Join us on Oct. 30 for a talk on climate narratives in Finnish-American history by Lotta Leiwo, University of Helsinki PhD Candidate in History and Cultural Heritage. Leiwo’s research focuses on Finnish American socialist women’s history and the cultural history of climate. Additionally, Daniel Necas, Archivist at the Immigration History Research Center Archives, will present the IHRCA records available both on-site and online, as well as provide guidance on how to access them.

Please register if you plan to attend!

Program

• 5:30 p.m. – Light refreshments
• 6 p.m. – Welcome by Daniel Necas and introduction by Elaine Kumpula, Honorary Consul of Finland in Minneapolis
• 6:10 p.m. – Finnish Studies Program at the University of Minnesota: Karina Horsti, Government of Finland/David and Nancy Speer (GOF/DANS) Visiting Professor at Communication Studies, University of Minnesota (2023-2025)
• 6:20 p.m. – Overview of Finnish American holdings at IHRCA: Daniel Necas
• 6:30 p.m. – Speaker: Lotta Leiwo, doctoral candidate at University of Helsinki presents, “From Toveritar to Today: Exploring Climate Narratives in Finnish-American History”
• 7 p.m. – Q&A and discussion

About the talk

Lotta Leiwo (Photo/Veikko Somerpuro)

Leiwo will present research from her dissertation titled “Knowing Nature: Climate, Weather, and Settler Colonialism in the United States Finnish Women’s Political Rhetoric.” Her research focuses on the Finnish Socialist Federation’s organ, the women’s newspaper Toveritar (The Woman Comrade), published from 1911 to 1930.

Leiwo studies Finnish migrant-settler women’s socialist education and endeavors in the U.S. through the lens of vernacular weather writings. In her presentation, she will concentrate on the writings of Finnish-Minnesotan women and children in Toveritar, examining the following questions: How do these writers understand and experience weather? How are settler colonial conceptions transmitted or contested in these writings? How is nature politicized in Toveritar? The presentation will be followed by a Q&A and discussion on weather narratives we tell today.

Leiwo is conducting archival research for her dissertation at the IHRCA and field work on the Iron Range in northern Minnesota during the month of October. The research visit is funded by the Fulbright Finland Foundation (Travel Grant for Research Collaboration), Kalevala Society Foundation and the Migration Institute of Finland Foundation (Kaarle Hjalmar Lehtinen Fund).

Event details

What: From Toveritar to Today: Exploring Climate Narratives in Finnish-American History
When: Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024 | 5:30-8 p.m. | Doors open at 5:30 p.m. | Program begins at 6 p.m.
Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library, room 120 | Parking and directions

Co-sponsored by the Immigration History Research Center Archives at the University Libraries, the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, the Minnesota Chapter of Finlandia Foundation, Finnish American Cultural Activities, and by the Finnish Studies Program at the University of Minnesota.