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Zsuzsanna Millei

Professor, Early Childhood Education
Tampere University
zsuzsa.millei [at] tuni.fi (zsuzsa[dot]millei[at]tuni[dot]fi)
phone number+358401904031

About me

I am interested in child politics in its broadest sense. I view early childhood education as a biopolitical, intergenerational, national and global space, childhood as a political form of being, and children as political actors with rights. Researching from these perspectives the institutional practices in early childhood settings allows to view children as both societal actors and biological organisms. The biosocial view applied offers insights into how societal structures, discourses and ecologies condition children's everyday experiences and their becoming as child, and how we can add to social theorizing with children in mind.

I employ comparisons of different places and times to help highlight the taken for granted ways everyday nationhood, Cold War divides, ideologies and knowledge production operates. More recently in an experimental group ‘Microbial Childhoods Collaborative’, we think together with multidisciplinary scholars about children and childhood as part of biospheric communities. I am also passionate about creating kind and caring academic cultures both in our current projects and through TRANSIT Research Centre where I am the Chair of the Steering Group.

Responsibilities

I am the co-leader of the Early Childhood Education Institutions, Policies and Practices (ECEPP) research group.

I lead the Microbial Childhood: Restor(y)ing Daycare Ecologies project funded by Nessling Foundation (202400154) (EUR 99,783)

I was also leading the Microbial Childhood Collaboratory network funded by Nordforsk (2022-2023) (345269) (EUR 43,000) 

I co-led the De-colonial and De-Cold War Dialogues on Childhood and Schooling project. It subproject titled Re-Connect / Re-Collect: Crossing the Divides through Memories of Cold War Childhoods received funding from KONE Foundation (201804719) (EUR 319,000)

Latest publications