Saana Jukola is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy I, Ruhr University Bochum, under the DFG-Emmy Noether Research Group "The Return of the Organism in the Biosciences: Theoretica, Historical, and Social Dimensions". Her research interests include philosophy of science, philosophy of medicine and social epistemology. In particular, she focuses on how epistemic and non-epistemic (e.g., social and institutional) factors intertwine in the production of knowledge in health sciences. As a member of ROTO, Saana studies Personalized Nutrition and its socio-political implications. She is interested in how research in Personalized Nutrition is or can be used for informing policy-making and practice. In her previous projects, she has analyzed, for example, the institutional conditions for securing objectivity in medicine and the standards of evidence in nutrition research. She is also interested in examining how racial biases influence health care. Saana is a fellow of the the Young ZiF.

Academic Positions

• 2022-present: Postdoctoral researcher, DFG research group "The Return of the Organism in the Biosciences: Theoretical, Historical and Social Dimensions", Department of Philosophy I, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
• 2016: Senior research associate, Department of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
• 2020-2021: Postdoctoral researcher, DFG research project "Critique of evidence-based medicine and the diversification of medical evidence practices", Institute for Medical Humanities, University of Bonn, Germany
• 2020: Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Philosophy, Bielefeld University, Germany
• 2019-2020: Part-time acting professor ("Vertretung") for theoretical philosophy and philosophy of social sciences, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
• 2016-2020: Postdoctoral researcher, DFG Research Training Group 2073 "Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research". Bielefeld University, Germany
• 2012-2017: Member of the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (TINT)
• 2015: Postdoctoral research fellow, Department of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
• 2010-2015: Doctoral student, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Education

• 2010-2015: PhD, Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• 2007-2009: M.A. Philosophy, Minor: science and technology studies, University of Jyväskylä
• 2003-2007:  B.A. Philosophy, Minors: sociology, gender studies, University of Jyväskylä

Publications

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Jukola, S. & Canali, S. 2021. On evidence fiascos and judgments in COVID -19 policy. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 43, 61, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40656-021-00410-w
• Jukola, S. 2021. Commercial interests, agenda setting, and the epistemic trustworthiness of nutrition science. Synthese, 198(10), 2629-2646.
• Bueter, A. & Jukola, S. 2020. Sex, drugs, and how to deal with criticism. The case of flibanserin. In Osimani, B. & La Caze, A. (eds.). Uncertainty in Pharmacology. Epistemology, Methods, and Decisions. Springer. pp. 451-470.
• Jukola, S. 2019. Casuistic reasoning, standards of evidence, and expertise on elite athletes' nutrition. Philosophies, 4(2), 19; Link
• Jukola, S. 2019. On the Evidentiary Standards of Nutrition Advice. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biology and Biomedical Sciences; Link
• Jukola, S. 2017. On ideals of objectivity, judgment, and bias in medical research - A comment on Stegenga. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biology and Biomedical Sciences 62: 35-41.
• Jukola, S. 2017. A social epistemological inquiry into biases in journal peer review. Perspectives on Science. 25(1): 124-148.
• Stegenga, J., Kennedy, A., Tekin, S., Jukola, S. & Bluhm, R. 2017: New directions in philosophy of medicine. In Marcum, J. (ed.) The Bloomsbury Companion to Contemporary Philosophy of Medicine. pp. 343-367.
• Jukola, S. 2016. The Commercialization of Research and the Quest for the Objectivity of Science. Foundations of Science 21(1): 80-103.
• Jukola, S. 2015. Meta-analysis, Ideals of Objectivity, and the Reliability of Medical Knowledge. Science and Technology Studies 28(3): 101-120.
• Jukola, S. 2015. Longino's Theory of Objectivity and Commercialized Research. In Wagenknecht, S., Nersessian, N. & Andersen, H. (eds.): Empirical Philosophy of Science. Introducing Qualitative Methods into Philosophy of Science. pp. 127-143.

