We would like to introduce our Fellow ELBOW research members – or FELBOWs – to our blog readers.

In the previous four blog posts, we have got to know the researchers in our project: project leader Soile Ylivuori, postdoc researcher Annika Raapke, university researcher Stefan Schröder, and doctoral researcher Edna Huotari.

We have two team members left for the introductions who contribute on the management of the project. In this blogpost, you will get to know our project coordinator Lotta Vuorio. Continue reading the interview and you will get to know her a little better!

Who are you and what is your role in the project?

I’m Lotta Vuorio and I work as the project coordinator to support the ELBOW team. Using the sports metaphors, I would say Soile is the coach of our team; Annika, Stefan, and Edna are the players of our team; and I would be the team manager. My job is to take care of the practical things, such as this website and research communications, and make sure that as many people as possible will know about our project and its results.

How did you get interested in history in the first place?

Even though I do not contribute to the project as a researcher, I have my own personal interest in history as well as a doctoral researcher. Originally, I realized in the primary school that history is cool. I have always had amazing teachers in history, and after high school I wanted to study something that I truly find interesting and meaningful. No regrets of this choice.

What is the best part of working with historians?

For a quite long time, I have also worked as a freelance journalist, and that is why I love to interview people and learn something new. When I work with historians in this ELBOW project or for example regarding the history-themed podcast I’m producing, I get to learn a lot. My favourite thing is to witness the passion and excitement researchers share for their research topics or projects. I also appreciate the expertise historians have – they are excellent in proposing new questions and finding new viewpoints to different topics, and they are talented in setting smaller things into larger context or perspective.

What is the weirdest thing you have come up with in an archive?

For my doctoral thesis, I’m looking into different kind of health manuals in the nineteenth-century England. When describing the – then known – ”case studies” where medical gymnastics cured – or at least claimed to cure – people with various diseases, I found this one case where a lady’s malignant cancer on the breast was cured by a little dog frequently sucking her nipple. I think that was a bit weird, and this is why I wrote a short essay about it.

How would you describe ELBOW project in one sentence?

When a group of intelligent, warm-hearted, and curious researchers work together, it has to be electrifying – follow us and you’ll see!