Anni Elina Calcara

I received my Master in Arts degree with a major in English Language Culture from the University of Eastern Finland in June 2018. As a minor, I completed the subject teacher’s pedagogical studies. I started my doctoral studies in the Social and Cultural Encounters (SCE) program in January 2019. The initial title of my dissertation is “Impact Left Behind: Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’s Left Behind Franchise as an Ideological and Social Phenomenon”. In my article-based dissertation I examine the relationship between religious popular culture and ideology, and the influence religious popular culture products have in a society. My dissertation is supervised by professor Jopi Nyman and professor Risto Turunen.

Additionally, I am completing another Master of Arts degree in Literature. In this master’s thesis, I examine the role and significance of space in Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

I am the second vice president of The Society for Cultural Studies in Finland (2021-2022) and a member of the board of The Finnish American Studies Association, FASA, (2021-2022).