Mari Pajala
FT, dosentti
marpaja@utu.fi +358 29 450 2842 +358 50 381 1277 Arcanuminkuja 1 Turku ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2651-7994 |
media studies; television studies; media history; popular media culture; feminist media studies; cultural memory studies
Education:
- PhD, Media Studies, University of Turku, 2006
- MA, Cinema and Television Studies, University of Turku, 1998
I was previously Government of Finland/David and Nancy Speer Visiting Professor in Finnish Studies at the University of Minnesota (2015–2017) and visiting research fellow at Utrecht University (2009–2010).
My research focuses on television history and contemporary popular media culture, with special interest in questions of nationality, memory, gender and sexuality, affect and entertainment. I have published extensively on the Eurovision Song Contest as a media event and my recent work has focused on Cold War era media and Finnish "culture television" of the 1970s and 1980s. Recent books include The Era of Culture Television: Another History of Finnish Television, 1970s to 1980s (in Finnish, co-authored with Anu Koivunen, Laura Saarenmaa and Janne Zareff, SKS 2024) and Remapping Cold War Media: Institutions, Infrastructures, Exchanges (co-edited with Alice Lovejoy, Indiana University Press 2022).
I am on the editorial board of Lähikuva and View: Journal of European Television History and Culture and Communication, Culture & Critique.
I teach courses such as Media History and Archives, Theoretical Traditions in Media Studies, MA Thesis Seminar as well as other courses in Media Studies.
- ‘Long live the friendship between the Soviet Union and Finland!’ Irony, nostalgia, and melodrama in Finnish historical television drama and documentary series (2017)
- European Journal of Cultural Studies
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Affective capitalism (2016) Tero Karppi, Lotta Kähkönen, Mari Pajala, Mona Mannevuo, Tanja Sihvonen
(C2 Editorial work for a scientific compilation book) - Affective capitalism: Investments and investigations (2016)
- Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - East and West on the Finnish Screen: Early Transnational Television in Finland (2014)
- View : Journal of European Television History and Culture
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Kolmoskanava - aidosti kaupallista televisiota – Arvio teoksesta Heikki Hellman (2012) Koko illan ilo? Kolmoskanava ja television kaupallistuminen Suomessa (2014)
- Lähikuva
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - Puistojen ja pisuaarien Helsinki (2014)
- SQS : Suomen Queer-tutkimuksen seuran lehti
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - Europe, with Feeling: The Eurovision Song Contest as Entertainment (2013) Performing the 'New' Europe: Identities, Feelings, and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest Pajala Mari
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Intervision song contests and Finnish television between East and West (2013) Airy Curtains in the European Ether: Broadcasting and the Cold War Pajala Mari
(B2 Non-refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Kulttuurisia käänteitä: Luokan kuvaaminen ja arvottaminen Helsingin Sanomien "Luokkakuvia" -sarjassa. (2013)
- Media ja viestintä
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Mapping Europe: Images of Europe in the Eurovision Song Contest (2012)
- View : Journal of European Television History and Culture
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



