iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

📃 Publication news! Ida's first dissertation article has been published in Studia Neophilologica. The article examines the use of Old English "witch" words in early medieval prose and verse. Link to the article: doi.org/10.1080/0039...

Screenshot of Ida Meerto's article "Magical practitioners in Old English prose and verse: A study of a lexical field", in Studia Neophilologica.

132

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Tähtiin kirjoitettu -pöytäroolipelin valmistumista juhlittiin tiistaina Turun yliopistolla näytepelin muodossa! #konefoundation #koneensäätiö #titaraproject #tähtiinkirjoitettu

Kuva Tähtiin kirjoitettu -roolipelin kirjapinkoista.

Kuva, jossa Tähtiin kirjoitettu -näytepelin pelaajat näyttävät pohdiskelevilta Turun yliopiston luentosalissa.

Kuva, jossa Tähtiin kirjoitettu -näytepelin pelaajat Turun yliopiston luentosalissa kuuntelevat oikealla olevaa Sara Norjaa, joka selittää käsillään.

Kuva, jossa Tähtiin kirjoitettu -näytepelin pelaajat nauravat kovaan ääneen ja riemukkaasti Turun yliopiston luentosalissa.

161

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

🇨🇭 Lokakuussa Ida puhui työn alla olevasta artikkelistaan keskiajan Englannin kieleen, kulttuuriin ja kirjallisuuteen keskittyvässä SEM XXV:ssa (25. Studientag Englisches Mittelalter) Zürichissä. 1/ #titaraproject #konefoundation #koneensäätiö @koneensaatio.fi

A beautiful old library in Zürich, with finely carved doors and bookcases.

130

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

New TiTaRa article out! Sara's "Nourishing the alchemical child: metaphors of family life as textual cohesion in the fifteenth-century The Gracious Work" is out in first view in BJHS Themes: doi.org/10.1017/bjt....

Screen cap of the BJHS Themes page with Sara Norja's journal article "Nourishing the alchemical child: metaphors of family life as textual cohesion in the fifteenth-century The Gracious Work".

182

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

💐 Event season of spring/summer 2025, part 2 Ida attended the 8th international symposium on history of English lexicography and lexicology in Tallinn, Estonia, last week. She presented her research on Old English and Latin words for magical practitioners (& what they have to do with each other). +

Closeup photo of the ICEHL conference programme and a notebook on a desk.

112

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

🌸 Event season of spring/summer 2025, part 1 🌸 Last week, Sara gave a talk on alchemical manuscripts' visual features at the Reading Visual Devices in Early Books conference, held in Turku. The conference was organised by @emodgral.bsky.social, which TiTaRa's Mari-Liisa is also part of.

Photos of the delicious food at the Reading Visual Devices conference: an avocado starter, risotto, and a coconut pannacotta.

121

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Viime viikolla väitöskirjatutkijamme Ida vieraili Cambridgessa ja osallistui Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic -konferenssiin. Ida puhui muinaisenglantilaisesta noita-sanastosta parantamisen ja sairauden yhteyksissä. #titaraproject #konefoundation #koneensäätiö #ccasnc

A photo (by Ida Meerto) of King's College, Cambridge, with a parked line of bicycles in the foreground.

131

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

✨TiTaRa wishes everyone a lovely winter solstice, merry Yuletide and a happy New Year ✨ The past year has been full of activities & work and it's now time to quiet down for a bit. Next year will be the last full year of the project! + #titaraproject @koneensaatio.fi

Photograph of Turku Cathedral in the dark. The red-brick cathedral can be seen on the left, its stairs descending to a snowy square where a brightly lit Christmas tree stands. The sky is the calm, dark blue of a winter evening.

141

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

There's still time to submit an abstract for the Between Science and Magic special issue! 🔮📚⚗️ Proposals are welcome from all, whether you presented a paper at our symposium or not, and on all topics related to the themes of the special issue (see CfP in photo). Send us your proposals!

CALL FOR PAPERS
Between Science and Magic
A special issue of Mirator

This special issue stems from the Between Science and Magic Symposium, held 10-11 October 2024 at the University of Turku and jointly organized by the project TiTaRa: Between Science and Magic and the Finnish network of magic studies.
The special issue (Mirator 2/25) will explore the themes of the symposium and the TiTaRa project: the practices and worldviews of people operating between science and magic, as well as those engaging in practices of witchcraft and esotericism. The TiTaRa project explores questions of identity through English historical linguistics and book history, and the Between Science and Magic symposium’s papers dealt with a variety of materials and languages using methods ranging from folklore studies to archaeology.
Mirator (https://journal.fi/mirator) is a multilingual, peer reviewed open access journal published by Glossa, the Society for Medieval Studies in Finland. Mirator’s open access policy means that all texts published in the journal are freely available (to read, download, distribute, or link). The journal publishes texts in Finnish, Swedish, and English.
Submissions
We welcome submissions on all topics related to Western esotericism, magic, witchcraft, and early sciences bordering them such as astrology and alchemy. Submissions on the intersections of magic and science are especially welcome. The special issue will focus on the medieval period, but submissions related to the early modern period will be considered as well. While the special issue is related to the Between Science and Magic Symposium, we welcome article proposals by non-participants as well.
Please send a 250-word abstract and a brief biographical statement by 30 November 2024 to idwira@utu.fi. Submitted manuscripts must comply with the journal’s author guidelines (https://journal.fi/mirator/about/submissions) and will be subject to a double-blind peer review.

