Biography
Sanna Karkulehto is Professor of Literature at the University of Jyväskylä and the School of Resource Wisdom (JYU.Wisdom) and holds the title of Docent of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Oulu and Gender Studies at the University Lapland, Finland. She earned her PhD in literature at the University of Oulu. She has previously worked as a Lecturer in Film Studies, Senior Lecturer in Literature, and Professor of Literature at the University of Oulu. She has held visiting professorships and scholarships in the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Rice University, Houston TX (USA); Gender Studies at Central European University, Budapest (Hungary and Austria); and the Posthumanities Hub at Linköping University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment), Stockholm (Sweden). She has paid shorter research visits to University of Melbourne (Australia); University of Utrecht (Netherlands); University of Washington, Seattle (USA); and University of California, Berkeley (USA).
In her research work Karkulehto studies literature in relation to contemporary culture, media and society. She is specialized in ethical and political questions concerning diversity, differences, otherness, and power in contemporary literature and culture. Her most recent areas of interest cover gender-based violence research, in which the research projects she has led have been funded by the Research Council of Finland, the Kone Foundation, and Finnish Cultural Foundation, as well as environmental humanities and human–animal studies, sustainability studies, feminist posthumanities, and planetary well-being. She is currently leading the reseach project Kynä, jolla kirjoitan, on kaadettu puu. Kotimaisen nykykirjallisuuden tuottama tieto metsistä ja metsäsuhteista osana metsäkulttuurista kestävyysmurrosta - Koneen Säätiö, funded by the Kone Foundation. Her co-edited works include, e.g.,
- Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Planetary Well-being (Routledge 2024)
- Violence, Gender and Affect. Interpersonal, Institutional and Ideological Practices (Palgrave Macmillan 2021)
- Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture (Routledge 2020)
- Paperinen avaruus. Näkökulmia kirjaesineen yhteenkietoutumiin (Nykykulttuuri 2020)
- Sukupuoli ja väkivalta – lukemisen etiikaa ja politiikkaa (SKS 2017)
- Elämykset kulttuurina ja kulttuuri elämyksinä. Kulttuurintutkimuksen näkökulmia elämystalouteen (Nykykulttuuri 2016)
- Suomen nykykirjallisuus 1-2 (SKS 2013)
- The monograph Seksin mediamarkkinat (Gaudeamus) was published in 2011.
Karkulehto is the editor-in-chief of Wisdom Letters–Towards Planetary Well-being publication.