Raisa Toivo

I am a historian of the early modern society (ca. 1500-1800), working especially on sources from Finland and Sweden but always in a European context. I work on the history of the experiences of and in religion, religious tolerance, co-existence and persecution and inter-generational family violence, and in general on the current and future trends of early modern history. 

Currently I lead the theme on the history of lived religion and experience in the Research Council of Finland Center of Excellence for the History of Experience (HEX) and on the project "How did seventeenth-century Finland manage to avoid witch hunts?" , also funded by the Research Council of Finland.  

Research Council of Finland, Jalmari Finne Foundation, Kone Foundation

Recent(ish) Articles:

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Steilneset minnested mellom trolldomsprosesser, historisk erfaring og erfaringen av historie. in Reidun Laura Andreassen & Liv Helene WIllumsen (eds.) Steilneset minnested of kvinnedrap. Orkana 2024 p. 267-281.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Väärin koettu, eli kaukaisten vuosisatojen varoituksia kokemuksen historiasta . Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae 2/2023, p. 70-87. Open access https://doi.org/10.57048/aasf.141970 

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Noitaoikeudenkäynnit Turun hovioikeuden tuomiorullissa1660-luvulla – hillitsevä hovioikeus ja sen poikkeustapauksia. [Witchcraft trials in the Turku court of appeal – Restraining control and its exemptions] In: Mia Korpiola (ed.) Turun hovioikeus 1620–1900 – ihmisiä, verkostoja ja oikeuskäytäntöä modernin kynnyksellä. Historical society in Turku, 2023, pp. 188-222.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Authority and Agency. In Underwood, Lucy (ed.) The Cultural History of Youth in the Renaissance. Bloomsbury Academic 2023.147-166, 214 – 252.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Kilpailu pyhän tilan kokemuksesta uuden ajan alun Suomessa. In Viitaniemi, Ella (ed.) Kirkko, papisto ja yhteiskunta 1600-1800 . Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 2023, p. 182-210. Open Access.

Toivo, Raisa Maria & Willumsen, Liv Helene: A narratological approach to witchcraft trial records: Creating experience. SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY. 47, 1 2022. Open Access

Eiranen, R., Hatavara, M., Kivimäki, V., Mäkelä, M. & Toivo, R., : Narrative and Experience: Interdisciplinary methodologies between history and narratology: SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY. 47, 1. 2022 . Open Access

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Introduction: Religion as Historical Experience. In Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo Raisa Maria: Histories of Experience in the world of Lived Religion. Palgrave MacMillan 2022. Open access.  

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Prayer and the Body in early modern Finland. In Katajala-Peltomaa & Toivo: Histories of Experience in the world of Lived Religion. Palgrave Macmillan 2022. (Open access)

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Katariina Jagiellon (1526-1583) A Queen Negotiating the Reformation in the North. In Stjerna, K. (ed): Women Reformers of Early Modern Europe: Profiles, Texts, and Contexts. Fortress press 2022, 341-348.

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Three Levels of Experience . in The digital Handbook of the History of Experience . 19.10. 2022. Three Levels of Experience | Digital Handbook of the History of Experience | Tampere Universities (tuni.fi)  

Kivimäki, Ville & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Kokemuksen historia. In Danielsbacka, M., Hannikainen, M. O. & Tepora, T. (eds.): Avaimia menneisyyteen: Opas historiantutkimuksen menetelmiin. Helsinki: Gaudeamus 2022, p. 59-76

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Kapitalismista kokemukseen eli uskon(non) merkitys yhteiskuntahistoriassa. In Toivo, Raisa Maria & Miettinen, Riikka (eds) Varhaismodernin yhteiskunnan historia. Lähestymistapoja yksilöihin ja rakenteisiin. Helsinki: Gaudeamus 2021.

Toivo, Raisa Maria & Miettinen, Riikka: Johdanto: Varhaismoderni lomittunut yhteiskunta. In Toivo, Raisa Maria & Miettinen, Riikka (eds) Varhaismodernin yhteiskunnan historia. Lähestymistapoja yksilöihin ja rakenteisiin. Helsinki: Gaudeamus 2021.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Reformaatio. In: Ilkka Huhta & Juha Meriläinen (eds.): Käsitteet Suomen kirkkohistoriassa. Helsinki: Suomen kirkkohistoriallinen seura 2021. pp. 15-31.

