Areas of expertise
Biography
MA Saara Penttinen is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Turku Department of European and World History. Her research examines the role of mid-seventeenth-century English public curiosity collections in the history of experiencing the world virtually. Penttinen graduated receiving the highest possible grade on her thesis and was elected the Master of Arts of the Year in 2018. In 2019, she was a visiting postgraduate research student both at the University of Cambridge Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) and in the USTC project at the University of St. Andrews. In the spring of 2020, she was a visiting associate research student in the Department of English at Queen Mary University of London. Penttinen has been a part of the History of Science & Knowledge Research Group in Turku since 2013. As a founding member of the Network for Early Modern Research in Finland and the Network's biannual conference in 2019, she currently serves as a board member.
Teaching
In 2021–2022 Penttinen teaches a lecture course on Early modern global representations.
In 2020–2021 Penttinen taught a tutorial for Master's students and a lecture course on Early modern global representations.
Research
Penttinen's research focuses on the ways mid-seventeenth-century English public collections embodied European geographical imaginations, enabling people from different backgrounds to experience the world virtually. Her research interests include the intersections of early modern histories of knowledge, travel, and material culture, especially focusing on the expression of geographical imaginations in early modern collections.