Rate My Professor Hanna Wass

Hanna Wass is an Associate Professor in Political Science and Senior University Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences. She holds the title of Docent in Faculty Common Matters and has served as Vice-Dean for societal interaction, equality, and sustainability since 2022. Wass is an internationally recognized expert in democracy, representation, and political behavior. Her research explores voter turnout, political participation, the effects of age, generation, health, and socioeconomic factors on voting, as well as generational political engagement and partisan influences. She leads work packages in projects funded by the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and the European Commission, including as principal investigator of the NATOpoll project on dynamic democratic support for Finnish defense policy and co-principal investigator of the SPACE project on resilient use of space. Wass is a founding member of the Finnish Election Study Consortium, serving as co-principal investigator for its 2015 and 2019 modules. She supervises doctoral students in the Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences and the Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal and Regional Change, and is a member of the Helsinki Inequality Initiative.

Wass has published extensively in leading journals such as Political Research Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Social Forces, Party Politics, Political Psychology, and the European Journal of Political Research. Key publications include 'The relationship between age and turnout: A roller-coaster ride' (2012), 'Political socialization and voting: The parent–child link in turnout' (2016), 'Healthy voting: The effect of self-reported health on turnout in 30 countries' (2013), 'The effects of age, generation and period on turnout in Finland 1975–2003' (2007), and 'Citizens in the turmoil of world politics: Finns’ foreign and security policy expectations two years after joining NATO' (2025). She received the Vuoden yhteiskuntatieteilijä award on 17 November 2023 and the Yliopistoviestinnän tunnustuspalkinto on 11 January 2024 for her active scholarly communication and public engagement. Wass has given invited talks and participated in panel discussions on democracy, foreign policy, and university equality.