Dr Kati Mikkola

Kati Mikkola. Kuva: Gary Wornell

 

Researcher
 

E-Mail: etunimi.sukunimi[at]finlit.fi
Phone: +358 (0)40 534 6761

Research interests:

  • nationalism and patriotism from the perspective of the elite and the people
  • minorities in Finnish folklore
  • secularization and religious change
  • folklore collectors
  • opposition to innovations in 19th-century Finland

Kati Mikkola works as a researcher on the Kone Foundation-funded project Cultural Heritage of Differences: Archives Making Cultural Inclusions and Exclusions led by Associate Professor Pia Olsson of the University of Helsinki. The project operates in collaboration with the Finnish Literature Society. Mikkola’s ongoing research deals with the roles of ethnic and linguistic minorities in Finnish folklore.

In her earlier research studies, Mikkola examined Finnish nation-building projects from the perspective of both commoners and the elite. She studied, among other things, early, self-taught folklore collectors who sent materials to the Finnish Literature Society in the late 19th and early 20th century. Mikkola’s thesis on comparative religion dealt with resistance to innovations in Finland in the late 19th and early 20th century. The subject of her master's thesis was Topelius’s book Our Land, in which Mikkola also discussed in a number of subsequent publications.

From 2005 to 2008 Mikkola attended the Research School of Cultural Interpretations, funded by the Ministry of Education. In addition, she worked as a researcher on three multidisciplinary projects at the University of Helsinki, funded by the Academy of Finland:  Modernization and popular experience in Finland 1860-1960 (2002-2004), The Common People, Writing and Processes of Literary Attainment in Nineteenth-Century Finland (2009-2011), and Exploring Social Boundaries from Below: Class, Ideology and Writing Practices in Nineteenth-Century Finland (2012-2015). The latter two were a collaboration with the Finnish Literature Society.

Mikkola worked as a teacher of religion, ethics, philosophy, and psychology (2001-2006) and has created a number of textbooks and teaching materials. She continues to work in many roles linked with religious education. In addition, Mikkola actively participates in the multidisciplinary research network The Processes and Practices of Literacy in Nineteenth-Century Finland as well as in international collaboration in the field of self-taught writers.

Selected publications:

  • Poliittisen marginaalin ääni vaalikeväältä 1907 – Teosofisen työmies Itkosen muistiinpanot ja julkisuusstrategia (with Mikko Pollari). – Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 4/2016. / A Voice from the Political Marginalia – The Notes and the Publication Strategy of Itkonen, A Theosopher and a Working Man. In Finnish Historical Journal 4/2016.
  • Inclusion and Exclusion of Roma in the Category of Finnish Folklore – The Collections of the Finnish Literature Society from the 1800s to the 2000s (with Risto Blomster). – Journal of Finnish Studies 18(1), 2014. p. 11–45.
  • Self-Taught Collectors of Folklore and their Challenge to Archival Authority – White Field, Black Seeds. Nordic Literacy Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century (eds. Anna Kuismin & M. J. Driscoll). Helsinki: SKS 2013. Studia Fennica Litteraria. p. 146––157.

Curriculum vitae (in Finnish)