Dr. INKA RANTAKALLIO

Inka Rantakallio (PhD) is a music researcher at the University of Helsinki. She specializes in popular music and rap, and her research interests include gender, feminism, race, and worldviews. In her recent Research Council of Finland postdoctoral project (2021–24), she focused on the multimodal construction of hip hop feminism, gender, race, and whiteness among women and non-binary rappers in Finland.Rantakallio received her doctorate in Musicology from the University of Turku in 2019. In her dissertation New Spirituality, Atheism, and Authenticity in Finnish Underground Rap (2019), she analyzed Finnish underground rappers' perceptions of authenticity, new spirituality, and atheism. She has co-edited the anthologies Hiphop Suomessa: Puheenvuoroja tutkijoilta ja tekijöiltä (Hip-hop in Finland: Researchers’ and practitioners’ perspectives, 2019), Kuka kuuluu? Kirjoituksia hiphopista ja feminismistä (Who belongs? Writings on hip-hop and feminism, 2021), and Musiikki ja merkityksenanto: Juhlakirja Susanna Välimäelle (Music and meaning making: A book in honour of Susanna Välimäki, 2020). She is the editor-in-chief of Musiikki and of Suoni's Toiminta Soi online publication.

Additionally, Rantakallio has worked as a radio journalist (Bassoradio), podcaster (YleX), music critic (e.g. Rumba) and DJ. As a DJ, she has performed with the feminist rap duo SOFA and is part of the FWU collective. Rantakallio has served in an expert role in several Finnish media and panel discussions about (in)equality in the music industry. She also discussed hip hop and feminism in her TEDx speech in 2018.