About

I am a historian of material culture, fashion, and everyday life, and an assistant professor of the History of Art and Culture at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki. Since I gained by my PhD at the University of Sussex in 2006, supervised by Evelyn Welch, I have held positions at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, the European University in Florence, Bard Graduate Centre in New York and Center for Textile Research in Copenhagen. I have been a principal investigator in two international projects, The Material Renaissance: Costs and Consumption in Italy 1350-1600 and Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500-1800. In 2016, I received a 2m euro ERC grant to study early modern popular fashions and historical and digital reconstruction as a methodology for dress historians.

Education

PhD, Art History, University of Sussex, 2006

MA (with Distinction), Art History, University of Sussex, 2000

BA (with Honors), Art History, University of Sussex, 1999

Blog Posts

    Publications

     

    Monographs


    2018, Beyond the Palace: The Material World and Everyday Life of Renaissance Artisans and Shopkeepers (submission August 2018).


     

    Selected Peer-reviewed Articles

    2018  ‘European Influences on Scandinavian Dress: Clothing, Fashion and Foreign Textile Trade in Sixteenth Century Sweden-Finland’, submitted  March 2018.


     

    2018 ‘Cheap Magnificence?: Imitation and Low Cost Luxuries in Renaissance Europe’, in


    Catherine Kovesi (ed.), Luxury and the Ethics of Greed in the Early Modern World, (forthcoming), Brepols, Early European Research Series, p. 228-275.


     

    2018 ‘Hospitality and Home’, in A. Flather (ed.), A Cultural History of the Home: The


    Renaissance, 1450-1650, (forthcoming) Cultural History Series, Bloomsbury.


     

    2016  ‘Dress, dissemination and Innovation: Artisan ‘Fashions’ in Renaissance Italy’, in E. Welch (ed.), Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500-1800 (Oxford University Press/Pasold, 2017), pp. 143-165.


     

    2010, ‘Domestic Space and Identity: Artisans, Shopkeepers and Traders in Sixteenth-Century Siena’, special issue edited by Fabrizio Nevola and Guido Rebecchini, Urban History (Cambridge University Press), vol. 37, 2010, 372-385.


     

    2010,  ‘‘Conspicuous’ Consumption and Popular Consumers: Material Culture and Social Status in Sixteenth-Century Siena’, Renaissance Studies (Wiley), Vol. 24, issue 5, 2010, 654-670.


     

    2009, ‘Artisans, Pawn-broking and the Circulation of Material Goods in Sixteenth-Century Siena, in M. Ascheri, G. Mazzini’, F. Nevola (eds.), Siena nel Rinascimento: l’ultimo secolo della Repubblica, II: Arte, architettura, cultura. Acts of the Conference held in Siena 28-30, September 2003 and 16-18 September 2004 (Monte dei paschi di Siena, 2009), 271-81.


     

    2007, ‘The Innkeeper’s Goods: The Use and Acquisition of Household Property in Sixteenth Century Siena’, in M. O’Malley and E. Welch (eds.), The Material Renaissance, 1450-1600 (Manchester University Press, 2007), 242-59.


     

     

     

    Projects


    • PI, Re-Fashioning the Renaissance: Popular Groups, Fashion and the Material and Cultural Significance of Clothing in Europe, 1550-1650, funded by ERC, Horizon 2020, grant agreement No 726195, 2017-2022.

    • PI,Global Encounters: Fashion, Culture and Foreign Trade in Scandinavia, 1500-1630, funded by FP7-Marie Curie Actions, REA grant agreement No 329672.

    • PI, Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500-1800 (UK), led by E. Welch, funded by HERA, 2010-2013.

    • PI, The Material Renaissance: Costs and Consumption in Italy 1350-1600 (UK), led  by E. Welch, funded by AHRC and Getty Foundation, 2000-2004.

    Upcoming Talks and Conferences


    • Dressing the Early Modern: New Approaches in Fashion and Culture History, Research Seminar, Department of Art, Aalto University, 4.5.2018

    • The Art of Artisan Fashions: Moroni’s Tailor and changing culture of clothing in sixteenth century Italy, Warburg Institute, London, 14.-15.6.2018

    Memberships


    • CIETA (Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Anciens)

    • TSA (Textile Society of Amercia)

    Paula Sofia Hohti

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