My main research interest concern medieval papacy and ecclesiastical history but also sins, crimes, law and everyday life. Therefore, I have spent over a decade in the Vatican Secret Archives. I have published various books and articles for example about the "papal tribunal of conscience" (the Apostolic Penitentiary) and the highest ecclesiastical tribunal, the Sacra Romana Rota. In addition to institutional history, the papal source material has offered interesting glimpses of everyday life such as the story of the broken thumb of the provost of Turku, Paulus Scheel, or of the illegitimate children of Turku canons. At the moment I am leading a 4-year research project financed by the Academy of Finland, "Strategies of survival: The papal curia and ecclesiastical institutions of
Rome in the Great Western Schism (1378-1417)” (2019-2023).

In addition to the Middle Ages, I have also been studying the inter-war period, more precisely, the papal diplomacy during the pontificates of Benedict XV and Pius IX. My main figure here has been Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII), who was papal nuncius in Germany in 1917-29. This interest was part of a research project financed by the Academy of Finland, Religion, Politics, and Nationalism(external): The Vatican's Foreign Policy and Nationalistic Tensions in Inter-War Europe (2010-2013).