Minja Koskela | |
---|---|
Member of the Parliament of Finland | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office 5 April 2023 | |
Constituency | Helsinki |
Personal details | |
Born | 1987 (age 36–37) |
Political party | Left Alliance |
Residence | Herttoniemi |
Alma mater | Sibelius Academy University of Tampere |
Occupation | Musician, author, politician |
Website | minjakoskela |
Minja Koskela (born 1987) is a Finnish musician, author, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature. A member of the Left Alliance, she has represented Helsinki since April 2023.[1]
Koskela was born in 1987.[1] Her father was a policeman and her mother a dental hygienist.[2] She has three younger sisters.[2] Aged three, she joined the Päijät-Häme conservatory's play school in her home town of Lahti.[2] In the second year of high school she moved to Helsinki to study at Sibelius High School.[2] After high school she founded the Mitäs työt collective.[2] Koskela studied music at the Sibelius Academy and gender studies at the University of Tampere.[2] She has master's degree in social sciences and a doctorate in music.[1][3]
Koskela was a music teacher for fiver years before taking a leave of absence to write her dissertation, Democracy Through Pop? Thinking with Intersectionality in Popular Music Education in Finnish Schools (2022).[3][4] Koskela started writing her social-feminist blog Bluestocking in 2015 and is the author of Ennen kaikkea feministi (2019) and Äidiksi tuleminen (2021).[2][4][5]
Koskela was asked by several parties to contest parliamentary elections but declined in order to finish her book.[5][4] She was political secretary to the Feminist Party group on the City Council of Helsinki.[2] She was a political expert for the Left Alliance before becoming executive director of the Association of Finnish Music Education Schools in 2021.[5][6] She was elected to the City Council of Helsinki at the 2021 Finnish municipal elections.[3][5][7]
Koskela is married to film director Oskari Sipola.[2] She gave birth to a daughter, Else, in 2020 after earlier suffering a miscarriage.[2][5] The family live in the Herttoniemi suburb of Helsinki.[2] She is a member of the Team Play band.[2][8]
Election | Constituency | Party | Votes | Result | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021 municipal[9] | Helsinki | Left Alliance | 5,612 | Elected | |
2023 parliamentary[10] | Helsinki | Left Alliance | 10,112 | Elected |