Rauna Kuokkanen is Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Politics at the University of Lapland (Finland) and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is a widely recognized expert on Arctic and Northern societies. Her research focuses on Arctic governance, comparative Indigenous politics and law, Indigenous feminism and gender, and settler colonialism in the Nordic countries. Her Sámi name is Jovnna Jon Anne Kirstte Rávdná or Fierranjot Kirstte Rávdná. She’s from the Deatnu River, Ohcejohka/Utsjoki.

Before her current position, she was Associate Professor of Political Science and Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto (2007-2018).

Rauna is the PI of two major research projects. SápmiDem, “Sámi democratic engagement in the energy transition: advancing justice, legitimacy and participatory governance,” is a Nordic research consortium funded by NordForsk (2024-28). The interdisciplinary, community-driven project investigates Sámi democratic participation as a crucial element for the legitimacy of the current energy transition in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The project addresses a demonstrated democratic deficit in the Nordic countries concerning Sámi participation in resource development projects and legislative efforts. 

She also leads the project “Salmon Governance and Deliberative Democracy in the Changing Arctic” (GovDeatnu), funded by the Research Council of Finland (2026-30). GovDeatnu investigates how to develop a framework for salmon fisheries and environmental governance that ensures greater equity and accountability for those most directly affected—Indigenous peoples. Focusing on the Deatnu (Teno/Tana) watershed in Sápmi, the study situates current challenges within a historical context. For millennia, salmon have sustained Arctic Indigenous communities, including the Deatnu River Sámi, shaping their governance systems, cultural practices, and local economies. Along the Deatnu watershed, Sámi knowledge, rooted in long-term ecological observation and adaptive capacity, offer important insights into salmon fisheries as well as behaviour, migration, and ecosystem dynamics. Yet this knowledge remains largely excluded from official management institutions. The marginalization of Sámi knowledge and skills undermine the responsiveness of governance systems to environmental change and contributes to the decline of salmon populations. The GovDeatnu project asks: how can more sustainable and equitable transboundary governance of Deatnu salmon fisheries be created? It responds to a recognized need for interdisciplinary, community-based research integrating Indigenous knowledge and addressing the governance of the Deatnu watershed.

Rauna is a member of the Standing Committee on Indigenous Involvement at the International Arctic Science Committee. She was a Fulbright Arctic Initiative 3 Fellow from March 2021 to April 2023. The FAI3 Arctic security team produced an Arctic security policy brief, launched in Washington DC in April 2023.

Professor Kuokkanen’s most recent book Restructuring Relations: Indigenous Self-Determination, Governance and Gender by Oxford University Press (2019) has been awarded with three prizes (the International Studies Association’s Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section Best Book Award 2020, the British International Studies Association’s Susan Strange Best Book Prize and the Canadian Political Science Association Prize in Comparative Politics in 2020). It has also been selected as the semi-finalist for the US-based Grawemeyer 2021 Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Drawing on extensive interviews and political theory, the book is  an Indigenous feminist investigation of the concept of Indigenous self-determination, governance and gender regimes in Indigenous political institutions.

Her other books include Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes and the Logic of the Gift (UBC Press, 2007) and Boaris dego eana: Eamiálbmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan (in the Sámi language, translated title: As Old as the Earth. Indigenous Knowledge, Philosophies and Research, 2009).  She was the founding chair of the Sámi Youth Organization in Finland and has served as the Vice-President of the Sámi Council. Professor. She is a co-convenor of GIDA-Sápmi network and was involved drafting the Ethical Guidelines for Research Involving the Sámi in Finland (2024).

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