Lilja Ruismäki

Lilja is a PhD student in History at King’s College, Cambridge. Her research examines the history of vagrancy and workhouse internment in late 20th century Finland.

Vagrancy was first criminalised during the Medieval period. The ensuing Vagrancy Laws regulated idle wandering, begging, and general immorality. Suspects could be placed under state surveillance and be sent to workhouses, where agricultural labour was to make delinquents respectable citizens. The Finnish Vagrancy Law was only repealed in 1987.

Lilja’s research examines this later period of vagrancy regulation, from 1943 to 1987. She examines how changing concepts of citizenship, normalcy and morality were reflected in public discourse, ‘vagrancy care’ and the eventual repeal of the Vagrancy Law. She argues that the Finnish case encapsulates global historical trends on moralistic gender norms, state control, and postwar social policy.

Lilja’s PhD is supervised by Dr Mark Smith, and is generously co-funded by the AHRC and King’s College. She holds an MPhil in Modern European History from the University of Cambridge, as well as an MA (Hons) degree in History from the University of Glasgow.