Antero Holmila

As a historian specializing in contemporary Finnish and international history, my research interests include the Cold War, crises and postwar studies - often from the perspectives of politics of history and experiences. 

In my first monograph, "Reporting Holocaust in the British, Swedish, and Finnish Press 1945-1950 (Palgrave, 2011) I challenged the prevailing notion that there was no discourse on the Holocaust immediately after World War II. My most recent book (in Finnish Suomalaisten kylmä sota, 2023) examined the ordinary people and the Cold War in Finland. The monograph is currently under contract with DeGruyter and will be published in 2025 in English. 

My current project, "Liquid Neutrality", funded by the Research Council of Finland, examines Finlan'd, Sweden's and Switzerland's foreign economic policy towards the OPEC countries between 1973 and 1986. Recently I also edited a volume with Pasi Ihalainen, titled Nationalism and Internationalism Intertwined (Berghahn, 2022) investigates the evolving conceptual shifts associated with "internationalism" from various angles, including humanitarian aid, sports, economics, and gender dynamics. 

My other works, all in Finnish, have explored the Winter War from the perspective of global media coverage and the transition from wartime to peacetime in Finland from 1945 to 1949. Within the realm of "crises research," I am particularly intrigued by how historical narratives in the press have historically evolved, spanning across temporal and spatial contexts throughout the 20th century in Europe and the United States.

To provide some background on my academic journey, I pursued my undergraduate studies in History and Politics at the University of Kent in Canterbury, followed by earning my MA at the University of Exeter. Subsequently, I obtained my PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London. Since 2008, I have been a part of the faculty at the University of Jyväskylä, specifically within the Department of History and Ethnology.