Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä

Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä is a folklorist who has studied broadly the ideological meanings of folklore and cultural heritage in contemporary Finland. She is an expert in the theories of cultural heritage and nationalism. In addition to folkloristics, she has studied music, ethnomusicology, linguistic anthropology and ethnology. In her doctoral thesis (2017, U. of Helsinki), she analyzed the Finnish contemporary folk music field in relation to the constructs of authenticity, tradition and Finnishness. After the dissertation, she has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the project “Ownership, language, and cultural heritage: Ideologies of folk poetry in the areas of Finland, Republic of Karelia and Estonia” (U. of Helsinki, PI: Eila Stepanova). She has published articles on cultural appropriation, Kalevalaicity, language ideologies, intangible cultural heritage and national landscapes. Alongside her research career, she has graduated from the Sibelius Academy Folk Music Department (U. of the Arts, Helsinki).