Looking back to think forward: Finland, Northern Europe, Eurasia

The recent crises have made people to look at the event of the past, to see how and why societies have reacted rather differently to them. The reasons for present day reactions and solutions are often rooted in the past.

For example, while most European countries have outsourced their security of supply after the cold war era, Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency (NESA) still maintains large permanent reserves of standby emergency supplies. According to NESA, Finland has geographical characteristics that cause difficulties to the organisers of crisis preparedness and necessitates the upholding of permanent reserves.These include cold weather, long distances, remoteness from international centres of trade, and dependence on maritime transport.

This approach has a long history. The roots of Finnish national crisis preparedness can be traced past Finland’s independence, to its joint history with the Russian Empire and the Swedish Realm, and the basics have stayed the same for three hundred years. The security of supply aimed for the benefit of Finnish people has always been a combination of state-controlled reserves and cooperation with the private sector to encourage voluntary storing.

During the early modern centuries, the European states were primarily concerned with procuring and storing supplies for their armies. Furthermore, in most countries, both the maintenance of armies and the attempts to organize emergency supply for civilians were outsourced to merchants and other private entrepreneurs In Europe’s Nordic periphery, where winters were harsh, distances were long, population was scarce, and merchants had small resources, complete outsourcing of military and civilian supply was an impossibility, and government-regulated public granaries were a necessity.

Think Forward studies the ways in which the resilience of the present day society is connected to the past, highlighting the need to understand the processes that have enhanced confidence or that have failed to do so. The history of Northern crisis preparedness and security of supply is a theme with both national importance and connections to current international debates in the field of history, but which we know scarcely little about. We welcome new members and initiatives related to the topic – from the point of view of resilience, preparedness, maintenance, private life, gender, politics, diplomacy, security, &c.

This blog text is based on a project plan written by Juha-Matti Granqvist, Sampsa Hatakka and Anu Lahtinen, as well as on a presentation given by Anu Lahtinen in the online conference Geopolitics of the New Reality: Kazakhstani and Eurasian Experience, organized by The International Information Technologies University (IITU, www.iitu.kz), Department of Media Communications and History of Kazakhstan, on 7 December 2022.

See other Think Forward contributions:
https://tinyurl.com/ThnkFwd

https://blogs.helsinki.fi/historia/tag/think-forward/

https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/projects/looking-back-to-think-forward-long-term-perspective-on-crisis-sig

Looking back to think forward. A project and a research network

Looking Back to Think Forward: Long-term Perspective on Crisis signals and Resilience building (Think Forward) – Menneisyys tulevan tukena: Pitkän aikavälin näkökulma kriisin merkkeihin ja kriisinkestävyyteen

The past is marked by crisis – disruptions of a system, whether political, economic or environmental, challenging the existing equilibrium. Change is triggered by an external shock that is often considered sudden or unexpected, shaking the resilience of the society or a community. Most often, however, there have been at least weak signals that have been left unnoticed.

In the Nordic Countries in general and in Finland especially, crisis preparedness has always been critical. The roots of Finnish national crisis preparedness can be traced past Finland’s independence, to its joint history with the Russian Empire and the Swedish Realm, and the basics have stayed the same for three hundred years. The security of supply, for example, has always been a combination of state-controlled reserves and cooperation with the private sector to encourage voluntary storing.

During the early modern centuries, the European states were primarily concerned with procuring and storing supplies for their armies. Furthermore, in most countries, both the maintenance of armies and the attempts to organize emergency supply for civilians were outsourced to merchants and other private entrepreneurs In Europe’s Nordic periphery, where winters were harsh, distances were long, population was scarce, and merchants had small resources, complete outsourcing of military and civilian supply was an impossibility, and government-regulated public granaries were a necessity.

Think Forward studies the ways in which the resilience of the present day society is connected to the past, highlighting the need to understand the processes that have enhanced confidence or that have failed to do so. The history of Northern crisis preparedness and security of supply is a theme with both national importance and connections to current international debates in the field of history, but which we know scarcely little about. The aim of this project is to offer new, comprehensive, and state-of-the-art research on the subject. We welcome new members and initiatives related to the topic – from the point of view of resilience, preparedness, maintenance, private life, diplomacy, security, &c.

