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Professor Varto received his doctorate in theoretical philosophy in 1989 from the University of Tampere. He was appointed Professor of Research in Visual Arts and Education at the University of Arts and Design Helsinki in 1999. Since 1973 he has worked as a teacher and researcher in the University of Tampere, several polytechnics and Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

Professor Varto has published prolifically and written diversely and open-mindedly especially on phenomenology, research methodology for human sciences, aesthetics, pedagogy, and the philosophy of the body and sensuousness. Many of his books have also been published internationally as translations. He has written and edited several general text books on subjects in his research fields. He has appeared frequently in media, and produced over 100 programmes on philosophical questions known foreign universities several times and he was awarded an honorary doctorate for theatre and drama by the Theatre Academy Helsinki in 2009.

Professor Juha Varto has been a key actor in developing artistic and other forms of research carried out at art universities, sometimes challenging the traditional scientific research approach. However, he has supervised numerous doctoral students and research projects in both areas. In addition to his international activities, he has excellently shown the importance and possibilities of publishing in Finnish also in modern academia. In the area of pedagogics, Professor Varto has played an essential role as a developer of art pedagogy and a constant questioner of its established ways of thinking at Aalto University, in other universities as well as in the Hollo Institute and international networks in the field of art education.