121

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

🍁 Conference autumn part 2🍁 TiTaRa researchers Mari-Liisa and Sara attended a conference last week in Aarhus (DK). The multidisciplinary conf, organised by the Nordic Network for Renaissance Studies, gave us 3 days of intriguing papers & other programme. #titaraproject #konefoundation #koneensäätiö

TiTaRa researchers Sara Norja and Mari-Liisa Varila looking relaxed and happy in front of a historical Danish building in Den Gamle Byn

120

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 01/10/2024

Tänään on #säätiöpäivä ! Nämäkin muinaisenglantilaisten tekstien editiot on kammattu läpi Koneen Säätiön tuella @koneensaatio.bsky.social. #säätiötekoja #October1Europe #koneensäätiö 1/

A scholarly still life photograph with a "Witches' Brew" waterbottle, an astrology-themed clipboard, and some editions of Old English texts.

132

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 23/09/2024

Last week, TiTaRa attended a symposium on the Histories of Expertise at the U of Turku (19-20 Sept). @mlvarila.bsky.social & @saranorja.bsky.social gave a talk on how alchemists and astrologers are described in Early Modern English printed books (c. 1500-1600). 1/

Flat lay photo of two plates with a delicious semifreddo dessert on them. A vase with dried flowers is on the left, out of focus. The red of the dried flowers complements the red of the sauce on the plates.

132

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 05/06/2024

🔮TiTaRa x Keskiajan Turku🔮 Kiinnostaako keskiaika? Entä magia, noituus tai alkemia? Oletko Turussa kesäkuun lopulla? Tule siis Via Tribunalin terassille perjantaina 28.6. klo 18! #titaraproject #koneensäätiö #konefoundation #keskiajanturku

Paneelikeskustelu ”magia, noituus ja alkemia”

Perjantaina 28.6.2024 klo 18.00-20.00

Via Tribunalin terassi (Porthanin puiston puolella)

Magian, noituuden ja alkemian kiehtovien teemojen äärelle johdattelevat tutkijat Ida Meerto sekä Sara Norja Tieteen ja taikuuden rajamailla -projektista. Puhetta johtaa projektin johtaja Mari-Liisa Varila. Keskustelussa mukana keskiajan historian dosentti Reima Välimäki.

121

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 31/05/2024

Keskiviikkona projektitiimi kokousti, jonka jälkeen vierailimme Apteekkimuseossa. Turun jokirannassa sijaitseva museo ihastutti sisustuksellaan, vanhoilla apteekkarin tarvikkeillaan (joilla on yhtymäkohtia alkemian kanssa) ja elohopeanäyttelyllään #titaraproject #koneensäätiö #turunmuseokeskus

Photo of some TiTaRa team members at a meeting. One is on Zoom, two others in the room. Everyone's laughing.

000

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 31/05/2024

On Wednesday the project team met to discuss plans for the upcoming summer and fall. Afterwards we visited the Pharmacy museum. The riverside museum charmed us with its historical decor, pharmacy equipment (some related to alchemy) and exhibition on mercury. #titaraproject #konefoundation

Photo of the view of the courtyard out of one of the Turku Pharmacy Museum's windows

100

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 17/04/2024

Here's the book! Yay! / Tältä kirja näyttää! 5/5

Photo of the Solmukohta 2024 book, a white-covered paperback with the title snaking across the cover.

010

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 05/04/2024

Tältä näytti tänään TiTaRan luentokurssilla! Päivän luennon piti @kkouvola.bsky.social. Karolina kertoi elävästi kansanomaisen parantamisen moninaisuudesta sekä parantamisen ja lääketieteen rajamaista. #titaraproject #koneensäätiö #konefoundation 1/

Photo of the TiTaRa classroom, with students and laptops; two teachers stand at the front of the room.

153

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 26/03/2024

Sara's long research visit to England is coming to an end. The past couple of weeks in Cambridge have been less hectic than Oxford, but full nonetheless: 16 manuscripts at the University Library & Trinity College's Wren Library (pictured in all its spring beauty). 1/ #titaraproject #konefoundation

Photo of the exterior of the Wren Library in Cambridge

121

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 15/03/2024

Call for Papers: Between Science and Magic Symposium International symposium in Turku, Finland: 10–11 October 2024. Submissions due by 30 April 2024, notifications of acceptance sent in May 2024. Check out blogit.utu.fi/titaraturku2... for the full CFP! Reskeet widely!

Screencap of the Between Science and Magic symposium website

155

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 13/03/2024

And here's a pretty street from Sara's walk to work / Tässä nätti katu Saran työmatkalta 📚 5/5

000

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 11/03/2024

We have a project intern! We're very happy to have Luis Mayo join us. Intro in this thread! #titaraproject #koneensäätiö #konefoundation

120

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

From one library to another: Sara's been busy at the Bodleian, but she spent the past couple of days at a writing retreat in Gladstone's Library, North Wales - a library where you can stay the night! This gallery was the perfect place to focus on writing deadlines. #titaraproject #konefoundation

110