Ville Vuolanto

As a family historian and ancient historian, specialized in Late Antiquity and Early Christianity, I am especially interested in the history of childhood, in the history of experience and of the continuity strategies for immortality, as well as in more theoretical aspects in studying and writing history. Presently I study children's socialization, agency and spheres of interaction in Roman Egypt in a research project with Dr. April Pudsey (Manchester Metropolitan University), based on a systematic survey of all material pertaining to the city and nome of Oxyrhynchos, and social history of hope, with Dr. Oana Cojocaru (Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia). As an academic teacher, I have supervised some 110 BA theses, 12 MA theses, and 2 PhD theses. Currently most of my teaching is directed to Latin language and Social history of the Roman world. 

• Social and cultural history of the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity (esp. families, children, and slavery)
• History of Children and Childhood
• Children and family in Early Christianity and in Roman Egypt
• Grandparents and grandparenthood in the Roman world
• History of emotions in Ancient World (esp. hope).
• History of the idea of 'Lapland' (1840-1960)
  
   

• Finnish Historical Society, chair 2024-2025 (member of the board since 2020) 
• Finnish Network for Ancient Studies, chair 2023-2024
• Board of Education, Tampere University (ordinary member, 2019-2021)
• Working group for University values (ordinary member, 2019) 

‘Searching for Hope in Roman Antiquity: Changing Patterns of Discourses and Agency’, in Pursuing Hope in the Premodern World, ed. V. Vuolanto & O. Cojocaru. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan 2025.

Antiikki ja me. Miksi antiikintutkimusta tarvitaan. [Antiquity and Us. Why Classics Matter] Toim. yhdessä M. Ahosen ja M. Perälän kanssa. Helsinki: Gaudeamus 2024. 

A Cultural History of Youth in Antiquity, ed. with Christian Laes. London: Bloomsbury 2023.

'Enslaved Children in Roman Egypt: Experiences from the Papyri', with A. Pudsey, in C. De Wet, M. Kahlos & V. Vuolanto (eds.), Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150 - 700 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2022, 210-223 p.

Varhaiskristilliset lapsuusevankeliumit (Antti Marjasen ja Ulla Tervahaudan kanssa) [Early Christian Infancy Gospels]. Suomen eksegeettinen seura 2020

’Single life in Late Antiquity? Virgins between the Earthly and the Heavenly Family’, in S. Huebner and C. Laes (eds), Singles and Single Life in Antiquity. Cambridge University Press 2019, 276-291. 

‘Grandmothers in Roman Egypt’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 57 (2017), 372–402. 

‘Experience, Agency, and the Children in the Past: the Case of Roman Childhood’, in C. Laes and V. Vuolanto (eds), Children and Everyday Life in the Roman and Late Antique World. Ashgate 2016, 11–24. 

Children and Asceticism in Late Antiquity. Continuity, Family Dynamics and the Rise of Christianity. Ashgate 2015. 

Lapsuus ja arki antiikissa ja keskiajalla (with Sari Katajala-Peltomaa). Gaudeamus 2013 [A 300 pages monograph on children's everyday life in ancient and medieval world]. 

'Tutkimusprosessi, metodit ja historiantutkimuksen ominaislaatu [Research process, methods, and the characteristics of the historical research]'. Historiallinen Aikakauskirja [Finnish Historical Journal] 105 (3), 304-16. 

'Selling a Freeborn Child: Rhetoric and Social Realities in the Late Roman World'. Ancient Society 33 (2003), 169-207. 

In total 143 publications linked with research, of which  86 refereed. For a full list, see here.