Visiting Scholar from Finland

Marika Räsänen

Docent, Faculty of Humanities

University Lecturer, History and Archaelogy

Academy Research Fellow, School of History, Culture and Arts Studies

PhD

I am a medievalist and cultural historian from the University of Turku, Finland. Currently, I am working on my personal research project, entitled "Rethinking the Late Medieval Relic (c. 1200-1550)," funded by the Finnish Research Council for 2022–2027. As part of this project, I have been granted a visiting fellowship at the Department of History at the University of Rochester. Choosing Rochester was an easy decision: I was familiar with the Department's innovative research on medieval studies and thematic fields such as the history of emotions. I had met several researchers from the Department at various conferences and other occasions, and had formed a friendship with Professor Thomas Devaney, who has also been a Fulbright Professor at my university in Finland. Additionally, I was eager to immerse myself in the academic culture of the United States and gain more international experience as a researcher and teacher. Although I am not offering a formal course for the students, I am glad to have been accepted to visit different courses to learn more about the pedagogical strategies applied in teaching various topics and levels of students.

My academic background is rooted in my studies at the University of Turku. As a master's student, I had the opportunity to study abroad and include courses from France (Université d’Aix-Marseille) and Italy (Università degli Studi di Firenze) in my degree. I defended my doctoral thesis in the Department of Cultural History at the University of Turku in 2013. Before completing my thesis, I spent several years in Rome, familiarizing myself with my sources (manuscripts and old prints) and teaching at a splendid Renaissance villa on the Gianicolo Hill, which hosts the Finnish Research Institute. More recently, I have spent extended periods in France, at the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale (CESCM) in 2016–2017, and at L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (AHLoMA/EHESS) in Paris in 2023 and 2024.

All of the above-described work experiences are connected to my current project on late medieval relics. My PhD thesis focused on the desires and demands addressed to Thomas Aquinas’s relics in southern Italy in the Late Middle Ages. My current project expands geographically to the Italo-French cultural environment over a long period, with a special focus on the Dominican order and the people under their guidance. Dominican culture, broadly speaking, encompasses various phenomena typical of the late Middle Ages, which influenced the definition, understanding, and utilization of relics. The existence of the Order of Preachers was a symptom or result of late medieval societal changes. Their success was intertwined with their connection to laypeople, including spiritual guidance and practical aid. Often, the friars represented the highest theological knowledge of relic doctrine and produced a significant quantity of manuals and documents relevant to my project. Their theological, pastoral, political, and sometimes economic expertise made them counselors to popes, bishops, kings, and princes. As a result, studying Dominican activity offers a more nuanced picture of the factors influencing relic practices, which were initially established at a high politico-theological level in the thirteenth century and later diffused more broadly in the society during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Thus, focusing on the Dominican cultural milieu enables at the same time to better define the full spectrum of the late medieval relic phenomena and ensure a context-related deep, qualitative analysis.

In the coming months at Rochester, I look forward to gaining new insights and collaborating with colleagues, as well as advancing my research towards completing a book on Dominican relic culture in the future.