Mari Pajala profile picture
Mari
Pajala
University Lecturer, Art History, Musicology and Media Studies
Docent, School of History, Culture and Arts Studies
FT, dosentti

Contact

+358 29 450 2842
+358 50 381 1277
Arcanuminkuja 1
20500
Turku

Areas of expertise

media studies
television studies
media history
popular media culture
feminist media studies
cultural memory studies

Biography

Education:

  • PhD, Media Studies, University of Turku, 2006
  • MA, Cinema and Television Studies, University of Turku, 1998


I was previously Government of Finland/David and Nancy Speer Visiting Professor in Finnish Studies at the University of Minnesota (2015–2017) and visiting research fellow at Utrecht University (2009–2010).

Teaching

I teach courses such as Media History and Archives, Theoretical Traditions in Media Studies, MA Thesis Seminar as well as other courses in Media Studies.

Research

My research focuses on television history and contemporary popular media culture, with special interest in questions of nationality, memory, gender and sexuality, affect and entertainment. I have published extensively on the Eurovision Song Contest as a media event and my recent work has focused on Cold War era media and Finnish "culture television" of the 1970s and 1980s. Recent books include The Era of Culture Television: Another History of Finnish Television, 1970s to 1980s (in Finnish, co-authored with Anu Koivunen, Laura Saarenmaa and Janne Zareff, SKS 2024) and Remapping Cold War Media: Institutions, Infrastructures, Exchanges (co-edited with Alice Lovejoy, Indiana University Press 2022).

I am co-editor with Maiju Kannisto of Lähikuva (https://journal.fi/lahikuva) and I am on the editorial board of View: Journal of European Television History and Culture and Communication, Culture & Critique.

Publications

Sort by: