Research Team
Arja Turunen
Project Leader, PhD, Title of DocentArja Turunen is an ethnologist specialized in the study of gender, dress, and media history. She gained her PhD in Ethnology at the University of Jyväskylä in 2011 and was awarded the title of Docent in Ethnology at the University of Turku in 2019. In her PhD thesis, she studied how the question of women’s trouser-wearing was discussed in Finnish women’s magazines from 1889 to 1945. After that, she focused on women’s personal experiences and memories of trouser-wearing, using oral history methods and materials. Since 2015, she has studied the history of Finnish second-wave feminist activism by analyzing oral history sources, media materials, and archival material.
Currently, Turunen is University Teacher of Museology at the Open University and the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies of the University of Jyväskylä. She is Project Leader of the Space for Women project.
Anna Niiranen
Postdoctoral Researcher, PhDHistorian Anna Niiranen is Research Fellow at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies of the University of Jyväskylä. In her doctoral thesis (2020), Niiranen explored the cultural history of childbirth in nineteenth-century Britain. Currently, she is conducting postdoctoral research on the cultural history of diplomacy, the role of diplomatic wives, and dress history in the context of the Cold War.
In the Space for Women project, Niiranen works as a postdoctoral researcher.
Heidi Kurvinen
Postdoctoral Researcher, PhD, Title of DocentHeidi Kurvinen is a media and gender historian who has worked at the universities of Oulu, Stockholm, and Turku. In her doctoral thesis (2013), Kurvinen studied the gendered history of professional journalism in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s. Her postdoctoral project built on that by focusing on the influence of feminist ideas on the intra-professional discussions among journalists in Finland and Sweden during the 1970s and 1980s.
In her most recent research project, Kurvinen has analyzed the negotiations of the meanings of feminism in the Finnish mainstream media from the 1960s to the 1990s. Based on this project, Kurvinen is currently finalizing a scientific monograph in English. In her book, she also discusses the role of women’s magazines in this discussion.
Currently, Kurvinen works as a Collegium Fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) at the University of Turku. Her research project is about children in social movements, including the feminist movement.
Henna Tuomiranta
Research Assistant (2023)Henna Tuomiranta is Bachelor of Humanities and Master of Philosophy. Tuomiranta is completing her double master’s studies in the Cultures, Communities and Change degree program at the Department of History and Ethnology of the University of Jyväskylä. Tuomiranta’s double master’s thesis deals with Finnish rural residents’ relationship to water and the cultural environments around bodies of water in the 2020s.
Silja Turunen
Research Assistant (2023)Bachelor of Arts Silja Turunen is a history student at the Department of History and Ethnology of the University of Jyväskylä. In her upcoming master’s thesis (2024), she explores the history of illegal abortions in 1930s Finland.
Advisory Board
Iiris Ruoho
University LecturerIiris Ruoho is Doctor of Social Sciences and Docent of Media Studies. Ruoho has held various positions at Tampere University since 1992, most recently as Head of the Communication Sciences Unit at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences. Ruoho is a pioneer in feminist media studies in Finland. Among other things, Ruoho has studied the gender of journalism and the role of women’s magazines in society.
Niklas Jensen-Eriksen
ProfessorNiklas Jensen-Eriksen is Professor of Business History at the University of Helsinki and a specialist in the business history of media. He previously led a research project focusing on the history Helsingin Sanomat, the largest newspaper in the Nordic countries. Currently, he is the main coordinator of the Yle 100 research program, in which scholars from four Finnish universities study the history of the Finnish broadcasting company Yle.