A special issue of Babylon journal (vol. 25 No. 2/2024) Palestina/Israel och etnografi i Mellanöstern edited by Tiina Hyyppä and Tiina Järvi is out now. The Issue celebrates the work of Hilma Granqvist who started her fieldwork in Palestine 100 years ago this year.
Hilma Granqvist (1890–1972) was the first woman in Finland to earn a PhD in practical philosophy. In the 1920s and ‘30s she conducted a detailed ethnological investigation in the Palestinian village of Artas. Granqvist developed a new method of research, which involved active participation in the life of the community she studied, and was one of the first ethnologists to use photography in her work. She took hundreds of photographs in Artas, many of women and children. Her fieldwork in Palestine has gained worldwide attention although it despite the criticism it faced in Finland at the time. Granqvist’s research material has been in great demand and is available in the digital Hilma Granqvist archive.
In addition to the co-editor Tiina Hyyppä who is a FIME grant recipient, the issue features an article by FIME’s former researcher Samuli Lähteenaho, and an essay by FIME’s former board member Pekka Lindqvist. The issue is freely available online.
More information on Hilma Granqvist
- Archive of Hilma Granqvist
- Sofia Häggman: Dedicated to Palestine: The Life and Work of Ethnologist Hilma Granqvist (2023)
- Hilma Granqvist’s work and legacy in Palestine and in scholarship -seminar on YouTube (2021)
Photo: Palestine Exploration Fund