Anna-Leena Siikala

Arja Anna-Leena Siikala was a professor emeritus at the University of Helsinki, specialising in folk-belief, mythology, and shamanism, along with oral storytelling and traditionality.

Education and career

Anna-Leena Siikala graduated as a Master of Philosophy from the University of Helsinki in 1968, took her licenciate degree in 1970, and Ph.D. in 1978. She was a professor of folkloristics at Helsinki 1995–2007. Siikala held the following professorships:

1995–2007: Helsingin yliopisto, Professor of Folklore.
1999–2004: Suomen Akatemia, Academy Professor.
1988–1995: Joensuun yliopisto, Professor of Folklore Studies.
1979–1982: Turun yliopiston folkloristiikan ja uskontotieteen vs. professori

She undertook fieldwork in Finland and the Cook Islands in Polynesia, and among the Finnic-speaking peoples of Russia, Udmurt people, the Komi peoples, and the Khanty people of Siberia.
Siikala's most important research projects were Myth, history, society: Ethnic/National Traditions in the Age of Globalization and The Other Russia: Cultural Multiplicity in the Making. Together with Mihály Hoppál and Vladimir Napolskikh she edited the Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies.
In 2009, Siikala was elected to the Akateemikko.

Publications

Anna-Leena Siikala had over 230 publications to her name. Key works are:The Rite Technique of the Siberian Shaman.Interpreting Oral Narrative.Studies in Shamanism.Mythic Images and Shamanism. A Perspective on Kalevala Poetry.Return to Culture. Oral Tradition and Society in the Southern Cook Islands.
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