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.
- Book review: Roberto Rusconi: Immagini dei predicatori e della predicazione in Italia alla
fine del Medioevo (Spoleto: Fondazione centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo 2016). ISBN: 978-88-6809-110-1. (2017)- Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - From a Hiding Place to the Eternal Glory. Thomas Aquinas's Saintly Presence in Dominican Liturgy (2017)
- Quaestiones Medii Aevi Novae
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - Modus vivendi: maallikkojen uskonnollisen elämän reformi 1350-1430 (2017)
- Suomen kirkkohistoriallisen seuran vuosikirja
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Skisman pyörteissä (2017)
- Hiiskuttua: Turun yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan verkkolehti
(D1 Article in a professional journal) - Thomas Aquinas's Relics as Focus for Conflict and Cult in the Late Middle Ages. The Restless Corpse (2017) Räsänen Marika
(C1 Refereed scientific book) - Felix Thomas, lumen mundi. Medieval chants for the feast of Thomas Aquinas (2016) Vox Silentii (Hilkka-Liisa Vuori, Johanna Korhonen), Marie-Augustin Laurent-Huyghues-Beaufond, Seppo Heikkinen, Marika Räsänen
(F2 Public partial implementation of an artistic work) - Introduction (2016) Relics, Identity, and Memory in Medieval Europe Marika Räsänen
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Kotien hurskauselämää ja harhaoppeja (2016) Pohjoinen reformaatio Toropainen Veli Pekka, Räsänen Marika
(B2 Non-refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Oma keho oppimisen välineenä. Keskiaikainen liturgia menee luihin ja kasiluokkalaisen ‘keho tärisee hassusti’ (2016)
- Historiallinen Aikakauskirja
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - Pohjoinen reformaatio (2016) Meri Heinonen, Marika Räsänen
(C2 Editorial work for a scientific compilation book) - Pyhän tuntu - aine ja aistimellisuus myöhäiskeskiajan Euroopassa (2016)
- Historiallinen Aikakauskirja
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Reformeista reformaatioon (2016) Pohjoinen reformaatio Meri Heinonen, Anu Lahtinen, Marika Räsänen
(B2 Non-refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Relics, Identity, and Memory in Medieval Europe (2016) Marika Räsänen, Gritje Hartmann, Jeffrey Richards
(C2 Editorial work for a scientific compilation book) - St Thomas Aquinas’ relics and lay devotion in the fourteenth century southern Italy (2016) Poverty and Devotion in Mendicant Cultures 1200–1450 Marika Räsänen
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - The Memory of St. Thomas Aquinas in Orvieto in the late Middle Ages (2016) Relics, Identity and Memory in Medieval Europe Räsänen Marika
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Kauppiaan pojasta kauppiaiden pyhimykseksi. Fransciscus Assisilaisen kultti Raumalla ja Turun hiippakunnassa myöhäiskeskiajalla (2015) Risti ja lounatuuli. Rauman seurakunnanhistoria keskiajalta vuoteen 1640 Marika Räsänen
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Maallikoiden ääni ja kirkkotila myöhäiskeskiajalla (2015) Hiljaisuuden kulttuurihistoria Marika Räsänen, Reima Välimäki
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Jacques Le Goff, In Search of Sacred Time (2014)
- Mirator
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - The Restless corpse. – Thomas Aquinas’ Remains as a Centre of Conflict and Cult in Late Medieval Southern Italy. (2014)
- Ennen ja Nyt : Historian Tietosanomat
(B1 Non-refereed article in a scientific journal) - Making a Saint for the Monastery of Fossanova. The Dispute on the Ownership of the Corpse of Saint Thomas Aquinas at the Time of His Canonisation (1323) (2013) Changing Minds. Communication and Influence in the High and Later Middle Ages Marika Räsänen
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book)