Karina Lukin, title of docent

Description of research and teaching

I am a university researcher with the title of docent in folklore studies working in the Centre of Excellence in Nationalism Research in the Humanities. I am broadly interested in the ways humans attach themselves and adhere to the past, be it memories, traditions or cultural heritage.

I am currently working with Finno-Ugricity in Finnish public life on the one hand and Whiteness in cultural heritage practices on the other.

Earlier, I have studied the oral and written culture and cultural heritage of the Nenets living in Northern Russia and Western Siberia in the light of contemporary and historical materials. My research has dealt with, among other things, the interaction between the material and the oral in the context of narrative, poetry and rituals related to everyday and mythical places. Furthermore, I have studied the boundary between oral and written and the vacillation of these boundaries in the 20th century Nenets literature. In addition to the study of the Nenets culture, I have explored the history of research and the ways in which perceptions of tradition and indigenous peoples have influenced researchers' ways of collecting materials, especially of recording tradition and of describing the communities they study.