Tiina
Mahlamäki
Links
Areas of expertise
esotericism
Biography
I am Lecturer in the Study of Religion at the School of History, Culture, and Arts Studies.
I am a member of the executive board of the Donner Institute and the Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), President of Turun yliopistojen dosenttiyhdistys/Docentföreningen vid Universiteten i Åbo; member of the editorial board of Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, Uskonnontutkija – Religionsforskare; Elore.
Teaching
My main teaching responsibilities include History of Religions in Finland, History of Religions and World Views in Europe, Esotericism, Academic and Creative Writing, Writing journal article in 12 weeks, and Research group in the study of esotericism. I am also supervising, evaluating and mentoring Master’s theses, and I work as a supervisor for 14 dissertations within Study of Religion, Folkloristics, Cultural History, and Literary Critics.
Research
My dissertation, Naisia kansalaisuuden kynnyksellä. Eeva Joenpellon Lohja-sarjan tulkinta (Women on the Threshold of Nationhood. An Interpretation of the Lohja Series by Eeva Joenpelto] 2005, is an interdisciplinary research, connecting the methods and theories of Comparative Religion, literary critics and Women’s Studies. In the dissertation, I explored the ways female citizenship is manifested in literature. My subsequent biography of Eeva Joenpelto was published in 2009.
In my research, I have continued focusing on questions on religion, nationality/citizenship and literature, and especially specialised in the study of esotericism. I have studied the presence and impact of Swedish scientist and visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) in the published and unpublished writings of Finnish authors. I have been conducting research on a Finnish female author and anthroposophist Kersti Bergroth as well as on questions on secularity, atheism and gender, and creative writing.
My latest publication is Writing as a Tool and Technique (Palgrave, 2026), written together with Jaana Kouri