CV
Dr. Pietari Kääpä
pietari.kaapa@gmail.com
i. Research profile
I am a specialist in transnational film and media studies with a primary focus on ecocinema. My research imperatives emanate from exploring transnational connectivity between different cultural contexts, such as the Nordic countries and China, which I interrogate through an ecocritical prism. I am the editor of the book collection Transnational Ecocinemas and journal issues of Interactions – Ecocinema In Transnational China / Ecocinema and Its Audiences. My current work explores connections between ecocinema and social media, especially in terms of audiences, and activist ecodocumentary film production.
Degrees and qualifications
PhD in Film Studies (University of East Anglia, 2008)
The National and Beyond: The Globalization of Finnish Cinema in the Films of Aki and Mika Kaurismäki
Master of Arts in Film Studies (University of Southampton, 2002)
Bachelor of Arts in Media/History (University College Chichester, 2000)
Employment History
The Academy of Finland Research Fellow – University of Helsinki
Project: A Transnational History of Finnish Cinema, October 2012 – October 2014
Postdoctoral researcher – Ella ja Georg Ehrnroothin Säätiö
Project: Imaginaries of a Global Finland: Finnish Cinema and Globalization, September 2011 – September 2012
Teaching Fellow in Communications and Cultural Studies/Year One Coordinator
University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, September 2008 – August 2011
Assistant Tutor
School of Film and Television Studies, University of East Anglia, 2006 – 2008
Residential Tutor, University of Southampton, 2004 – 2006
Professional qualifications
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), 2011.
Founding member of the International Environmental Communications Association
ii. Publications
Monographs
“The Cinema of Mika Kaurismäki: Transvergent Cinescapes, Emergent Identities”, Bristol: Intellect, 2011
“The National and Beyond: the Globalisation of Finnish Cinema in the Films of Aki and Mika Kaurismäki”, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010; New Studies in European Cinema Series (edited by Wendy Everett and Axel Goodbody)
Edited collections
Transnational Ecocinemas: Film Culture in an Era of Ecological Transformation (co-edited with Tommy Gustafsson, Linnaus University), Intellect, 2012.
Transnationaali suomalainen elokuva (Transnational Finnish Film Culture), special issue of Lähikuva, 3/2012 (co-edited with Jaakko Seppälä, University of Helsinki)
Ecocinema in Transnational China , special issue of Interactions, vol. 2:2, 2012.
Directory of World Cinema: Finland, Bristol: Intellect, 2012.
Cities of the Imagination: Helsinki, (co-edited with Silja Laine, University of Turku) Bristol: Intellect, 2012.
Adapting National Identity/Hollywood and the Norden, (co-edited with Tommy Gustafsson, Linnaus University), Film International special issue, 2, 2011.
Guest Editor of Wider Screen 2/2007 – “The Cinema of Aki Kaurismäki: the Politics of Contradiction”.
Refereed journals and book chapters
“The Politics of Viewing Ecocinema in China”, Interactions, 2:2, 2012, pp. 159-175.
“Transnational Ecocinema: Charting an Expansive Field”, in Kääpä, Pietari and Gustafsson, Tommy (eds.) Transnational Ecocinemas: Film Culture in an Era of Ecological Transformation, Bristol: Intellect, 2012.
“Santa Claus in China and Wu Xia in Finland: Translocal Reception Networks Between Finland and China”, Participations, 2, 2011
“Born American?” – Renny Harlin Meets the Dream Factory”, Film International, issue 2, 2011, pp. 55-70.
“Imaginaries of a Global Finland: Patterns of Globalisation in Finnish Cinema of the 21st Century”, Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, vol. 19 (2), 2010, pp. 262-283.
“Kaurismäkifilia – a Critical Analysis of Kaurismäki-studies”, Lähikuva, 2/2010 pp. 83-90 (in Finnish).
“From Helsinki to Rio de Janeiro: Negotiating National Identity in the Films of Mika Kaurismäki”, in Bacon, Henry & Nyyssönen, Pasi (ed.) Suomalaisuus Valkokankaalla, Helsinki: LIKE, 2007, pp. 70-88 (in Finnish).
“The Working Class has no Fatherland: Aki Kaurismäki’s Films and the Transcendence of National Untranslatability”, in Nestingen, A. (ed.) In Search of Aki Kaurismäki: Aesthetics and Contexts, Beaverton, Aspasia Books, 2004 / International Journal of Finnish Studies, pp. 77-95.
Essays and other published output
Entries on Claes Andersson, Apocalyptica, Paavo Berglund, Erik Bergman, Risto Jarva, Mika Kaurismäki, Ere Kokkonen, Markku Lehmuskallio, Rauni Mollberg, Timo Mukka, Anssi Mänttäri, Mikko Niskanen, Kati Outinen, Arto Paasilinna, Erno Paasilinna, Pertti Pasanen, Matti Pellonpää, Kalle Päätalo, Pentti Saaritsa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Jorma Uotinen and the Finnish Tango, in Hilton, Mary & Försås-Scott, Helena (eds) The Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Scandinavian Culture, 2012
Book review: Chinese Ecocinema in an Age of Environmental Challenge (Sheldon Lu and Jiayan Mi), Interactions, 2:2, 2012.
Book review: Crime and Fantasy in Scandinavia (Andrew Nestingen), Transnational Cinemas, 1:1, 2010.
