Marika Räsänen
PhD
marras@utu.fi +358 29 450 2232 +358 50 566 9298 Arcanuminkuja 1 Turku Office: 306 Vastaanotto torstaisin klo 10-11 |
Relics, hagiography, material culture, church history, religious orders, liturgy, Great Western Schism, religious reforms, lived religion, late Middle Ages and the sixteenth century, Italian history and culture
I defended my doctoral thesis in the Department of Cultural History at the University of Turku in 2013. The thesis focused on the desires and demands addressed to Thomas Aquinas’s relics in southern Italy in the Late Middle Ages. I collected source material for the thesis when I worked at the Finnish Institute in Rome for four years as an assistente scientifico(2005–2009). After returning to Finland, I first worked as a researcher at the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies for several years, and then in the project Modus vivendi. Religious reform and laity in late medieval Europefunded by the Academy of Finland before and after my defence (PI Marjo Kaartinen). In recent years, I have had great opportunities to work abroad: short periods at the Department of Medieval History in the University of Wuppertal (Germany) in 2014 and at the Monash University in Melbourne as a visiting fellow of the ARC Centre of Excellencefor the History of Emotions (Europe 1100–1800). In the beginning of the year 2016, I moved with my family to Poitiers, France, where I conducted my research at the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale (CESCM) until summer 2017. I was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher of the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (University of Turku) in 2017, and the same year, I was conferred the title of docent. As a part of my Academy Research Fellowship, I have been a visiting researcher at L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (AHLoMA/EHESS) in Paris from 2023. Since 2021, I have been a chair of the steering group of the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (TUCEMEMS).
My research interests include cults of relics, the Great Western Schism, Dominican liturgy, hagiography, and the devotional life of laity in the Late Middle Ages and in the beginning of the Early Modern Period. My recent projects include: multidisciplinary and artistic project Touching, Tasting, Hearing, Seeing and Smelling: Sensory Experiences in the Feasts of St Thomas Aquinas (funded by the KONE Foundation in 2015-2018; we organized experimental chanting workshops and concerts, as well as published research monograph, The Medieval Offices of Saint Thomas Aquinas), project of editing medieval texts concerning the translation of Thomas Aquinas's relics in Toulouse (funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, 2019-2024) and Dominicans in the Great Western Schism (as a part of the project Strategies of survival: The papal curia and ecclesiastical institutions of Rome in the Great Western Schism, led by Kirsi Salonen and funded by the Academy of Finland, 2019-2024). Currently, I am working as an Academy Research Fellow (2022-2027). My project, "Rethinking the Late Medieval Relic (c. 1200-1550)," addresses various practices related to relics and relic-like materialities in late medieval Italy and France.
Topics that I am especially glad to give lectures on include the devotional life of laity in the Late Middle Ages, topography of the city of Rome (from the period of Etruscan kings to Risorgimento), and material culture (especially considering relics). In the spring of 2023, I was appointed as a senior lecturer with a teaching focus on medieval and early modern history.
- Signs of Shared and Personal Experience in Dominican Breviaries (2025)
- Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - ’Aristoteles-lukupiiri: mitä on hyvä elämä? (2024)
- Historia nyt - Turun Historiallisen Yhdistyksen jäsenlehti
(D1 Article in a professional journal) - Myöhäiskeskiajan reliikit ja reliikkimäisyys: uudenlainen tapa tarkastella pyhäinjäänteitä (2024)
- Katsomukset.fi
(D1 Professional blog post) - Pictorial representations of Thomas Aquinas’s dead body and its relocations in late medieval Italy (2024) Du saint dominicain au docteur commun: Thomas d’Aquin et ses représentations (XIVe–XX siècle), Räsänen, Marika
(B2 Non-refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Rezension von: Edina Bozoky: L'imaginaire de la sainteté. De la fabrique des reliques à la fabrique des légendes. 2021. ISBN: 978-2-204-14726-2 (2023)
- Sehepunkte
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - Taivaallista armoa ja helvetin tulta/Den himmelska nåden och helvetets eldar (2023) Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari; Räsänen, Marika; Lahti, Sofia; Hägglund, Anna-Stina
(Other publication) - Tieto, taito, into ja yhteisö: Yliopisto-opettajien näkemykset historian asiantuntijuudesta ja sen kehittymisen tukemisesta opintojen alkuvaiheessa (2023)
- Historiallinen Aikakauskirja
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Johdanto: Moninainen kulttuurihistoria (2022) Kulttuurihistorian tutkimus. Lähteistä menetelmiin ja tulkintaan Ahonen Marika, Heikkilä Niko, Mähkä Rami, Ollitervo Sakari, Räsänen Marika
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Kirja-arvio: Pantteria jäljittämässä. Alighieri, Dante: Kansankielestä - De vulgari eloquentia [De vulgari eloquentia]. ISBN 978-952-5710-88-5. 2021 (2022)
- Agricolan kirja-arvostelut
(E1 Popularised article) - Kulttuurihistorian tutkimus : lähteistä menetelmiin ja tulkintaan (2022) Mähkä Rami, Ahonen Marika, Heikkilä Niko, Ollitervo Sakari, Räsänen Marika
(C1 Refereed scientific book) - Lauluhagiografia keskiajan liturgian tutkimisen välineenä (2022) Kulttuurihistorian tutkimus. Lähteistä menetelmiin ja tulkintaan Vuori Hilkka-Liisa, Räsänen Marika
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Material Religion, Volume 18, Issue 5 (2022) (2022)
- Material Religion
(C2 Editorial work for a scientific compilation book) - Nainen keskielämässä (2022) Keski-ikä. Kulttuurihistoria. Räsänen Marika
(B2 Non-refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Splendor and Scarcity of Religious Matter: Medieval Cathedral Treasuries of the North (2022)
- Material Religion
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Verta vuotava kuva ja muita outoja ihmeitä : eletty usko myöhäiskeskiajan Euroopassa (2022) Katajala-Peltomaa Sari, Kuuliala Jenni, Räsänen Marika
(C1 Refereed scientific book) - Yhteiskirjoittaminen: spontaania ilottelua rakkaan asian äärellä (2022)
- Hiiskuttua: Turun yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan verkkolehti
(D1 Article in a professional journal) - Jarl Gallén keskiajan tutkijana (2021)
- Mirator
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Kirjoittamista yhdessä mutta etänä (2021)
- Hiiskuttua: Turun yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan verkkolehti
(D1 Article in a professional journal) - Kulttuurihistorioitsija Liisa Lagerstamia tapaamassa (2021)
- Kulttuurihistoria nyt!
(E1 Popularised article) - Levd religion i det medeltida Finland (2021)
- Historisk Tidskrift För Finland
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal )