Dr Eva Johanna Holmberg
Visiting Fellow, Postdoctoral Researcher of the Academy of Finland, 2010-2012
Location: Arts Two 2.28email: e.j.holmberg@qmul.ac.uk, eva.holmberg@helsinki.fi
Dr Eva Johanna Holmberg gained her MA and Lic. Phil. degrees in Cultural History from the University of Turku in Finland. From 2004 to 2007 she was a postgraduate researcher on the Academy of Finland Research Project ‘Experiences of Otherness in Premodern English Culture’ led by Dr Marjo Kaartinen. During her doctoral studies Eva Johanna spent the year 2004/05 at the Warburg Institute and became part of the post-graduate community of the University of London. She completed her doctoral thesis, A Scattered Nation. Jews in the Early Modern English Imagination, which was examined by Peter Burke and Miri Rubin in 2008. From August 2008 to July 2009 she held a Visiting Fellowship, funded by the Academy of Finland, at the School of English and Humanities of Birkbeck College. She now holds a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship from the Academy of Finland at the University of Helsinki from 2010 to 2012, and will spend the years 2010-2012 as a Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.
Research interests:
Eva Johanna’s research includes a wide variety of early modern topics: religious and ethnic identities, cross-cultural encounters and travel writing. She is also interested in histories of the body, emotions, senses and sensibilities, and theories and methodologies of cultural history. Her post-doctoral research project focuses on early modern English travellers and their perceptions of minority peoples in the Mediterranean region. She is currently writing a new monograph (tentatively) entitled British Encounters in the Levant: Ethnic and Religious Identities, 1580-1700. She is also planning a new research project on early modern experiences and practices of travel.
Publications:
Monograph
New book: Jews in the Early Modern English Imagination – A Scattered Nation (Ashgate, Aldershot 2012)
Edited collections:
Guest edited special issue: "Shaping Strangers in Early Modern English Travel Writing", edited by Eva Johanna Holmberg and Chloë Houston; under consideration with Journeys - The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, expected publication in 2012.
Practices of Inclusion and Exclusion in Premodern Culture. Together with Tom Linkinen. Cultural History- Kulttuurihistoria 5, K&H, Turku 2005.
Articles
“Esthers in the Seraglio. Jewish women in early modern English travel narratives on Turkey.” In The Trouble With Ribs. Women, Men and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Eds. Anu Korhonen & K.J.P. Lowe. COLLeGIUM. Studies across Disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. II 2007 http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/e-series/volumes/volume_2/index.htm
“Outrageous rites: Early modern English encounters with Levantine religious rituals.” In Britain and the Muslim World: Historical Perspectives. Ed. Gerald MacLean. Cambridge Scholar’s Press: Newcastle 2011.
“Introduction: Shaping Strangers in Early Modern English Travel Writing” (with Chloë Houston) Journeys – The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, expected publication in 2012.
“Jews of all Trades in Early Modern English Travel Writing.” Journeys – The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, expected publication in 2012.
“An Ottoman City of Strangers: Placing the Jews in Early Modern English Texts on Istanbul.” Fabrizio Nevola (ed.) Città e Storia, expected publication in 2012.
“Veren merkitsemät? Juutalaisen kuukautiset uuden ajan alun Englannissa” (“Marked by Blood? Jewish Male-Menstruation in Early Modern England”) in Toiseus Antiikin, keskiajan ja renessanssin kulttuureissa (”Otherness in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Cultures”) ed. Marja-Leena Hänninen. SKS, The Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki. Expected publication in September 2012.
“Ystäviä ja vihollisia Rialtossa” (“Friends and Enemies in the Rialto”) in Venetsian kauppias, an introduction to the new Finnish translation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, transl. by Tiina Ohinmaa, WSOY, Helsinki. Under contract, expected publication in 2013.
In progress: “Franks and Englishmen in the Early Modern Islamic World, c. 1600.” Submitted for peer review.
Chapters in textbooks
“Mielikuvien ja mentaliteettien Eurooppa, 1500-1800” ( ”Europe in Images and Mentalities”, 1500-1800) in Euroopan historia II (History of Europe II) Ed. Marjo Kaartinen & Tuomas Heikkilä, WSOY, Helsinki. Under contract, expected publication in September 2012.
“Introduction: Constructions of Difference/Thinking with difference.” In Practices of Inclusion and Exclusion in Premodern Culture. Eds. Eva Johanna Holmberg & Tom Linkinen, K&H, Turku 2005.
“Indecent roaring - Reading irreverence and confusion in Jewish worship in Early Modern England.” In Practices of Inclusion and Exclusion in Premodern Culture, Eds. Eva Johanna Holmberg & Tom Linkinen. K&H, Turku 2005.
Book reviews
Julia Schleck, Telling True Tales of Islamic Lands: Forms of Mediation in English Travel Writing, 1575–1630 (Susquehanna University Press, 2011) for Renaissance Quarterly Vol. 64, No. 4 (Winter 2011), pp. 1305-1306.
Claire Jowitt, The Culture of Piracy, 1580-1630: English Literature and Seaborne Crime (Ashgate, 2010) for English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature, expected publication in 2012.
Undergraduate teaching:
Early Modern Travel and Cultural Encounters, 1400-1700 (Level 6)