Harry Lönnroth is Professor of Scandinavian Languages at the University of Jyväskylä. His research examines the Swedish language and Scandinavian philology from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. His scholarly interests range from Old Swedish chivalric poetry and seventeenth-century scribal practices to early Swedish drama and the linguistic biography of architect Alvar Aalto. Lönnroth’s work contributes to a deeper understanding of linguistic practices and literary culture in the medieval and early modern periods.
Harry Lönnroth (born 1975 in Tampere) began his appointment at the University of Jyväskylä in August 2017. Prior to this, he served as Professor of Swedish at the University of Vaasa from 2011 to 2017, where he also held several administrative positions, including Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Head of the Unit of Scandinavian Languages. At the University of Jyväskylä, he has undertaken a number of positions of trust, such as Chair of the Campus Development Group (2018–2021), Chair of the Doctoral Conferment Committee (2019), and Chair of the Cultural Activities Advisory Group (2023–2024).
Lönnroth studied Scandinavian languages at Tampere University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in 2000 and a PhD in 2006. His studies also included general linguistics, teacher education studies, Norwegian language and culture, and history of ideas and learning. He holds the title of Docent of Scandinavian Languages at Tampere University and Docent of Scandinavian Philology at the University of Turku. In addition, he has studied at Uppsala University and has served as a fixed-term professor at the universities of Tampere and Turku.
Lönnroth’s doctoral dissertation, focusing on the town court records of Ekenäs (Tammisaari) from 1678 to 1695, was published in 2007 in the series Bidrag till kännedom av Finlands natur och folk by the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. As a researcher, he has focused in particular on the Swedish language and Scandinavian philology from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, often in close collaboration with historians. He has also published on sociolinguistics and translation studies. In addition, Lönnroth is an active literary translator, and his Finnish translations have been published by, among others, the Finnish Literature Society, Vastapaino, and Warelia.
From 2008 to 2010, Lönnroth worked as a postdoctoral researcher in a project funded by the Academy of Finland entitled Linguistic Change in an Industrial Town: Swedishness in Tampere, 1779–2000. Later, from 2020 to 2025, he served as Principal Investigator of a project funded by the Kone Foundation, Town Scribes in the Kingdom of Sweden in the Early Modern Period (1614–1714): Their Profession, Agency and Use of Language.
Lönnroth is a member of the board of Sällskap för östnordisk filologi (since 2017) and of the editorial board of Diplomatarium Fennicum (since 2018). He is also a member of Föreningen för nordisk filologi, Glossa, Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, and the Tampere Historical Society. From 2019 to 2023, he served as editor of LexicoNordica, and since 2024 he has been an editor of Folkmålsstudier.
Lönnroth has received several awards and distinctions, including doctoral dissertation prizes from the Swedish Literature Society in Finland and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2007), as well as the distinction of Ultimus Doctor at the doctoral conferment ceremony of Tampere University (2010). He is also a foreign or corresponding member of international learned societies, including the Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala, the Royal Society for Publication of Manuscripts on Scandinavian History, and the Royal Skyttean Society.
