Maija Ojala-Fulwood’s main research fields include medieval and early modern history, migration history and mobility studies, gender history, urban history, craft guilds and the history of the Baltic Sea region. In her research she uses both quantitative and qualitative methods such as life-course analysis and intersectional approach. With these methodologies she seeks to unravel the multiple mobilities that existed in the past and deconstruct the conventional categories of migration.

She is interested in long term developments of labour migration patterns and connecting the past with the present. She focuses on labour and career mobility, but also addresses involuntary mobilities such as banishments from cities, paying attention to the fluid notion of voluntariness. In addition, she studies how different social identities, the combination of gender, age, social status, ability, religion, ethnicity and migration status affected mobility.

Maija Ojala-Fulwood received her PhD in 2014 at the Tampere University, Finland with topic related to the urban craft guilds. In 2016‒2017 she chaired the interdisciplinary research project Migration, Movement of Labour and Multiethnic Cities from Medieval Times to Present in Tampere. After working one year at the University of Salzburg she started her current research project in 2019 at the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Research (TUCEMEMS). The project examines how different authorities such as the Crown, Church, city magistrates and craft guilds managed mobility in Early Modern Northern Europe. She has also worked in several culture-historic museums in Finland and as a tour guide. She relaxes in nature and in Finnish sauna.

Visit Maija Ojala-Fulwood’s institutional webpage.

Contact Maija Ojala-Fulwood at mapeoj@gmail.com