Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja
Presentation
Eva-Lotta is a researcher specializing in the organization and governance of natural resource use historically, with a particular interest in local actors and user groups. Her research examines the interaction between formal institutions and informal institutions, such as local norms and practices, in land use. In recent years, she has particularly studied developments in historical Indigenous natural resource use in a Sami context. She defended her PhD-thesis in 2008 on how biological and historical values in the agrarian landscape were addressed within Swedish agricultural policy in the late twentieth century.
Alongside her research, she has many years of experience working in public administration, with a focus on issues related to organizational and quality development.
Research
Since January 2025, she has been a researcher in the ERC-funded project TransRein at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The project examines the transition from hunting, fishing, and small-scale reindeer herding to large-scale reindeer pastoralism in northern Sweden, Norway, and Finland during the early modern period (c 1500–1800), with comparisons to other reindeer-herding peoples. The focus is on local actors and everyday strategies in interaction with external drivers, based on sources such as court records, tax registers, and travel accounts.
Research projects
Research groups
Teaching
- Lecturer, Agrarian history summer course, LB0094
- Co-supervisor for PhD-candidates William Renström, SLU and Hanna Bendz, SLU
Cooperation
- Visiting researcher, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mid Sweden University (2025-)
Background
- Researcher, Agrarian History, SLU (2025–)
- Quality coordinator, Vice-Chancellor’s Office, Mid Sweden University (2024)
- Senior policy analyst, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (2018–2023)
- Researcher and lecturer, Agrarian History, SLU (2016–2023)
- Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Economic History, Stockholm University (2011–2015, including two periods of parental leave)
- PhD in Agrarian History, SLU (2009)
- Administrative officer, County Administrative Board of Jönköping (2001–2004)
- Master of Science in Agronomy, SLU (2001)