Hekanaho, Laura (2026). Esimies or esihenkilö? Investigating the use of gender-exclusive and gender-inclusive occupational titles in Finnish. In Pfalzgraf, Falco (ed.). Gender-Inclusive Language: Findings from 14 Languages and Open Research Questions. De Gruyter Mouton. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783111701608/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOor1xm7S926IL7mL_Uc5t17xGTCMKSnhXmMTtGWHAz1K9kLvrJNw
Peterson, Elizabeth, Pyykkö, Katariina, Hall, Marika & Hekanaho, Laura (2025) Englanti ja suomi osallisuuden kielinä: mitä se tarkoittaa eri ihmisille. English and Finnish as languages of participation: what it means for different people. Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta, 16(7). Available from: https://www.kieliverkosto.fi/fi/journals/kieli-koulutus-ja-yhteiskunta-marraskuu-2025/englanti-ja-suomi-osallisuuden-kielina-mita-se-tarkoittaa-eri-ihmisille-english-and-finnish-as-languages-of-participation-what-it-means-for-different-people
Hekanaho, Laura; Hirvonen, Maija & Virtanen, Tuomas. (2024). Language-based machine perception: linguistic perspectives on the compilation of captioning datasets. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, early access https://academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-article/doi/10.1093/llc/fqae029/7697546?utm_source=advanceaccess&utm_campaign=dsh&utm_medium=email
Hekanaho, Laura (2024). The communicative functions of 3rd person singular pronouns: Cisgender and transgender perspectives. Teoksessa: Nevala, Minna & Palander-Collin, Minna (toim.). Self- and other-references in social contexts: From global to local discourses. John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.342.07hek
Hekanaho, Laura; Hiltunen, Turo; Palander-Collin, Minna & Hotti, Helmiina (2024). Exploring self-identification and the functions of the identify as construction in the LGBTQ+ Reddit Corpus. Teoksessa: Laippala, Veronika & Coats, Steven (toim.). March of Data: English Linguistics across Disciplinary Borders. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/linguistics-across-disciplinary-borders-9781350362260/
Biri, Ylva; Hekanaho, Laura & Palander-Collin, Minna (2023). First-person verbal aggression in YouTube comments on sexism. In, Ermida, Isabel (ed.). NetLang: The Language of Cyberbullying: Forms and Mechanisms of Online Prejudice and Discrimination. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hekanaho, Laura (2022). A thematic analysis of attitudes towards nonbinary pronouns. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 11(2), 190–216.
Hoegaerts, Josephine; Peterson, Elizabeth; Liimatainen, Tuire & Hekanaho, Laura (2022) (eds.). Finnishness, Whiteness and Coloniality: An Introduction. In Finnishness, Whiteness and Coloniality, 1–16. Helsinki University Press. Available from: https://hup.fi/site/books/e/10.33134/HUP-17/
Renström, Emma; Lingdqvist, Anna; Akbas, Gulcin; Hekanaho, Laura & Gustafsson Sendén, Marie (2022) Are gender neutral pronouns really neutral? Testing a male bias in the grammatical genderless language Turkish and Finnish.Journal of Language and Social Psychology. Available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0261927X221146229
Hekanaho, Laura (2021). Lectio praecursoria. Generic and Nonbinary Pronouns: Usage, Acceptability and Attitudes. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 121(2), 498–509.
Hekanaho, Laura (2021). Pronominit tasa-arvon asialla. Tempus (2) [Paving the way for equality with pronouns. Tempus is a magazine for language teachers in Finland]. Available from: https://issuu.com/sukol/docs/tempus221/s/11807491
Hekanaho, Laura (2020). Generic and nonbinary pronouns: Usage, acceptability and attitudes. Doctoral dissertation, University of Helsinki. Available from: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/321581
Invited talks
2023, First International Workshop on Gender-Inclusive Translation Technologies, shared keynote with Anna Merikallio, Tampere University. Gender in Finnish: Perspectives from linguistics and translation studies.
