About me
I am Professor of Comparative Literature at the Tampere University. My research interests include interdisciplinary literary studies (literature combined with philosophy, medicine and religion), the history and theory of satire, Latin and Neo-Latin literature, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Latin dissertations, classical traditions, and the history of rhetoric and translations. My previous research projects, funded by the Academy of Finland and the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, have focused, among other issues, on epistemic vices in the early modern universities (The Vices of Learning, 2014) and medical satires (Medical Analogy in Latin Satire, 2009). My recent monograph expands upon my previous work on Neo-Latin dissertations and satires (Lucubrationes Neolatinae, 2018) and examines such issues as sympathy, jesting, birds and plagiarism in Neo-Latin works. I am currently writing a monograph on Neo-Latin verse satire.
Recently, I have also been working on suffering and antitheodicy in literature; as a result, I have published several articles and two books: a Finnish monograph on suffering and pain in literature (Jobista Orwelliin. Kärsimys kirjallisuudessa, 2020) and Kantian Antitheodicy: Philosophical and Literary Varieties (written together with S. Pihlström, 2016) that combines philosophical and literary readings of anti-theodicy. I have previously written about satirical therapy and medical issues in neo-Latin literature, and I will continue to work on medical poems and diseases in literature.
I have recently published articles, for example, on the contemporary uses of Latin, learned artisans and merchants in the early modern period, Job's sincerity, and the metaphors of knowledge in collected volumes and journals including Religions, Metaphilosophy, and Philosophy and Literature. I have co-edited and co-authored over a dozen of books, e.g., on ancient literatures and cultures (Kirjallisuus antiikin maailmassa, 2007; Kulttuuri antiikin maailmassa, 2009; Mitä jokaisen tulee tietää antiikista: Kreikka & Rooma, 2013), satire (Satiiri, 2007, 2.ed. 2010; Satiiri Suomessa, 2012), scandals (Skandaali!, 2011), the history of ornithology in Finland (Suomen lintutieteen synty: Turun Akatemian aika, 2009), literature and economy (Kirjallisuus ja talous, 2011; Talous ja moraali, 2016), mimesis (Rethinking Mimesis, 2012), and death (Kuoleman kulttuurit Suomessa, 2014; Death in Literature, 2014). In 2018, I published (with S. Pihlström) a book on the defense of academic life, Sivistyksen puolustus – Miksi akateemista elämää tarvitaan? (Gaudeamus). I have also led a small research project (with P. Mehtonen, funded by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, 2016-2018) that examined dissident literatures, illegal manuscripts, and learned artisans in history.
I am a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Academia Scientiarum Fennica) and of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (Societas Scientiarum Fennica). I am also Docent of Comparative Literature at the University of Helsinki, and a former Deputy Director (2010-15) and Director (2015-16) of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki.
