Profile of Taru Haapala

About

I am a Steering Committee Member of ECPR Standing Group on Political Concepts since 10 April 2015. I hold the position of Tomás y Valiente postdoctoral researcher (tenure-track) at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), affiliation with the Madrid Institute for Advanced Study (MIAS). My current research project The political knowledge of parliaments: Science, political debates and democracy (2021-2024) asks the question: What does it mean for parliamentary democracies to rely on scientific expertise? The project examines how scientific knowledge has been conceptualised and presented in current liberal politics of the EU. It aims to provide a more politically-aware definition of the knowledge forged in the pressures of public debates, and offers suggestions for procedural reforms. I hold a PhD (2012) and the Title of Docent (2018) in Political Science from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Previously, I have been a Marie Curie fellow within the InterTalentum MSCA-COFUND programme at UAM. My research interests range from political theory, history of political ideas, conceptual analysis to theorising European politics. I have held visiting fellowships at the Center for European Studies (Harvard University), the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, the Queen Mary Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought (University of London) and a visiting professorship in the Erasmus+ Joint Masters Programme in Parliamentary Procedures and Legislative Drafting (EUPADRA) at the LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome as well as the Erasmus+ teaching staff exchange at UAM and at SNSPA, Bucharest. I have also experience in management of EU-funded projects as Working Group Leader of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action RECAST and Executive Committee member of Jean Monnet Network OpenEUdebate. I'm the Editor-in-Chief of peer-reviewed open access book series Pro et Contra. Books from the Finnish Political Science Association.