The first plans for the project have been jointly drafted in several application processes in the year 2020-2021. This summary is based on the joint work of Associate Professor Anu Lahtinen, Dr. Juha-Matti Granqvist and Dr. Sampsa Hatakka. For more information, please contact Anu Lahtinen https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/anu-lahtinen

Other Think Forward contributions: https://tinyurl.com/ThnkFwd

See even the book launch of Civilians and Military Supply in Early Modern Finland (eds. Petri Talvitie, Juha-Matti Granqvist), https://blogs.helsinki.fi/historia/2021/11/29/tutkimustiistai-zoom-30-11-klo-15-00-17-00/

Military Maintenance and Archaeology / Arkeologiaa ja sotilashuoltoa (Tuesday Meeting / Tutkimustiistai)

Tutkimustiistai / Tuesday meeting 30 November, 15.00-17.00 (3-5 pm)

ca. 15.00.-15.30 Eljas Oksanen: Mapping citizen science archaeology in Finland / Kartoittamassa arkeologista kansalaistiedettä Suomessa

ca. 15.30-16.30 Book Presentation: Civilians and Military Supply in Early Modern Finland (eds. Petri Talvitie, Juha-Matti Granqvist)  https://hup.fi/site/books/e/10.33134/HUP-10/   This volume examines civil-military interaction in the multinational Swedish Realm in 1550–1800, with a focus on its eastern part, present-day Finland, which was an important supply region and battlefield bordered by Russia. Sweden was one of the frontrunners of the Military Revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Zoom address for the meetings:
Topic: Tutkimustiistai
Join Zoom Meeting
https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/61655480277?pwd=UDVKWS9VamUrb3ZuWW1seDNabEJlZz09
Meeting ID: 616 5548 0277
Passcode: 515868

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”Tutkimustiistait”: joka kuun viimeisenä tiistaina klo 15.00 alkaen järjestetään (etä)tilaisuus, jossa tutkijat voivat lyhyesti esitellä tutkimuksiaan. Esitykset n. 10 min. + 10 min keskustelu, 2-3 esitystä per kerta. Esitykset suomeksi, ruotsiksi ja englanniksi tervetulleita.

Varje månads sista tisdag ordnas ett tisdagsmöte (zoom) kl. 15.00; där forskare kan kort berätta om sin forskning. Föredrag typ 10 min. + 10 min diskussion, 2-3 presentationer per möte. Presentationer på finska, svenska, engelska välkomna.

Every last Tuesday of each month, at 15.00, we are planning to have a meeting with short presentations abut ongoing projects. Presentations ca. 10 min + 10 min discussion, 2-3 presentations per Tuesday. Presentations welcome in Finnish, Swedish, English.

Seminar on the History of Domestic Violence, 1 October 2021!

The 5th Seminar in History of Domestic Violence and Abuse series, organized by Juliana Dresvina & Anu Lahtinen, University of Oxford & University of Helsinki.

October 1, 2021 at 10.00 LONDON TIME [Suomen aikaa klo 12!]

Elena Chepel, ‘How to complain about violence if you are a woman: language and gender in Ptolemaic papyrus petitions

Despina Iosif, ‘Populus Exasperatus: The violent Graeco-Roman crowd

Annette Volfing, ‘Beating the bride into Shape: Domestic violence within bridal mysticism

Juliana Dresvina ‘The Uncomfortable Liber Confortatorius: Grooming in a monastery?’

Since January 2021, Lahtinen & Dresvina have been organizing online seminars on the long history of domestic violence and abuse. For more information about the following events, please follow the updates via https://tinyurl.com/histviolence

Register in advance for this meeting: https://helsinki.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Mlc-CqqjMqGdPNvsw1b_wOS84lyG6YlkgI

 

Webinar series: Reflecting on German (Post)Colonial Connections

On September 2021, Dr. Minu Haschemi Yekani (Freie Universität Berlin), Dr. Dörte Lerp (Freie Universität Berlin) and Dr. Janne Lahti (University of Helsinki) are organizing a webinar series called Reflecting on German (Post)Colonial Connections. The webinar series consists of four events that build up the discussion on German colonial legacies.

 

The aim of this webinar series is to set out to bridge divides between the past and present, between different national histories, between academic specializations, and between academic and non-academic sectors. In short, the organizers intend to span temporal, national, epochal, and sectional divides. They take up recent debates on German colonial histories and legacies, and advance discussions on them in a transnational, multidisciplinary, and intersectional framing.

The webinar series consists of four events with separate registrations and links for Zoom. Download the webinar poster HERE.

WEBINAR 1, 9th September

The first webinar is called ”Among Empires: German Entanglements in the Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds”. We hear Tiffany Florvil (Albuquerque), Diana Natermann (Leiden) and Andi Zimmerman (Washington D.C.) as presenters in the first webinar. Minu Haschemi Yekani (Berlin), Dörte Lerp (Berlin) and Janne Lahti (Helsinki) will moderate the discussion.

