Elina Maaniitty

Description of research and teaching

I am currently working on the last stages of my doctoral thesis, which examines disease epidemics, the development of medical science, public health efforts, and demographic measures in the Swedish kingdom in 1695–1809. In my thesis, I am particularly interested in mentalities linked to medical history, the history of diseases, and demographic history.

I am mainly focused on medical history, the history of diseases, historical epidemiology, and historical demography, particularly the research of mortality and causes of death. I am greatly interested in One Health approaches and how to adapt them to the history of diseases, especially regarding zoonotic diseases, as well as the history of medical ethics. I also have expertise in the history of early-modern science more generally.

I have a longstanding interest in maritime and nautical history. Other areas of interest include global history, postcolonial perspectives, the history of inequality, and the history of sex work. I have also written on the history of my hometown Helsinki, particularly in popularised books.