2023, International Conference on Gender-Inclusive Language Instruction, University of Southern California. Gender exclusive and inclusive language in Finnish.
2022, Moninaisuuden ääni (seminar about gender diversity), University of Turku, Centre for the Study of Language and Wellbeing. Englannin pronominien merkityksestä: Transsukupuolisten kokemuksia. [The importance of pronouns: Trans experiences]
2021, Gender Fair Language Seminar, University of Stockholm. English pronouns: Opponents and proponents of change.
2021, Feminist organization Zonta I Tampere division. Sukupuolittunut kieli: onko nainenkin puhemies?
2019, University of Greifswald. Is English ready for new pronouns? Nonbinary pronouns: usage, acceptability and attitudes.
Organized events
Chair of the organizing committee for the workshop Kieli, yhteiskunta, sukupuoli ja seksuaalisuus, at the 50th Finnish Conference of Linguistics, University of Jyväskylä.
Member of the organizing committee for the conference Language, Gender and Sexuality: theoretical and methodological perspectives, University of Helsinki, 2023.
Selected conference presentations
2024, 57th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, University of Helsinki. Maija Hirvonen, Emilia Tuuri, Laura Hekanaho and Maija Surakka. Encoding auditory perception in language: New insights from speakers with visual disability.
2024, Lavender Languages, University of Brighton. Laura Hekanaho and Turo Hiltunen. Identity discourse in The Reddit LGBTQ+ Corpus.
2024, Finsse 11, University of Helsinki. Attitudes towards English in Finland.
2024, Language and Gender: Research and Desiderata, Queen Mary University of London. Gender exclusive and inclusive language in Finnish: Explaining use of masculine job titles.
2024, 50th Finnish Conference of Linguistics, University of Jyväskylä. Maija Hirvonen, Riku Haapaniemi, Laura Hekanaho, Maija Surakka and Emilia Tuuri. Poster presentation, Sosiokognitiivisia näkökulmia kieliperustaiseen koneaistimiseen.
2024, 50th Finnish Conference of Linguistics, University of Jyväskylä. Katariina Pyykkö, Laura Hekanaho and Marika Hall. LAIF-hanke esittäytyy.
2023, Gender, Language and Sexuality: theoretical and methodological perspectives, University of Helsinki, with Turo Hiltunen and Minna Palander-Collin. Exploring the identify as Construction in The Reddit LGBTQ+ Corpus.
2023, Challenging the Binary, University College London. Transgender and Cisgender Perspectives on 3rd Person Singular Pronouns in English: Exploring Communicative Functions.
2023, Finnish Conference of Linguistics XLIX, University of Oulu. Sukupuolisyrjivä kielenkäyttö ja kieliasenteet suomen kielessä – alustavia tuloksia.
2023, Finnish Conference of Linguistics XLIX, University of Oulu, with Maija Hirvonen. Miten tekoälyä koulutetaan? Havaintoja kuvaustekstien tuottamisesta.
2022, Attitudes towards gender-inclusive language. A Multinational perspective, Queen Mary University of London/remote. Gender exclusive and inclusive language in Finnish: Usage and attitudes.
2022, Queer Tentacles Seminar, University of Jyväskylä. Sukupuolisyrjivä kielenkäyttö ja kieliasenteet suomen kielessä.
2022, Finnish Conference of Linguistics XLVIII, University ofTurku. Sukupuolisyrjivän kielenkäytön asenneasteikko. [A Likert scale for attitudes towards gender exclusive language in Finnish].
2022, ICAME 43, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Exploring emerging patterns of self-identification in the LGBTQ+ Reddit Corpus. With Turo Hiltunen and Minna Palander-Collin.
2021, Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English, ISLE6, University of Eastern Finland/remote. Ideologically motivated language change: pronoun edition.
2021, 11th Conference of the International Gender and Language Association, Queen Mary University of London/remote. The importance of pronouns: nonbinary perspectives.
2019, Lavender Languages and Linguistics 26, University of Göteborg. The importance of nonbinary pronouns: personal experiences and attitudes.
Laura Hekanaho 