Kalle Pihlainen

Biography and/or project

My research and teaching centre on issues of historical representation and the uses of history in academic as well as popular contexts. I hold adjunct professorships in Finland in political history and cultural history as well as philosophy, with specializations in the theory and philosophy of history (University of Turku), philosophy and cultural theory (Åbo Akademi University) and the philosophy of historical culture (University of Oulu). Current projects engage with the nature of historians’ expertise, the ethics and politics of historical representation, the turn to materiality in recent theory debates and the role of embodied understanding in language-use.

I co-edit Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice and work to promote research in the theory and philosophy of history through a number of other organizations. A recent book, The Work of History: Constructivism and a Politics of the Past (Routledge, 2017), explores current theory debates and their implications for writing history today. It has been translated into Spanish as La obra de historia: Constructivismo y política del pasado (Palinodia, 2019).