WORKSHOP: Egodocuments in Legal History: Individual Experiences and Memories as Sources of Legal Cultural Change (Turku: Turku Faculty of Law, 8 FEB 2024)

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

The appreciation of different types of autobiographical writing as historical sources has grown considerably in the last decades. Diaries, travel journals, memoirs and autobiographies describe their authors’ affairs, impressions and emotions. Such egodocuments also include confessions, family genealogies and personal letters.

Some researchers have discovered the possibilities of egodocuments for legal historical research as sources when studying e.g. legal work, law studies, litigation and legal culture more generally. Yet, they are still much underused.

This workshop aims at exploring a variety of early modern and modern egodocuments and demonstrating their potential for legal history research. Despite the fact that egodocuments have rarely been written for legal purposes, they can be used to answer both more traditional and novel research questions in legal history.

We will discuss the uses of such sources in legal history research through examples from various types of egodocuments. During this workshop, we will investigate the range of research topics, questions and methodological issues relating to their use and how they enrich our knowledge of the legal cultures of the past.

Preliminary Program:

10.30 Welcome and some practicalities (Mia Korpiola, Turku)
10.45 The Possibilities of Egodocuments for Legal History Research (Mia Korpiola)
11.15 Discussion
11.30 Lunch
12.30 Case Study 1: Egodocuments and Early Modern Law Studies (Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen, Helsinki)
Discussion
13.10 Case Study 2: Using Egodocuments for Uncovering Nineteenth-Century Legal Work (Elsa Hietala, Turku/Sarka - The Finnish Museum of Agriculture
Discussion
13.50 Coffee
14.10 Case Study 3: Discovering the Lives of the First Swedish Female Lawyers through Egodocuments (Elsa Trolle Önnerfors, Lund)
Discussion
14.50 Introduction to workshop (Mia Korpiola)
15.00 Working in groups
15.30 Presentation of group work
16.00 Final discussion

Venue: Cal2109, Calonia, Caloniankuja 3, University of Turku
For more information, please contact prof. Mia Korpiola, mia.korpiola[at]utu.fi . Registration takes place via the following link: https://konsta.utu.fi/Default.aspx?tabid=88&tap=17539 (incl. dietary requests, allergies).