Tanja Riekkinen

Tanja Riekkinen is a researcher and university teacher specializing in the history of energy transitions, oil, and climate issues. She has published a chapter on this topic in Environmental History of Finland from the 1700s to the Present (Suomen ympäristöhistoria 1700-luvulta nykyaikaan, Vastapaino). Riekkinen has delivered several presentations on the subject at academic conferences. In her doctoral dissertation, “Imagining Petrofutures: Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Energy Transition to Oil in Finland, 1948–1973/74,” Riekkinen examines visions of Finland’s energy futures. Her doctoral research has been funded by the Kerttu Saalasti Foundation, the Otto A. Malm Donation Fund, the Kone Foundation, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, the University of Oulu Graduate School, the University of Oulu Scholarship Fund, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Riekkinen completed her upper secondary education at Kärsämäki Upper Secondary School. She graduated as a visual artisan from Vantaa Vocational College Varia. Riekkinen was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Oulu in 2015 and a Master of Arts degree from the same Department of History in 2016.

Riekkinen has worked as a university teacher in the minor subject of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oulu since 2021. She was a visiting researcher at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in 2022. In 2025, Riekkinen worked as a project researcher in the Academy of Finland project History of Winter: Winter and people during the Industrial Transformation of Finland.