Rate My Professor Ulla Savolainen

Ulla Savolainen is a university lecturer of folklore studies in the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki within the Faculty of Humanities. She holds a PhD and the title of Docent in Memory Studies and Oral History Research from the University of Turku. Her research specializations include cultural memory, oral history, life stories, and narrative research, with a focus on experiences related to forced migration, nationalism, transnationality, and minorities. Savolainen leads the Nationalism beyond Borders research team as part of the Centre of Excellence in Nationalism Research in the Humanities, funded by the Research Council of Finland from 2026 to 2033. She serves as a supervisor in the Doctoral Programme in History and Cultural Heritage and has held visiting researcher positions at the University of Tartu and Goethe University Frankfurt.

Savolainen has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including chapters such as "Times of Hermeneutical Injustice: Memory Struggle in the Public Discussion around the Attack on the Elias Lönnrot Monument" (2026) and "Memory in the Nordic Countries" (2025), as well as the co-edited volume Memory Studies in the Nordic Countries: A Handbook (2025, Brill). Her work has appeared in journals including Memory Studies, Narrative Inquiry, Journal of American Folklore, Oral History, Ethnologia Europaea, and Poetics Today. She has received the Kekri Day Award of the Kalevala Society for Young Researchers in 2017 and co-received recognition for a republished research article in the Oral History journal's 50th anniversary issue in 2019. Savolainen holds leadership roles such as member of the Executive Committee of the Memory Studies Association since 2024, scientific advisory board member for the Muisti Centre of War and Peace since 2022, and former chair of the Finnish Oral History Network from 2018 to 2023. She has served on boards including the Doctoral Programme in the Humanities and the Finnish Literature Society.