Jutta

Laitila

My PhD project is titled "Seeking wilderness in the city. Ecocritical study of human-nature interaction in Late Antique urban and domestic asceticism". In this project I study ascetic spatial experiences and construction of ascetic space, focusing on the ascetics' relationship with their environment(s) and on the role of the rhetoric of nature in ascetic texts.

In addition to this I am a part of a Finnish Institute in Rome project called "Locus amoenus pompeianus. Constructing nature in a Roman city". Our research group studies the ancient Roman relationship with nature in the urban context via a case study of one Pompeian house, that of A. Trebius Valens. I focus on the depictions of plants in the frescoes, which I analyse within the context of Roman religious culture.

I am broadly interested in monastic and religious history and study of old times. Previously I have also focused on sensory history in my studies.