Kirsti Salmi-Niklander

Candidate statement

Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, Senior University Lecturer in Folklore Studies, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki. My long-term scholarly interests have focused on vernacular literacy, the interaction of orality and literacy, especially in the context of working-class and immigrant cultures. My recent publications in this field include Oral Tradition and Book Culture, co-edited with Pertti Anttonen and Cecilia af Forselles (Studia Fennica Folkloristica 24, Finnish Literature Society 2018) and Handwritten Newspapers. An Alternative Medium during the Early Modern and Modern Periods, co-edited with Heiko Droste (Studia Fennica Historica 26, Finnish Literature Society 2019. Research portal: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/kirsti-salmi-niklander. I have been a member of SHARP since 2000 and have attended more than ten annual conferences. I was one of the main organizers and chaired the program committee for the SHARP conference “Book Culture from Below” in Helsinki 2010. I have served as Regional Liaison for Finland since 2012, and in the jury of De Long Book Prize 2013-2016. In 2013, I participated in the SHARP Futures meeting, and was invited as SHARP Ambassador (2000) in 2017. As a member of the Board of Directors I would work for the fields of research which have been in the main focus of my research: working-class and immigrant book culture, the intersection of orality and literacy, and modern scribal culture. I would also encourage the SHARP involvement in Finland and other Nordic countries.