Heli Huhtamaa, Dr.

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University of Bern, Institute of History (Section of Economic, Social and Environmental History) & University of Bern, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
 

Short biography

Heli Huhtamaa (b. 1984) has a PhD in History from the University of Eastern Finland and a PhD of Science in Climate Sciences from the University of Bern (both received in 2017). She is currently working at the University of Bern, conducting research with the Institute of History and teaching at the Graduate School of Climate Sciences. From spring 2022, she will lead an interdisciplinary four-year project investigating distal volcanic impacts on climate and society in pre-industrial Europe.
 

Research summary

Huhtamaa’s research explores climate–society relationships in the historical past. She is interested in the both sides of these relationships: how climatic changes have influenced human well-being and livelihoods on the one hand, and how humans have adapted to past climatic changes and extremes on the other. Her research focuses mostly on the Northern Europe, from the late Middle Ages to the 19th century.
 

Keywords

• Climate history / historical climatology
• Environmental History
• Agricultural History
• History of Pre-industrial Northern Europe
• the Little Ice Age