Riikka Juntunen
 FM/MA


riikka.e.juntunen@utu.fi








Areas of expertise
Cultural study of music; voice studies; musical performance studies; music and corporeality; gender studies; fat studies; disability studies; queer musicology; affect theory; reality TV

Biography

I completed my MA in musicology at the Univeristy of Helsinki in 2020.

At the University of Turku, I am working on my doctoral thesis on formations of fat and disabled corporeality in vocal performance.



Research

In my doctoral research, I study formations of fat and disabled corporeality in singing performance. I am developing an analytical approach that combines concepts of body normativity, affect theory, new materialist thinking an intersectional analysis. My research material consists of video recordings of live musical performances, e.g. concerts, televised singing contests, and musical theatre performances.

My aim is to explore what kinds of affective experiences emerge in marginalised singers' performances and how they are produced. I discuss what kinds of roles and subject positions are available to fat and/or disabled singers. I analyse how processes of corporeal and aesthetic othering and assigning hierarchical value to different bodies are present in the performances. Moreover, I explore how singing performances can disturb such hierarchical thinking and generate alternative registers of corporeal and affective relating. I am especially interested in the significance of the co-formations of physical appearance and the singing voice to the cultural meanings and affective impacts that a peformance carries.



Publications


Last updated on 2025-17-01 at 13:11