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Since 2018, Holmila has worked at the Ģ��ֱ�� as an associate professor of history. From 2008 to 2017 he worked for a short while as postdoc researcher for the Kone Foundation, as a senior assistant and then as a postdoc researcher in an Academy project of his own as well as in a number of other projects funded by the Academy of Finland. In autumn 2015, he was a visiting researcher at Berkeley (USA).

In his research, Holmila has focused on the post-WWII world. A common element in his varied perspectives is the impact of crises on people, human communities and societies. At the early stages of his research career, Holmila delved especially into the Holocaust and its collective memories as well as the historical-political disputes over it.

Later he has studied the theme of crises, for example, from the perspectives of societies’ return to peace, the era of the Cold War, and the relations between great powers. In his research, Finland’s role as part of the international system has nearly always been included and examined.

Holmila’s research projects have also highlighted the history of the media and communications, particularly the ways by which historic phenomena, events and crises have been brought about and maintained through the media. At present, Holmila is involved in the YLE100 research consortium, which is exploring the nearly century-long history of the Finnish broadcasting company (established in 1926) from various perspectives.

In the Department of History and Ethnology, Holmila is the leader of the research cluster “Crises Redefined”, which examines crises as political, social, economic and cultural phenomena using a comparative and multidisciplinary approach.

In his own words, Holmila has been trying over the years to get past the immediate post-WWII era and progress into more recent history He conceptualises recent history as the time when today’s most essential social themes, such as environmental issues and climate change, the interdependencies of societies, the experience of sustained crisis, energy issues, digitalisation, and the future of welfare state, emerged for the first time on the agenda of social debate. In this definition, this includes the era starting from the oil crisis of the early 1970s.

In addition to these themes, Holmila has studied the history of sports. “Sports provides an excellent window for viewing societal phenomena,” he argues, “be it about nationalism, commercialisation, the increasing focus on entertainment, gender roles, sexual harassment, or international politics.”

At present, Holmila’s many research interests are integrated in the columns he writes for the newspaper Keskisuomalainen. The columns deal with the historical roots and the impacts the war in Ukraine has on Finland, Europe and the Western world order.

“Scholars, history scholars in particular, could participate more actively in public debate as well as in constructing historic awareness for the general public by appearing in more popular forums,” Holmila says. “The field is now very largely dominated by non-academic historians. The same themes are repeated with a narrow-minded interpretation where Finland is often presented as a specific case of its own, separate from any global connections.”

Further information:

Antero Holmila, antero.holmila@jyu.fi, tel. +358 40 809 3381
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