Reetta Eiranen

Research

I work as a researcher at the history department at Tampere University and as part of the Researc Council of Finland Centre of Excellence in the Humanities focusing on Nationalism Research (NARS). My postdoctoral research has focused on the intersections of nationalism, ideologies, personal relationships, and gender. In addition, language—its experiential and political dimensions—as well as civic society and academic associations form part of my research interests. I am especially interested in various informal groupings and networks underlying political and ideological activity, for example within civil society and kinship circles. My publications and teaching have also largely addressed theoretical and methodological questions in historical research. Methodologically, I have specialized in narrative and hermeneutic approaches. I am a member of the steering group of Narrare, the interdisciplinary research centre for narrative studies, and a member of the editorial advisory board of niin & näin. Academic editorial work and the popularization of research are important to me, and I have previously served, among other roles, on the editorial board of Historiallinen Aikakauskirja and have been involved in founding publications aimed at making research more accessible.

Previously, I have worked at the Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences, most recently as a Senior Research Fellow in 2024–2025 and earlier as a Postdoctoral Researcher. From 2022 to 2024, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study. Prior to that, I spent a year as a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Research Center for the History of Emotions in Berlin. In the autumn, I will start working as a Research Fellow at the Finnish Literature Society, as part of NARS.

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.