REGISTRATE HERE (Webinar 1): https://helsinki.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5MrcO6tqzIrHtxaO8eM4OTHJ2xg_J_Y2S-H

 

WEBINAR 2, 14th September

The second webinar is called ”Beyond Collections: Decolonizing Museums”. We hear Bonita Bennett (Cape Town), Alina Gromova (Berlin) and Kristin Weber-sinn (Berlin) as presenters in the second webinar. Bebero Lehmann (Cologne) and Dörte Lerp (Berlin) will moderate the discussion.

REGISTRATE HERE (Webinar 2): https://helsinki.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Usc-6rqT0iGNTI9kHgbY0EiwMYQ-QyaDix

 

WEBINAR 3, CANCELLED!

The third webinar is called ”Colonial Heritage as Political, Private and Public Memories”. We hear Idesbald Goddeeris (Leuven), Britta Schilling (Utrecht) and Greer Valley (Cape Town) as presenters in the third webinar. Janne Lahti (Helsinki) will moderate the discussion.

 

WEBINAR 4, 30th September

The final and fourth webinar is called ”The (Post)Colonial Dimension of German Migration History”. We hear Maria Alexopoulou (Berlin), Fatima El-Tayeb (San Diego) and Noa K. Ha (Berlin) as presenters in the fourth webinar. Minu Haschemi Yekani (Berlin) will moderate the discussion.

REGISTRATE HERE (Webinar 4): https://helsinki.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5UsfuGvqT4sH9RxM2FthO24knCpBje6dQS5

 

TIME AND REGISTRATION

Time of all the webinars: 6PM-8PM Berlin time (CEST), 7PM-9PM Helsinki time (GMT+3)

Registrations will be approved manually, on Monday 30th August at the earliest.

The series is free, but a registration is required. Also, you can attend one event or the whole series. Welcome!

History of Domestic Violence and Abuse seminar series, 14 June 2021

Welcome to the History of Domestic Violence and Abuse Seminar on Zoom, 14 June 2021, organized by Juliana Dresvina & Anu Lahtinen, University of Oxford & University of Helsinki.

Since January 2021, Lahtinen & Dresvina have been organizing online seminars on the long history of domestic violence and abuse. For more information about the following events, please follow the updates via https://tinyurl.com/histviolence

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History of Domestic Violence and Abuse Seminar on Zoom, 14 June 2021, 10am (BST / London) (11am CET, 12 EET / Helsinki)

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, “Violence Against Women in Ancient Greece”

Maria Dell’Isola, “Violence Against Women in the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles”

Olivia Milburn, “Violent Women in Early Imperial China: The State of the Law”

Pehr Granqvist, Mårten Hammarlund and Tommie Forslund, “Experiences of Abuse, Trauma, and Maltreatment Among Mothers with Mild Intellectual Disabilities”

Register in advance for this meeting: https://tinyurl.com/yx55zf9t

History of Domestic Violence and Abuse seminar series, 13 May 2021

Welcome to the History of Domestic Violence and Abuse Seminar on Zoom, 13 May 2021, organized by Juliana Dresvina & Anu Lahtinen, University of Oxford & University of Helsinki. We study and discuss the long history of domestic violence and abuse.
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History of Domestic Violence and Abuse Seminar on Zoom, 13 May 2021, 10am (BST / London) (11am CET, 12 EET / Helsinki)
Jane Gilbert ‘Sexual Violence and Sex Workers: Lorelei Lee’s ”Cash/Consent” and Villon’s Belle Hëaulmière’
Trevor Dean ‘Domestic abuse from the perspective of husband-murder in late medieval Italy’
Emma Whipday ‘Tom Tyler and His Wife: Domestic Violence and Comedy in Early Modern Wife-Taming Narratives’
Lewis Webb ‘Regulation of violence against citizen women in Republican Rome’
Julia Bolton Holloway ‘Widows and Orphans’

Laura Tarkka & Melike Çakan: Introducing the History Source Guide

During the spring term 2021, the History BA programme at the University of Helsinki has taken some new steps on the digital front. One outcome is a website entitled “History Source Guide” (https://blogs.helsinki.fi/historysources/), available since the beginning of April. The key objective guiding the design of this new resource was to make it (1) updatable and (2) accessible from inside as well as outside of the university. But how did this come about? And, more importantly, what happens next?

The guide page can be found at https://blogs.helsinki.fi/historysources/

Ulkomaiset digitaaliset lähteet / Digital Sources in History

The website was constructed by participants of the project course “Ulkomaiset digitaaliset lähteet/Digital Sources in History”, which connected source criticism with transferable skills. In essence, this meant learning about recent developments in Digital Humanities and getting to know the WordPress blog environment.

