Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja

Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja (b. 1975) is an agronomist and agrarian historian. Since January 2025, she has been working as a researcher at the Division of Agrarian History, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

Eva-Lotta conducts research on people's economic and social conditions during the early modern period (ca. 1550–1800) – a time of major transformation, both globally and locally. She focuses in particular on Sami communities and other reindeer-herding Indigenous peoples, and how they created and maintained local norms and rules for organizing their livelihoods – primarily through hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. A self-governance perspective helps broaden the historical narrative of the Sami and other reindeer-herding peoples, which has often been told from a state-centered point of view. 

As of January 2025, Eva-Lotta is part of the five-year research project TransRein at SLU, funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The project also includes researchers Jesper Larsson, Hanna Bendz, Matthew Jacobson, and Martin Andersson. TransRein investigates why and how a major shift in land use took place during the early modern period – when many households across the vast region from the Norwegian Sea to the Bering Strait transitioned from hunting and fishing with small reindeer herds to large-scale pastoral reindeer husbandry.

The project connects to the interest in self-governance by analyzing how the transformation was not only a response to external influences, but also driven by local actors with their own traditions, experiences, and strategies. It thus highlights one of the most profound shifts in human history – the transition from foraging to food production.

The research is based on historical sources that offer insights into Sami life, including court records, tax registers, state commissions, clerical reports, and travel accounts.

Eva-Lotta partcipates as a lecturer in the summer course on agrarian history, LB0094.

Eva-Lotta is a visiting researcher at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Mid Sweden University in Östersund.

Visiting address: Kunskapens Väg 1, Building P, Östersund.

Office: P2615

Eva-Lotta holds a Master of Science in Agronomy and a PhD in Agrarian History from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), where she earned her doctorate in 2009. She then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stockholm University.

Since then, she has worked as a researcher and lecturer in agrarian history at SLU (2016–2023), a senior policy analyst at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (2018–2023),and a senior quality officer at the Vice-Chancellor’s Office at Mid Sweden University (2024). In January 2025, she returned to SLU as a researcher.

From March 1 to December 31, 2025, alongside her research, she is carrying out a 30 % consultancy assignment at Mid Sweden University, reviewing the university’s strategic quality assurance work.

Books

Larsson, Jesper and Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja. 2022. Self-Governance and Sami Communities. Transitions in Early Modern Natural Resource Management. Palgrave Macmillan. xvi + 248 sidor. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-87498-8 (See book reviews in: Pastoralism, Comparative Legal History and Transnational Environmental Law)

Päiviö, Eva-Lotta. 2008. Det agrara landskapet på vinst eller förlust - Biologiska och historiska värden inom lantbrukets nya uppdrag. Acta Universitatis agriculturae Sueciae 2008:95. SLU. Uppsala. https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/1899/1/Acta_Thesis_No_2008_95.pdf

Articles, book chapters and reviews

Larsson, Jesper and Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja. 2021. 'Hunting by Early Modern Lule Sami Households'. Arctic, 74(3): 323–338. https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/73281

Larsson, Jesper and Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja. 2020. 'Freshwater Fishing Strategies in Early Modern Sami Households'. Arctic Anthropology, 57(2): 197–211. DOI: 10.3368/aa.57.2.197

Larsson, Jesper and Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja. 2020. 'Early Modern Reindeer Husbandry, Sami Economy, and Grazing Rights'. International Journal of the Commons, 14(1): 91–107. DOI: 10.5334/ijc.965

Frankelius, Per; Päiviö Sjaunja, Eva-Lotta and Maths Isacson. 2018. Avhandlingsrecension. ‘Så introducerades traktorn i det svenska lantbruket: Per Thunström, Traktorernas intåg: Teknik, produktion och marknadsföring i Sverige under introduktionstiden 1905–1930’. Historisk tidskrift, 138(2): 327-333. https://www.historisktidskrift.se/index.php/june20/article/view/452

Päiviö, Eva-Lotta. 2017. 'Livelihood diversification in Early Modern Sami Households in Northern Sweden'. In: Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective, Alps Scandinavia and Beyond, Red.: A. Panjek, J. Larsson and L. Mocarelli, s. 137-159. University of Primorska Press, Koper. https://www.hippocampus.si/ISBN/978-961-7023-03-9/mobile/index.html#p=138

Päiviö, Eva-Lotta. 2017. Kortare recensioner. 'Catarina Lundström, Den goda viljan: Kvinnliga missionärer och koloniala möten i Tunisien och västra Jämtland'. Historisk tidskrift, 137(2): 336-338. https://historisktidskrift.se/index.php/june20/article/view/613

Päiviö, Eva-Lotta. 2012. 'Generationsöverföring inom samiska renskötselföretag i Sverige från c:a 1930 till nutid: En projektbeskrivning'. In: Uppsala mitt i Sápmi - Rapport från ett symposium arrangerat av Föreningen för samisk-relaterad forskning i Uppsala, Upplandsmuseet 4–5 maj 2011. Eds.: H. Tunón, M. Frändén, C-G. Ojala and M-B. Öhman. s. 47-50. Uppsala: Naptek.

Reports

Päiviö, Eva-Lotta; Wissman, Jörgen and Helena Andersson. 2010. 'Axel 2 – utvärdering av åtgärder för att förbättra miljön och landskapet'. 260 sidor. In: Halvtidsutvärdering av landsbygdsprogram för Sverige 2007-2013. Eds. E. Rabinowicz, and E. Kaspersson. Dnr: Jo 10.013. Stockholm: Näringsdepartementet.  https://www.regeringen.se/rapporter/2010/11/jo-10.013/