Constructing the Nation and National Scholarship

The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) launches a new research project exploring the intertwined history of SKS and the humanities disciplines that have shaped understandings of Finnish society, culture, and nationality.

The Finnish Literature Society will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2031. Since its founding, SKS has sought to advance and promote research and public understanding of Finnish culture and cultural heritage. In the 19th century, SKS played a central role in establishing research on Finnish folklore, literature, language, and history. The scholars associated with the Society have since influenced the development of these disciplines as university subjects in Finland.

These so-called national fields of scholarship have long participated in defining and interpreting Finnish identity – in other words, what “Finnishness” has meant at different times. At certain points, research has reflected a strongly nationalist view of the nation; at others, attention has turned to transnational connections and the plurality of Finnish identities. In many ways, Finland as an imagined community can be seen as largely a creation of the humanities.

As part of its preparations for the bicentennial year, SKS will launch a four-year research project examining the intertwined history of these national fields of scholarship and the Society itself. The project investigates the role SKS has played in shaping the Finnish nation and in promoting the humanities in Finland. Its aim is to explore what kinds of “national knowledge” humanists have produced, what research objectives have guided them at different times, and what controversies, blind spots, and shadows have characterized these fields. The project will critically analyse the very concept of national scholarship and examine what the national character of research has meant in different historical contexts.

The project will begin in autumn 2026 and will be led by Dr. Hanna Karhu, a literary scholar, who also serves as the project’s principal investigator. In addition to conducting research, the project will organise and expand collections related to the history of these humanities disciplines in the SKS Archives. The project will culminate in a comprehensive scholarly volume, written by multiple authors, examining the shared history of SKS and the humanities across disciplinary boundaries. The book will be published in time for the bicentennial year 2031.