Research group

Project leader:

Docent Teemu Immonen
teemu.immonen@utu.fi

The project leader of Puhetta metsistä is docent Teemu Immonen (Cultural history, University of Turku). In his research he has focused on e.g. Medieval history, cult of saints, religious orders, medieval reformist movements, and history of art and memory. In this project his focus lies on the monastery of Montecassino, and especially on the concepts of desert and forest and their relationship in literature regarding saints.

Researchers:

Dr. Anni Hella
avehel@utu.fi

Anni Hella is a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Turku. Her dissertation (2023) focused on the Council of Ferrara–Florence (1438–1439), and especially on discussions about manuscripts, their differences, and their authority. She has worked on projects relating e.g. to the Papal Shcism and pilgrimage. In Puhetta metsistä she focuses on the monastery of Grottaferrata, and on how the monastery’s literary work and culture relates to clearing of forests.

University Instructor, Dr. Outi Kaltio
outi.kaltio@helsinki.fi

Outi Kaltio is a University Instructor in the Latin language in the department of theology in the University of Helsinki. In her dissertation (2023) she studied Constantine of Africa’s Pantegni, Theorica, a medieval Latin medicinal textbook. Her interests in research include Latin philology, textual history, and transformation of texts and their different versions, especially in the Middle Ages.  In Puhetta metsistä her focal point of study are the texts and poems of Alphanus of Salerno (d. 1085), one of the most important erudites of the 11th century, who was also influential in Montecassino.

MA Jutta Laitila
jelait@utu.fi

Jutta Laitila is a M.A. from the department of Cultural History, University of Turku. In her Master’s thesis (2024) she studied the ascetic texts of St. Jerome, focusing on the themes of spatial and sensory rhetoric. She is a project researcher in a project of the Director of the Finnish Institute in Rome, which studies the roman relationship with nature, focusing on the urban environment of Pompeii. In Puhetta metsistä she works as a project researcher, aiding in both operational and research work.

Professor Edward Schoolman
neschoolman@unr.edu

Ned Schoolman, Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno, is a historian of the medieval world with a focus on the Mediterranean from the sixth to the 11th century. He is a key collaborator in this project; his current research examines the history of past landscapes and land use in Italy using historical, archaeological, and natural science methodologies in collaborative frameworks. The pollen analyses from these project, such as the relationship between cultivated plants and different types of tree cover, offer opportunities for comparative analysis with literary and other material sources. This significantly enhances the Puhetta metsistä project, which primarily focuses on literary sources.