ERC grant to Samu Niskanen

Historian Samu Niskanen has received a grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his project Medieval Publishing from c. 1000 to 1500.

The supports research on all fields by offering grants open to application. The highly competitive ERC grants are worth more than their cash value, as they also impact university rankings. This year, the ERC granted a total of €485 million in funding as Starting Grants offered to a total of 325 researchers around Europe.

Samu Niskanen is a university lecturer in history at the University of Helsinki and a researcher at Jesus College, University of Oxford. His research project focuses on book publishing between the 11th and 16th centuries.

– It is a misconception that publication as a deliberate process did not exist before the invention of the printing press. Publication strategies have existed for as long as writers have tried to find an audience for their work. Such strategies are also an excellent keystone for research into more extensive changes in long-term social and political continuums.

As the project moves forward, Niskanen will add two postdoctoral researchers and one doctoral student to his team. He is also interested in expanding the project more intensely into the field of digital humanities.