Reetta Eiranen

Research

I am a historian whose work focuses on the intersections of nationalism, experiences, close relationships, and gender. I lead my own Academy Research Fellow project, ”Contested compliance – Finnish personal nationalism towards the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century (CoPe)”, at the Finnish Literature Society (SKS). The project is part of the Research Council of Finland's Centre of Excellence in Nationalism Research in the Humanities (NARS). CoPe examines the formation of compliance as a political attitude in the relations between the Grand Duchy of Finland and the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century from the perspectives of the history of experiences, networks, and gender.

I am interested in various informal groups and networks behind political and ideological activity, for example, within family circles and civil society. Methodologically, I am versed in narrative and hermeneutic approaches. My latest publications address the methodology of the history of experience, emotional relationships in the nineteenth-century Finnish–Swedish language question, and personal nationalism. In my doctoral dissertation (2019), I examined the intertwining of the national cause and close relationships in the Tengström family circle ini the nineteenth century from a group biographical perspective. Since then, I have worked at the Research Council of Finland's Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences, at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study, and as a visiting researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. I am a member of the steering committee of Narrare: Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies, the National Committee for Historical Sciences, and the editorial board of the journal niin & näin. Academic editing and the popularization of science are important to me, and I have previously served on the editorial board of the Historiallinen Aikakauskirja (Finnish Historical Journal) and been involved in founding publications that popularize science.

Publications

Tunnesuhteet ja sukutraditio suomen- ja ruotsinmielisessä kansallisessa kiinnittymisessä. Johanna Schybergson aatteiden välissä. niin & näin 32 (1), 2025, 35–43. (Title: Emotional relationships and family tradition in Finnish- and Swedish-minded national attachment. Johanna Schybergson between ideologies.)

Eiranen, Reetta & Ovaska, Anna (eds) Special Issue ‘Kollektiiviset kokemukset ja tunteet’. niin & näin 32 (1), 2025. (Theme: Collective experiences and emotions.)

Eiranen, Reetta & Ovaska, Anna. Kollektiiviset kokemukset ja tunteet. niin & näin 32 (1), 2025, 21–23. (Introduction to the special issue, Collective experiences and emotions.)

Gendered Personal Nationalism: National Cause as a Resource of Self-Construction in Finnish Nineteenth-century Letters. Nations and Nationalism 31 (1), 2025, 245–261. (Published online in June 2024.)

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. PunaMusta, 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.