Edited Special Issue

• Jukola, S. & Bueter, A. 2021. Philosophy of medicine. The European Journal of Analytic Philosophy.

Selected Invited Talks

• 2021: Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung. Colloquium, Wuppertal, Germany, "Underdetermination and Determining the Cause of Death. The Case of Excited Delirium Syndrome"
• 2020: International Postdoc Forum for Philosophy of Science, Minnesota, USA [online]. "Evidence-based paradigm and the challenge of assessing the effectiveness of preventive surgery"
• 2018: (6) Workshop on Medical Nihilism, Bordeaux, France, "Sex, drugs, and how to deal with criticism. The Case of flibanserin"

Other Selected Talks

• 2021: 8th Biennal EPSA Conference, Turin, Italy [online], "Covid-19 policies, evidence, and objectivity"
• 2021: The Philosophy and Methods of Medicine Conference, Munic, Germany [online], "Bodies of Evidence - Determination of the Cause of Death and the Problem of Underdetermination"
• 2019: The British Society for the Philosophy of Science Conference, Durham, United Kingdom, "Political bias in nutrition guidelines - the case of sustainability"
• 2019: Workshop Epistemic Trust in the Epistemology of Expert Testimony, Erlangen, Germany, "Casuistic Reasoning, standards of evidence, and expertise on elite athletes' nutrition"
• 2018: Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice Seventh Biennial Conference, Ghent, Belgium, "On the conditions for the trustworthiness of nutrition guidelines"
• 2017: Issues in Medical Epistemology, Colongne, Germany, "on the objectivity of dietary advice"
• 2017: 6th Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Exeter, United Kingdom, "On contested science and the ideals of good evidence. The case of nutrition research"
• 2016: Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice Sixth Biennial Conference, Glassboro, USA, "Risk, Judgments, and Objectivity in MEdical Research - Evaluating the Strengths and Weaknesses of Meta-analysis"
• 2015: Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice Fifth Biennial Conference, Aarhus, Denmark, "Meta-analysis and the ideals of objectivity"
• 2014: European Network for the Philosophy of the Social Sciences 2014, Madrid, Spain, "Peer Review as a Social Mechanism for Securing Objectivity"
• 2013: 4th Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Helsinki, Finland "Do Longino's Criteria Deliver What They Promise - A Case in Biomedical Research"
• 2013: Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice Fourth Biennal Conference, Toronto, Canada, "Longino's criteria for objective communities and pharmaceutical research - The case of SSRIs"
• 2012: Empirical Philosophy of Science Workshop, Sandjberg, Denmark, "Reviewing Longino's criteria for objective communities"
• 2011: 3rd Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Athens, Greece "Defending a Social View on Objectivity"

Workshop Organization

• "Medizinethik und Rassismus in Deutschland - Eine Leerstelle? Einladung zu Thematisierung und (Selbst-)Reflexion" [Medical ethics and racism in Germany -  a blindspot? Invitation to thematisation and (self-)reflexion"]. AEM Jahrestagung 2021. Together with Sylvia Agbih, Nurcan Akbulut, Ortrun Kliche, David Lambert, Judith Wenner.
• "Race and Racism in German Healthcare - How to Talk about It." Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Fall 2020. Together with Sylvia Agbih, Nurcan Akbulut, Ortrun Kliche, Judith Wenner.
• "Contentious Science and Public Policy." DFG Research Training Group 2073 "Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research". Fall 2019. Together with Rui Francisco de Souza Só Maia.
• "Philosophy of medicine meets social epistomology workshop." DFG Research Training Group 2073. "Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research". Summer 2018. Together with Anke Bueter, Daria Jadreskic, Julia Pfeiff.
• "Progress in Science and Society. Workship with Philip Kitcher." DFG Research Training Group 2073 "Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research." Summer 2017. Together with Markus Dressel, Roel Visser.