Laura Oulanne holds the title of Docent in Comparative Literature, especially English Literature. She specializesin Anglophone literatures of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her research interests include materiality and the environment, feminist perspectives, narrative studies, and affective and cognitive approaches to fiction. Her postdoctoral research projects explore the intersections of mind and the environment in modernist fiction, and modern and contemporary literature as a space for reimagining experiences of comfort and domesticity in environmental crises. Oulanne has published widely on her research topics, including peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters as well as publications intended for the general public. Her monograph Materiality in Modernist Short Fiction: Lived Things was published in 2021. She is the co-editor of the special issue on “Homecoming” for Avain 1/2024 and co-editor of Avain during they years 2025–2026.

Oulanne conducted her doctoral studies in a binational programme, with a degree from the Universities of Helsinki and Giessen. After completing her PhD in 2018, Oulanne spent two years as a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University, department of Political Science. After returning to Finland, she has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Comparative Literature at the University of Helsinki where she has also provided teaching based on her research.