Ulla-Maija Peltonen

Special areas:

• historical folk narrative
• oral history research methodology
• the relationship between the private and public narrative on wars
• theory and methods in archive research

As Archives Director, Ulla-Maija Peltonen is responsible for managing the Literary Archives and developing its activities. Her duties include joint projects with memory organisations and research institutes.

Peltonen is currently researching the construction, establishment and changes in heroism in the research project of the Academy of Finland that she is heading called Invented Heroes: Oral and literary representations of the past. Peltonen chairs the Finnish Oral History Network (FOHN), is a member of the management team of the Nordic Historiebruk network, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Archive Service.

Peltonen’s academic background is in the research of oral and literary narration of the 1918 civil war. She is an adjunct professor in folklore studies at the Institute for Cultural Research of the University of Helsinki. In her research, Peltonen has compared private and public, oral, literary and visual materials held in various archives. Her doctoral thesis (1996) dealt with the taking shape of oral history by the working class after 1918. She has subsequently researched recollections and oblivion connected to the civil war, the private and public narrations of the experiences of prison camps and methodological questions on oral history.

Key publications:

• Muistin paikat. Vuoden 1918 sisällissodan muistamisesta ja unohtamisesta. (Summary: Sites of memory. On Remembering and Forgetting the Civil War.) SKST 894. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 2003. 330 s.
• Punakapinan muistot. Tutkimus työväen muistelukerronnan muotoutumisesta vuoden 1918 jälkeen. (Summary: Memories of the Civil War. A Study of the Formation of the Finnish working-class narrative tradition after 1918.) Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran Toimituksia 657. Helsinki. (Väitöskirja) 1996. 443 s.
• The Return of the Narrator. – Anne Ollila (ed.), Historical Perspectives on Memory. Studia Historica 61. Suomen Historiallinen Seura. Helsinki 1999, pp. 115–137.
• Muistitietotutkimus. Metodologisia kysymyksiä. (Oral History Research. Methodological Issues). Toim. Outi Fingerroos, Riina Haanpää, Anne Heimo, Ulla-Maija Peltonen. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Tietolipas 214. Helsinki 2006. 302 s.
• Memories and Silences. On the Narrative of an Ingrian Gulag Survivor. – Nanci Adler, Selma Leydesdorff, Mary Chamberlain, Leyla Neyzi (eds): Memory and Narrating Mass Violence. Narrating Life Stories in the Aftermath of Atrocity. Transaction Publishers. (USA November 30, 2008).

Curriculum Vitae

Publications