Articles on Risto Jarva, Mika Kaurismäki, Scoring Films, Social Realism, Literature and Film, Comedy, Genre Productions, Environmental Cinema, The Futures of Finnish Cinema, and 38 film reviews, in Kääpä, Pietari (ed.) Directory of World Cinema: Finland, Bristol: Intellect, 2012.
Articles on Documentary Helsinki, Cosmopolitan City, and City of the Imagination: Helsinki and 25 film analyses, in Kääpä, Pietari and Laine, Silja (eds.) World Film Locations: Helsinki, Bristol: Intellect, 2012.
“The Politics of National Identity in Aki Kaurismäki’s The Leningrad Cowboys Films”, Wider Screen 2/2007.
“Ideologisella Matkalla Maailman Keuhkoissa – Mika Kaurismäen Elokuvien Ekokriittinen Perspektiivi”, Wider Screen 1/2007.
”Displaced Souls Lost in Finland – the Kaurismäkis’ Valehtelija, Saimaa-Ilmiö and Arvottomat as Transnational Cinema”, Wider Screen 2/2006.
Conference report: Cinema at the Periphery 2006, Scope, 02/2006.
“Through the Looking Glass – Hollywood History as Constructed through Antecedent Means of Representation”, in Wider Screen 3-4/2003.
Research grants
Ella ja Georg Ehrnroothin Säätiö – 16000 EUR post-doctoral research project ‘Imaginaries of a Global Finland’, 2011.
Koneen Säätiö (The Kone Foundation) – 19200 EUR for 2007: PhD Studies
Helsingin Sanomain 100-Vuotissäätiö (The Helsingin Sanomat Centennial Foundation) – 13000 EUR for 2006: PhD Studies
Conference and Publication stipends:
Holger och Thyra Lauritzens Stiftelse (Sweden) – 2500 EUR: publication costs for Hollywood and the Norden, Film International, 2010.
Oskar Öflund Stiftelse (Finland) – 2500 EUR: publication costs of monograph The Cinema of Mika Kaurismäki (Bristol: Intellect), 2010.
Research Committee of University of Nottingham Ningbo, China – £1500 for publications costs of The Cinema of Mika Kaurismäki, 2010.
Research Committee of University of Nottingham Ningbo - £600 for conference participation at SCMS, Japan, 2009.
Division of International Communications, University of Nottingham Ningbo - £400 for publication costs of monograph The National and Beyond (Oxford: Peter Lang) in 2010.
The University of St. Andrews, Scotland - delegate bursary for Cinema at the Peripheries Conference, June 2006.
Lectures and conference papers
Invited papers and research seminars
Suomalaisen Elokuvan Festivaali (The Festival of Finnish Cinema) – Tie-seminaari, April 2012.
‘Matkalla Pohjoisen Periferiaan – Mika Kaurismäen Elokuvien Tiekuva’
Open University/University of Helsinki – Finnish Cinema lecture series, August 2010 / August 2011:
‘Year Zero and Beyond: Finnish Cinema in the 1960’
‘The Crises of National Cinema: 1970s and 80s’
‘New Perspectives on Finnish Cinema’ – lecture series, University of Helsinki, October 2007: “Suomalainen Elokuva Postmodernissa Elokuvakulttuurissa” – Guest lecturer
’Cinema and Nature’ lectures, University of Helsinki, Finland, March 2007: “Ylikansallinen Kapitalismi vs. Ekoaktivismi Mika Kaurismäen Tuotannossa” – Invited speaker
UCL Mellon Interdisciplinary Research Seminar, University College London, January 2006: “Negotiating a Critical Space between the National and the Global: the Films of Aki and Mika Kaurismäki as Transnational Cinema” – Invited speaker
Brighton International Film Society, Aki Kaurismäki’s Tulitikkutehtaan Tyttö (The Match Factory Girl, 1990), September 2005 – Invited speaker
Conference papers (selected)
Rethinking the Self: Transnational and Transdisciplinary Bioethical and Biopolitical Concerns, Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies, April 2012.
“Organ Cultures: Transnational Ecocinema and the Biopolitics of Organ Harvesting”
Foreign Impulses, Local Responses: Transcending National and Cultural Borders, Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies, April 2012.
“The Ambiguity of Ecocosmopolitanism: Transnational Ecocinema Between the Planetary and the Local”
Culture, Health and Wellbeing Conference, University of Turku, 2011
“Transnational Ecocinemas and the Participant Spectator: Ecoawareness and the Chinese Audiences ”
Network for European Cinema Studies, Kadir Has University, Turkey, June 2010
“Postnational Urbanism in Chinese Cinema”
Network of European Cinema Studies Conference, Lund University, Sweden, July 2009
“The Harmony of Dislocation in Finnish and Israeli Cinema” – Negotiating Difference in Displacement”
Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Tokyo, Japan, May 2009
“Reindeer Sushi in a Global Helsinki – Reciprocal Transnationalism in Finnish and Japanese Cinema”
Screen, University of Glasgow, July 2008
“Finnish Cinema in the Era of Globalisation: the Curious Case of Jadesoturi (Jade Warrior)”
Pre-constituted panel, ‘New Directions in Nordic Cinema Studies’.
Gender and National Identity Conference, University of East Anglia, June 2006
“Men Without National Pasts – Re-interpreting Finnish Masculinity in Aki Kaurismäki’s Films”
Interdisciplinarity conference, University of Southampton, March 2005
“Imagining Middle Earth: Constructions of Nationhood in The Lord of the Rings”, collaboration with Dr. Sabine Clemm
