Heli Rantala
PhD, Docent
hemara@utu.fi Arcanuminkuja 1 Turku |
history; cultural history; nineteenth-century studies; Romantic era; history of concepts; intellectual history; press history; text reuse; travel writing; diaries; literary history; academic communities and university history; mobility studies (mobility of people and ideas)
I work as a researcher in the Department of Cultural History specializing in nineteenth-century cultural and intellectual history, press history and the history of learned communities. I have published also on the history of travel writing and on book history, among other topics.
I conducted my MA and PhD studies at the University of Turku, where I studied History, Philosophy and some Political Science as well. I gained my doctoral degree in 2013 in Cultural History at the University of Turku. In my doctoral dissertation, I studied the conceptual dimension of the Finnish nineteenth-century cultural discourse by investigating the entangled meanings of culture, Bildung and civilisation in the writings of Johan Vilhelm Snellman (1806–1881), a Swedish-speaking philosopher, journalist and academic.
During my academic career, I have had an opportunity to work in the field of doctoral training as a co-ordinator of several doctoral programmes. In addition to my academic work, I am active in some scholarly societies. I am especially interested in the fields of science communication, non-fiction writing and the dialogue between arts and sciences.
Currently (2024-) I'm occupied with my own project that explores the history of Finnish academic communities from the perspective of failures, death and oblivion. In 2020-2024 I have been leading the project Mobility of Words and Places of Knowledge: Learned Communities in Early Nineteenth-Century Finland (Kone Foundation).
I have had an opportunity to work in several research projects led by Professor Hannu Salmi, first in Travelling Notions of Culture: Itineraries of Bildung and Civilisation in Early Nineteenth-Century Europe and later in Computational History and the Transformation of Public Discourse in Finland, 1640–1910, and in Viral Culture in Early Nineteenth-Century Europe. In these projects, I have studied the spatial dimension of civilisation (for example in Nordic travelogues), text re-use in Finnish newspapers and the viral nature of revolution in early nineteenth-century Europe.
During 2020-2023, I have been active in the research project Information Flows across the Baltic Sea: Swedish-language press as a cultural mediator, 1771-1918 led by Prof. Salmi. In 2023-2024 I have also worked in the research project Fauna et Flora Fennica led by Otto Latva.
I have worked as a teacher and a supervisor in the interdisciplinary study programme Baltic Sea Region Studies (UTU) for several years. In this programme, I have taught courses on the themes of identity, nationalism, transnationalism and cultural transfer. I have also been involved in various teaching activities at my home department including a MA level seminar in cultural history.
- Tietokannoista tulkintoihin: digitaalisen historiantutkimuksen käytäntöjä (2019)
- Ennen ja Nyt : Historian Tietosanomat
- Återanvändningen av text i den finska tidningspressen 1771–1853 (2018)
- Historisk Tidskrift För Finland
- "Porthanin lehti" ja otteita sen myöhemmästä elämästä (2018)
- Auraica: Scripta A Societate Porthan Edita
- Applying BLAST to Text Reuse Detection in Finnish Newspapers and Journals, 1771–1910 (2017) Proceedings of the NoDaLiDa 2017 Workshop on Processing Historical Language Aleksi Vesanto, Asko Nivala, Heli Rantala, Tapio Salakoski, Hannu Salmi, Filip Ginter
- Kohtauksia turkulaisesta opiskelijaelämästä (2017)
- Turun Historiallinen Arkisto
- Towards the Inner History of the Nation: Defining 'Cultural History' in Nineteenth-Century Finland (2017)
- Cultural History
- Turun monet romantiikat (2017)
- Auraica: Scripta A Societate Porthan Edita
- Vapauden ajattelijoita (2017)
- Kritiikki
- Nordic travellers between the centres and peripheries of civilisation (2016) Travelling notions of culture in early nineteenth-century Europe Heli Rantala
- Turun Historiallinen Arkisto 67 - jäsenlehti (2016) Heli Rantala, Virpi Kivioja, Olli Kleemola
- Gottlundin varhaiset päiväkirjat – Kirja-arvio: Carl Axel Gottlunds dagbok 1808-1817 / [bearbetning: Lars Lundin]. ISBN: 9789163752933. (2015)
- Auraica: Scripta A Societate Porthan Edita
- Kirjat ja oppineiston kirjallinen toiminta 1800-luvun alun Turun akatemiassa (2015) Kirjoista kokoelmaksi. Kansansivistystä ja kansainvälisyyttä Turun kaupunginkirjastossa 1800-1900-luvuilla Heli Rantala
- Suomalaista historianfilosofiaa 1800-luvulla: Snellman ja Topelius (2015) Historianfilosofia : Klassikkoajattelijat antiikista nykypäivään Heli Rantala
- Turun Historiallinen Arkisto 65 – jäsenlehti (2015) Heli Rantala, Harri Kiiskinen
- Turun Historiallinen Arkisto 63 – Jäsenlehti (2014) Heli Rantala, Marjo Kaartinen, Harri Kiiskinen, Mika Suonpää
- Book review: Minna Ahokas, Valistus suomalaisessa kirjakulttuurissa 1700-luvulla (2013)
- Sjuttonhundratal
- Sivistyksestä sivilisaatioon. Kulttuurikäsitys J. V. Snellmanin historiallisessa ajattelussa (2013) Rantala Heli
- Sivistyksestä sivilisaatioon. Kulttuurikäsitys J. V. Snellmanin historiallisessa ajattelussa (2013) Rantala Heli
- Sivistyksestä sivilisaatioon. Kulttuurikäsitys J. V. Snellmanin historiallisessa ajattelussa. Lektio praecursoria 11.5.2013 (2013)
- Ennen ja Nyt : Historian Tietosanomat
- Turun Historiallinen Arkisto 62 – Jäsenlehti (2013)
- Turun Historiallinen Arkisto