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari., Matikainen, Olli. & Toivo, Raisa Maria. Vallan ja toimijuuden institutionalisoituminen. In: Karonen, Petri., Villstrand, Nils-Erik & Haapala, Pertti: (eds.) Suomalaisen yhteiskunnan historia 1400-2000: Osa 1: Rakenteet ja instituutiot. Tampere: Vastapaino 2021, p. 31-69

Lamberg, Marko., Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari. & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Tila ja tilalliset identiteetit keskiajan ja varhaismodernin ajan Suomessa. In: Markkola, Pirjo, Niemi, marjaana /Haapala, Pertti (eds.): Suomalaisen yhteiskunnan historia: Osa 2: Yhteisöt ja identiteetit. Tampere: Vastapaino 2021, p. 25-63

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari., Toivo, Raisa Maria., Kuha, Mia., Villstrand, Nils-Erik. & Markkola, Pirjo, Uskonto erontekona keskiajalta 2000-luvulle. In: Markkola, Pirjo, Niemi, Marjaana & Haapala, Pertti (eds.): Suomalaisen yhteiskunnan historia: Osa 2: Yhteisöt ja identiteetit. Tampere. Vastapaino 2021, p. 205-238

Toivo, Raisa Maria: The witch who moved to the wilderness: Religious control, distance, and family survival in Finland, 1670–1707. In Heather Dalton, (ed.) Keeping Family in an Age of Long Distance Trade, Imperial Expansion, and Exile, 1550-1850. Amsterdam University Press 2020.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: What did a witch-hunter in Finland know about demonology? in Julian Goodare, Rita Voltmer and Liv Helene Willumsen (eds) Demonology and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe. Routledge 2020, 282-301.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Witchcraft and Gender. In: Dillinger, Johannes (ed.) The Routledge History of Witchcraft. Routledge 2019, 219-232.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: When Parenting Fails: Religious Upbringing, Discipline and Public Disapproval in Early Modern Finland. In: Ulla Aatsinki, Johanna Annola and Mervi Kaarninen (eds.) Families, Values and the Transfer of Knowledge in northern Societies, 1500-2000. Routledge 2019.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Gender Performance in Early modern Religious Life. In: Elise Dermineur, Åsa Karlsson Sjögren and Virginia Langum (eds) Revisiting Gender in European History, 1400-1800. Routledge 2018.

Monographs:

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Lived Religion and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Routledge 2021. WITH OPEN ACCESS INTRODUCTION, co-authored Monograph

Muravyeva, Marianna G., Shon, Phillip S. & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Parricide and Violence against Parents. A Cross-Cultural View across Past and Present. Routledge 2021. (co-authored monograph)

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Faith and Magic in Early Modern Finland. Palgrave Macmillan 2016.

Toivo, Raisa Maria: Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Finland: Finland and the Wider European Experience . Ashgate 2008.

Edited collections:

Muravyeva, Marianna & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Parricide and Violence against Parents Throughout History. Deconstructing Family and Authority . Palgrave Macmillan 2018.

Kallestrup Nyholm, Louise & Toivo Raisa Maria: Contesting Orthodoxy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe . Palgrave 2017. 

Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Lived Religion and the long Reformation in northern Europe c. 1300-1700 . Brill 2017. 

Tiina Miettinen & Raisa Maria Toivo: mitä väliä on historialla? TUP 2016. Open access 

Journal Special Issues

Scandinavian Journal of history Special Issue: Narrative and Experience: Interdisciplinary methodologies between history and narratology 47 (1) 2022 Guest editors Eiranen, R., Hatavara, M., Kivimäki, V., Mäkelä, M. & Toivo, R. (open access)

Scandinavian Journal of History Special Issue: Gender, Material Culture and Emotions in Scandinavian History . 41 (3)2016 guest editors Jacqueline van Gent and Raisa Maria Toivo 

Journal of Family History Special Issue: ‘‘Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother’’: A History of Violence against Parent s 41 (3) 2016. Guest Editors Marianna Muravyeva and Raisa Maria Toivo