Niina Oisalo profile picture
Niina
Oisalo
Doctoral Researcher, Art History, Musicology and Media Studies
M.A., YTM
SELMA, Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory (https://selmacentre.com)

Contact

Arcanuminkuja 1
20500
Turku

Areas of expertise

documentary film
film studies
Nordic cinema
cultural memory studies
audiovisual analysis
video essay

Biography

I am a Doctoral researcher at Media studies, and at the moment finalizing my doctoral thesis on acts of remembering in Nordic documentary film.

I have a Master of Arts degree in Documentary Practice, from the Brunel University London (2010), and a Master in Social Sciences from the University of Tampere (2005), where I majored in International Relations and Journalism. I have also worked as a journalist, copy editor and creative writing instructor. 

Teaching

University of Turku:

- course: Writing art critique, Autumn 2024

- course on film aesthetics: Näkökulmia elokuvan estetiikkaan, Autumn 2019

- SELMA writing circle: Dimensions of humanistic writing, Autumn 2018

- course: Poetics and politics of contemporary Nordic documentary +

practice-based workshop on documentary filmmaking, Autumn 2017 

- lectures on various topics in film studies (2014-)


Turku Arts Academy:

- course on documentary film history, 2012-2013

Research

In my article-based PhD, titled Traces, Gaps, Constellations: Acts of Remembering in the Contemporary Nordic Documentary Film, I explore how films create relationships with pasts in the present. I investigate the aesthetics and politics involved in acts of remembering in five Nordic documentaries produced in the 2000s where documentary remembering emerges as an evocative and generative process that forms connections between people, places and different temporalities. Remembering in documentary does not form a linear narrative from the past to the present, but in the film world, many temporalities exist simultaneously, interacting with each other. 

I am particularly interested in the shadows of Nordic memory cultures where the hegemonic historical narratives are challenged, in relation to the Second World War, Nordic colonialism and displacement. The transdisciplinary research is situated in the crossroads between documentary film studies and memory studies, with important branches to indigenous studies and film aesthetics. In the research, documentary film is seen as a site for encounters, translations and transformations, where aesthetic and ethical potential of the documentary film as a medium for remembering can be examined closer.

Publications

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Pohjoista päin (2020)

Lähikuva
Kaisa Hiltunen, Niina Oisalo
(B1 Vertaisarvioimaton kirjoitus tieteellisessä lehdessä )

Lähikuva 2/2020: Pohjoinen (2020)

Lähikuva
Oisalo Niina, Hiltunen Kaisa
(Toimitustyö tieteelliselle lehdelle, kokoomateokselle tai konferenssijulkaisulle (C2))