05/2021
Research Coordinator, University of Oulu, Faculty of Humanities

11 – 12/2019
Research Fellow, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Faculty of Theology

02 – 07/2018
Research Fellow, University of Utrecht, Ancient History and Classical Civilization

09/2017 – 02/2021
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology, funded by the Academy of Finland

09 – 12/2014 and 10 – 12/2016
University Lecturer in History, University of Oulu

04/2013 – 08/2017
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Oulu, Faculty of Humanities, funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation

11/2012
Doctor of Philosophy, General History, University of Oulu

Weathering the Storm: Religious Responses to Communal Crises in Ancient Greece

Crises are socially constructed, they are given meaning through communicative acts, and cultural factors can both cause and prevent crises. The project examines the complex role that religion played in crisis management, recovery, and communal resilience during and after crises in ancient Greece from the fifth to the first century BC. The project has three foci: 1) religious measures taken during and after crises and their role in promoting social stability and change; 2) the role of religion in crisis communication, including crisis narratives, the creation and alleviation of a sense of crisis, and the religious rationalisation of causes, actions, and outcomes; 3) post-crisis developments in religious worldviews and their contribution to adaptation processes. The goal is to identify the ancient Greek mechanisms of religious responses to crisis, their social logics, and the interplay between crisis and religious thought. The project will advance our knowledge of how religious and mental factors, group-specific concepts and values, and public communication influence crisis management and promote community resilience.

Fields of research

Greco-Roman religion, Study of mental images and prejudice, Gender and social dynamics in Antiquity

forthcoming
Marika Rauhala, Instituting Impiety: The Dynamics of Religious Prejudice in Ancient Greece (forthcoming).

Marika Rauhala, Marja-Leena Hänninen, and Darja Šterbenc Erker, “Ensuring Divine Favour in the Face of Crises: Creating Resilience through Religious Narratives”, Phoenix (forthcoming).

2021
Marika Rauhala,“Dissecting and Constructing Magic in Greco-Roman Literature”. In N. Nikki and K. Valkama (eds.), Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean: Cognitive, Historical, and Material Perspectives on the Bible and Its Contexts. Mundus Orientis 3. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2021, 87–113.

2019
Marika Rauhala,“Arresting Alternatives: Religious Prejudice and Bacchantic Worship in Greek Literature”.Numen66.1 (2019): 1–55.

2017
Marika Rauhala,“Obscena Galli Praesentia: Dehumanizing Cybele’s Eunuch Priests through Disgust”.In D. Lateiner and D. Spatharas (eds.), The Ancient Emotion of Disgust. Emotions of the Past. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2017, 235–252.