Reetta Eiranen

Research

I am Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study and at the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences. My project ’ Gender, Experience and Ambivalent Nationalism in Nineteenth-century Finland’ studies networks of societally and nationally active women and men in mid-nineteenth century Finland. It focuses especially on gendered experience of nationalism and its ambivalences. It combines private sources, like letters, with collective organizational documents. Methodologically, I am interested in narrative and hermeneutical approaches. I am a member of the editorial staff in Historiallinen Aikakauskirja (Historical Journal).

After my PhD (2019), I have worked as project researcher, coordinator and post doctoral researcher at the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences and as a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Center for the History of Emotions, in Berlin. In my PhD dissertation, defended at Tampere University, I analyzed how the close relationships and nationalistic cause intertwined in the academic Tengström family in mid-nineteenth century Finland. The most important source material in this group biographical study was the correspondence between the family members. The letters were analysed as relational and experiential narrations from the viewpoints of emotions and gender. The study brings forth the personal emotions and social relations as driving forces of the nationalistic project and, vice versa, the significance of the shared cause in shaping of the selves and mutual relationships for both women and men.

Publications

The Narrative Construction of Experience. Digital Handbook of the History of Experience. Research Council of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences, 2023.

Emotions and Nationalism. In Katie Barclay & Peter Stearns (eds.), The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World. Routledge 2022, 407–422.

Äidittömät, isättömät, sukuun naidut: Tunteissa tehty 1800-luvun perhe. Suomen Historiallinen Seura, blog series. (Title: The motherless, fatherless, married to the family: Nineteenth-century family made in emotions.)

Eiranen, Reetta; Hatavara, Mari; Kivimäki, Ville; Mäkelä, Maria & Toivo, Raisa Maria (eds.). Theme issue 'Narrative and Experience'. Scandinavian Journal of History 47 (1), 2022.  

Eiranen, Reetta; Hatavara, Mari; Kivimäki, Ville; Mäkelä, Maria & Toivo, Raisa Maria. Narrative and experience: interdisciplinary methodologies between history and narratology. Scandinavian Journal of History 47 (1), 2022. 

Personal Nationalism in a Marital Relationship: Emotive and Gendering Construction of National Experience in Romantic Correspondence. In Ville Kivimäki, Sami Suodenjoki & Tanja Vahtikari (eds.), Lived Nation as the History of Experiences and Emotions in Finland, 1800–2000. Palgrave, London 2021, 85–108.  

Sociability and networks: The Saturday Society and the Kruununhaka Circle. In Joep Leerssen (ed.), Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe, 2021.  

Saumattomat tunnesiteet 1800-luvun sivistyneistöperheessä. In Johanna Ilmakunnas & Anu Lahtinen (eds.) Perheen jäljillä. Perhesuhteiden moninaisuus Pohjolassa 1400–2020. Vastapaino, Tampere 2021, 211–239. (Title: Seamless emotional ties in nineteenth-century educated elite family.)

Lähisuhteet ja nationalismi. Aate, tunteet ja sukupuoli Tengströmin perheessä 1800-luvun puolivälissä. Tampere University Dissertations 79, Tampere 2019. (Title: Close Relationships and Nationalism. The Cause, Emotions and Gender in the Tengström Family in Mid-Nineteenth Century Finland.) 

Emotional and Social Ties in the Construction of Nationalism. A Group Biographical Approach to the Tengström Family in nineteenth-century Finland. Studies on National Movements 4, 2019. 

Fennomania. In Joep Leerssen (ed.), Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe. Volume 2. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2018, 878–879.

Kurotus narrativismin jälkeiseen aikaan. niin & näin. Filosofinen aikakauslehti 2/2017, 142–143.

Kirjeet ajan ja paikan tunteikkaina ylittäjinä. niin & näin. Filosofinen aikakauslehti 2/2016, 43–46.

Anna tutkimuksesi lentää vapaana – Open Library of Humanities. niin & näin. Filosofinen aikakauslehti 1/2016, 78–79. 

The Narrative Self: Letters and Experience in Historical Research. In Karin Koehler & Kathryn McDonald-Miranda (eds.) Private and Public Voices: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Letters and Letter Writing. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press 2015, 77–99.

Lähisuhteisiin kietoutunut kansallisuusaate. Alusta! Yhteiskunta- ja kulttuuritieteiden verkkolehti 2015.

Rakastuin väitöskirjaani. Hybris 1/2015. 

Kirjeet kohtauspaikkoina. Ihanne ja eletty todellisuus Jeanette ja J. V. Snellmanin välisessä kirjeenvaihdossa. Sukupuolentutkimus– Genusforskning 2/2014, 5–17.

Kruununhaan piiri: Ryhmäbiografia ja fennomaaninen verkosto. Ennen ja nyt. Historian tietosanomat 2/2014. 

Letters and Experience in Historical Research. In Shuhua Chen & Amanda Kelley (eds.) Approaching Letters and Letter Writing. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press 2014, 87–98.

Suomalaiset kansallista tarinaa kertomassa. Lähde - historiatieteellinen aikakauskirja 2013, 192–199.

Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences (HEX)