Historisches Institut

Team Historisches Institut

Prof. Dr. Heli Huhtamaa

Assistenzprofessorin ERC

Abteilung für Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Umweltgeschichte

Telefon
+41 31 684 48 03
E-Mail
heli.huhtamaa@unibe.ch
Büro
D 111, Muesmattstrasse 45
Postadresse
Universität Bern
Historisches Institut
Länggassstrasse 49
3012 Bern

Lebenslauf

From 2022 Assistant Professor, University of Bern.
PI for SERI funded ERC Starting Grant project VolCOPE and SNSF funded Ambizione project DEBTS
2020 - 2022 Postdoctoral assistant, Section of Economic, Social and Environmental History (WSU) and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern.
2018 - 2019 SNSF Early Postdoc. Mobility Research Fellow at the Heidelberg Centre for the Environment, University of Heidelberg.
2017 - 2018 Postdoc Researcher at the Institute for History and Art History, University of Utrecht within the Research Project „Coordinating for Life“
2017 Double Doctorate: Ph.D. of Science in Climate Sciences (University of Bern) and Doctor of Philosophy (University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu).
Title of the thesis: „Exploring the Climate-Society Nexus with Tree-Ring Evidence. Climate, Crop Yields, and Hunger in Medieval and Early Modern North-East Europe“.
2014 - 2017

Doctoral candidate for a double doctorate degree (cotutelle):

  • Candidate for a PhD in History: Past, Space and Environment in Society -doctoral program, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland.

  • Candidate for a PhD in Climate Sciences, Graduate School of Climate Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland.
2012 Master of Science (MSc) in Geography, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland
2011 Master of Arts (MA) in History, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

Forschungsschwerpunkte

  • Climate history / historical climatology
  • Historical Geography
  • Environmental history
  • Interdisciplinarity between historical and climate sciences
  • Human consequences of the Little Ice Age
  • Nordic pre-industrial history

Forschungsprojekte

VICES (Volcanic Eruptions, Climate and Society in History)

Funding:

  • SERI funded ERC Starting Grant project Climatic impact and human consequences of past volcanic eruptions (VolCOPE).
  • SNSF funded Ambizione project Distal socio-economic impacts of big volcanic eruptions in 1500–1900 CE Switzerland and Sweden (DEBTS).

Duration: 2022–2027
 

Blocked by Ice: Winter Climate Proxy Data from Historical Harbour Toll Records

Funding: The Cogito Foundation
Duration: 2021–2022
 

Climate extremes and population dynamics in the northern Baltic Sea region prior to the industrialization (1636–1935)

Funding: SNSF funded Early Postdoc. Mobility fellowship
Duration: 2018–2019
 

Frosts and Food Crises: Understanding climate, its impacts, and food system vulnerability to climate change in pre-modern North-East Europe

(conducted in joint-supervision at the University of Eastern Finland and at the University of Bern).

Funding:

  • SERI funded Swiss Government Excellence Research Scholarship.
  • Finnish Cultural Foundation, Central Fund, Finland.
  • Finnish Cultural Foundation, the North Karelia Regional Fund, Finland.

Duration: 2013–2017

Thesis: Exploring the Climate-Society Nexus with Tree-Ring Evidence. Climate, Crop Yields, and Hunger in Medieval and Early Modern North-East Europe

Publikationen und Vorträge

Huhtamaa, H. Stoffel, M. and Corona, C. 2022. Recession or resilience? Long-range socioeconomic consequences of the 17th century volcanic eruptions in northern Fennoscandia. Climate of the Past, 18(9), pp. 2077–2092

Huhtamaa, H. and Ljungqvist, F.C. 2021 Climate in Nordic historical research – a research review and future perspectives. Scandinavian Journal of History, 46(5), pp. 665-695.

Ljungqvist, F. C., Seim, A. and Huhtamaa, H. 2021. Climate and society in European history. WIREs Climate Change, 12(2), e691.

Degroot, D., Anchukaitis, K., Bauch, M., Burnham, J., Carnegy, F., Cui, J., de Luna, K., Guzowski, P., Hambrecht, G., Huhtamaa, H., Izdebski, A., Kleemann, K., Moesswilde, E. Neupane, N., Newfield, T., Pei, G., Xoplaki, E. and Zappia, N. 2021. Towards a rigorous understanding of societal responses to climate change. Nature, 591, pp. 539–550.

Huhtamaa, H., Helama, S., Leijonhufvud, L. and Ljungqvist, F. C. 2020. Combining the archives of nature and society: Tree rings and tithes. PAGES Magazine, 28(2), pp. 50–51.

Huhtamaa, H. 2020. Climate and the crises of the early fourteenth century in north-east Europe? In: Schenk G. J.and Bauch, M. (eds.) The Crisis of the 14th Century: "Teleconnections" between Environmental and Societal Change? Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, pp. 80–99.

Huhtamaa, Heli and Helama, Samuli, 2017. Distant impact – tropical volcanic eruptions and climate-driven agricultural crises in seventeenth-century Ostrobothnia, Finland. Journal of Historical Geography, 57, pp. 40-51.

Huhtamaa, Heli and Helama, Samuli, 2017. Reconstructing crop yield variability in Finland – Long-term perspective of the cultivation history on the agricultural periphery since ad 760. Holocene, 27, pp. 3-11.

Huhtamaa, H., 2015. Climatic anomalies, food systems, and subsistence crises in medieval Novgorod and Ladoga. Scandinavian Journal of History, 40(4), pp. 562-590.

Huhtamaa, H., Helama, S., Holopainen, J., Rethorn, C. and Rohr, C., 2015. Crop yield responses to temperature fluctuations in 19th century Finland: provincial variation in relation to climate and tree-rings. Boreal Environment Research, 20(6), pp. 707-723.

List of publications and oral contributions, May 2021 (PDF, 231KB)

 

BORIS-Publikationsliste (Bern Open Repository and Information System)

Preise und Ehrungen

Prize for the Humanities, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Finland.

The Young Researcher Award 2018, University of Eastern Finland, Finland.

Highly commended recognition in the Journal of Historical Geography Essay Prize 2017 for the article “Huhtamaa, Heli and Helama, Samuli, 2017. Distant impact - tropical volcanic eruptions and climate-driven agricultural crises in seventeenth-century Ostrobothnia, Finland. Journal of Historical Geography, 57, pp. 40-51”.