Work group

I’m a sociologist and comics scholar. In my previous research I have approached Finnish or Finnish-transnational comics culture from several different perspectives. I have, perhaps, gradually moved from a more sociological study of comics as a field of cultural production towards the inclusion of an analysis of comics as text, representation, and form of expression. In the project Diversity in Finnish Comics History: Minorities and Self-representation this dual perspective on comics is central. Before this project I worked in the project The Novel’s Knowledge: The Changing Roles of Book and Author in Society (2022–2024), funded by the Kone Foundation.

My interests include feminist comics, the themes of gender and sexuality, the history of Finnish comics, and the development of tools for textual analysis of comics. In my dissertation (2018), I studied the depictions of embodiment in the comics by Kati Kovács, one of the most well-known feminist comics artist in Finland. Until the summer 2024, I am working in the project Suomen kirjallisuuden historiallinen poetiikka (2022–2025, The historical poetics of Finnish literature), funded by the Kone Foundation, after which I start as a full-time researcher in the project Diversity in Finnish Comics History.

Photo: Jonne Renvall

I am a comics scholar whose research focuses on comics’ societal and political dimensions. In my dissertation, which I defended in October 2023, I explored the connections between migration, human rights, and genres in contemporary German comics. My current research interests include the entanglements of comics, gender, and sexuality, comics artists’ communal activities, and (comics) genre theory.