In January 2021, two teachers and seven BA students came together to help future students find useful source material online. When discussing the background of each participant, the group identified having to “reinvent the wheel” as a widely shared experience when starting the BA/MA thesis. Everyone wished they had been told exactly where to look for online sources, but the great variety of research interests even among just the nine participants was also immediately acknowledged.

In February, the group learned more about “digital sources” via lectures and literature provided by a guest teacher from the field of digital humanities. One student also contributed an interview on this theme. By March, the team was ready to start developing the website. This was done by first comparing some existing source guides and then trying out the WordPress tools available at the University of Helsinki. During the final stage, each student contributed four posts to the website, in addition to improving its appearance and functionality.

Encyclopaedic practice meets the local perspective

The resulting History Source Guide aspires to familiarise Helsinki-based students with material sourced from abroad and uses the lingua franca of English to connect people with new sources. On the home page, blog posts introducing digital collections summarise information provided by the websites of memory institutions and other data providers. Since the History Source Guide’s home page is not static but cumulative, the group came up with the solution of categorising the posts by historical periods and tagging them with keywords. These can be found on the left-hand side.

In addition, however, the History Source Guide also includes some static pages. The first one contains links to Helka, the University of Helsinki Library’s own database. Via this page, students (with a user account) can easily access the resources provided by the University Library. Another static page contains links to further source guides, each one of which has a different focus and their own way of structuring information. A third page serves as a gateway to material sourced from Finland. This may be useful to readers who are based abroad but require sources relating to the history of Finland.

To prevent the project from coming to a standstill, the designers also came up with the idea of a “suggestions box”. This box is open for anyone who wishes to suggest a new digital collection to be added to the Guide. In the future, contributing to the website may also be used as a way of supplementing course work. Students could do this, for example, by introducing sources they have used themselves, or by interviewing more experienced researchers.

To conclude, the History Source Guide team would like to thank everyone already involved. Recognising what expertise we already have, bringing it to bear and actively seeking advice from others are basic things, but that is why they also work in the digital world.

Laura Tarkka has a background in eighteenth-century intellectual and cultural history. In 2021, she has been coordinating the ”Digital Leap” project of the History BA programme of the University of Helsinki. Melike Çakan is a doctoral student in history at the University of Helsinki. She is working on a doctoral dissertation concerning Francis Bacon and ‘scientia civilis’ in Early Modern England.

Domestic Violence Workshop

Welcome to follow the second seminar on the history of domestic violence, coordinated by Anu Lahtinen, University of Helsinki, & Juliana Dresvina, University of Oxford.

History of Domestic Violence on Zoom Seminar
Feb 22, 2021 02:00pm GMT [04:00 pm EET]

Melek Karatas “Representations of Gendered Violence in Manuscript Illustrations of the Roman de la Rose”
Sara Butler “Who owns a wife’s body? Excusing Domestic Violence in Later Medieval England”
Chanelle Delameillieure “Family affairs: Age, authority and intergenerational relations in late-medieval Flanders”
Raisa Toivo, ”Why is violence against parents a useful topic of research? Insights from 17th century Finland”
Mona Rautelin ”Comparing intimate partner homicides in seventeenth-century and twenty-first-century heartland and hinterland Finland”
Anu Lahtinen ”Some early modern key texts to domestic violence”

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://helsinki.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Eqf-6urzIjGtLBon7G3Lvy8s8geU-caiIs

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Anu Lahtinen: Digital Tools for Popularizing Humanities now online

Presentations on Digital Tools for Popularizing Humanities Research and Teaching are now available via Faculty of Arts YouTube Channel. See, for example, Associate Professor Anu Lahtinen’s presentation on Digestible ICT exercises for history, presenting the Helsinki 1918 Twitter course project, or Associate Professor Josephine Hoegaarts’ and MA Lotta Vuorio’s practical guide on Podcasts instead of essays.

 

Quoting the YouTube introduction:

ALKU digiloikka organized an event ”Digital Tools for Popularizing Humanities Research and Teaching” in November 2020, presenting four examples of how humanities research and teaching can be enhanced with digital tools and means and brought to larger audiences.

The event combined two main themes which increasingly become interrelated: the popularization of humanities research and teaching, for example via outreach to interested audiences beyond academia, and digital means and tools to do so.

Even before the global pandemic, digital ways of sharing and discussing research results have been explored and increasingly employed – a development which has accelerated with the pandemic and will certainly remain to be relevant.