Henrik Meinander

Carl Henrik Meinander
Born May 19, 1960, Helsinki

PhD 1994 (Finnish and Scandinavian history), University of Helsinki
Master of Letters 1991 (Pedagogics) University of Glasgow
Master of Arts 1987 (Finnish and Scandinavian history), University of Helsinki

Director of research, researcher 2015–, Driving Forces of Democracy research programme, University of Helsinki, (Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation)
Professor of History 2001–, University of Helsinki
Vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts 2010–13, University of Helsinki
Project researcher 2008–10, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland
Head of the Department of History 2004–06, University of Helsinki
Senior research fellow 2007–08, Academy of Finland
Acting associate professor of the history of science and learning 1997–98, University of Helsinki
Intendant 1991–97, Mannerheim Museum
Research associate in history 1991–97, 1998–99, University of Helsinki
PhD student, Academy of Finland 1988–89, Ministry of Education 1990
Part-time history teacher 1986–87, Mattlidens gymnasium

Research themes:
Right-wing radicalism, the history of sport, the history of science and learning, historiography, military history, the social history of ideologies, Swedishness in Finland, the history of security policy, the driving forces of democracy

Publications, research projects and other academic activity

Awards and honours:

Årets Nors 2010 (annual prize awarded to former students of the Helsinki Normal Lyceum)

Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation prize for academic research 2008

The Swedish Academy’s Finland Prize 2007

Oskar Öflund Foundation prize 2002

Photo: Julia von Boguslawski
Written by Henrik Meinander (Tomas Sjöblom, ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington

Elected offices and connections

The highest offices Dr Henrik Meinander has held at the University and in academia have been his terms as Head of the Department of History (2004–2006) and Vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts (2010–2013), his membership on the board and the research council of the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (SLS) (1998–) and the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (2003–), as well as his post as Inspector (supervisor) of the student nation Nylands Nation vid Helsingfors universitet (2010–).

Dr Meinander has chaired three editorial boards for scholarly journals: Historisk Tidskrift för Finland, Biografiskt lexikon för Finland, and Zacharias Topelius Skrifter. He has also sat on several boards of trustees (The Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, the Research Foundation of the University of Helsinki) as well as the boards of the Finnish Historical Society and the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. He has also been a columnist for the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet since 1999.

Dr Meinander’s international connections can be divided into four categories. First those made when he was a doctoral student at the University of Glasgow and sixteen years an international member of the editorial board of The International Journal of the History of Sport. Second, those forged through participation in numerous international evaluations of universities and through being an expert for foreign professorial appointments. Third, those made through his activities in Swedish-Finnish cooperation bodies and research projects – as Director of the Finnish Institute in Stockholm, member of the Board of the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre in Hanasaari, as Research Director of the Driving Forces of Democracy research project. Fourth, those forged through the publication of some of his books (A History of Finland; Finland 1944) in several languages. Since 2003, Dr Meinander has also been a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

By Written by Henrik Meinander (Tomas Sjöblom ed.), translated by Tero Heikkinen, revised by Matthew Billington