857640310

Mon 10.11. Reetta Toivanen, University of Helsinki: Indigenous perspectives to sustainability sciences

• Theme of the lecture: This lecture critiques mainstream sustainability science for rendering Indigenous peoples largely invisible and examines how that omission distorts both diagnosis and remedy of socio-ecological crises. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems and governance practices, I outline alternative sustainability frameworks that center relational ethics, intergenerational responsibility, and plural sovereignties.
• Reetta Toivanen is a legal anthropologist and Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Helsinki, where her work bridges Indigenous rights, minority legal orders, and human-rights-based sustainability. She is an expert member at the Finnish Sustainability Panel and an independent expert on the Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).

Further information

Responsible course leader: Professor Arto O. Salonen, UEF 

Course coordination: Research manager Meri Löyttyniemi, UEF