Mikko Toivanen
@mtoiv.bsky.social
Historian of colonialism and modern SE Asia @UTU.fi｜🌲 Currently working on transimperial histories of forestry 🌲｜Previously: colonial cities 🏛️ and travel 🚢｜PhD from EUI｜📚 occasionally writes about books and films 🎞️
Finally got a Bialetti again for the first time since moving away from Italy (which was way too long ago), life is getting better.
November 5, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Finally got a Bialetti again for the first time since moving away from Italy (which was way too long ago), life is getting better.
Another bit of Halloween reading that I was very happy to pick up for 1€ since I've been on the lookout for a while: Gustav Meyrink's The White Dominican (1921). Lots of esoteric transmigration-of-the-soul stuff cobbled up with vague early-20thC European notions of Buddhism.
October 29, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Another bit of Halloween reading that I was very happy to pick up for 1€ since I've been on the lookout for a while: Gustav Meyrink's The White Dominican (1921). Lots of esoteric transmigration-of-the-soul stuff cobbled up with vague early-20thC European notions of Buddhism.
I thought I'd have a look at my presentation script for next week and, oh, okay, I see Microsoft has decided there will be some changes.
October 21, 2025 at 1:40 PM
I thought I'd have a look at my presentation script for next week and, oh, okay, I see Microsoft has decided there will be some changes.
The intro to our Itinerario special issue on the entwined histories of tourism and imperialism has just passed 1,000 views! 🥳 Many thanks to all readers, keep spreading the word and remember to check out the great contributions that make up the issue, too. doi.org/10.1017/S016...
October 20, 2025 at 8:32 AM
The intro to our Itinerario special issue on the entwined histories of tourism and imperialism has just passed 1,000 views! 🥳 Many thanks to all readers, keep spreading the word and remember to check out the great contributions that make up the issue, too. doi.org/10.1017/S016...
I'm not too much into Halloween but, for seasonal reading, I did get these additions to my Dylan Dog collection. They're getting increasingly difficult to source now that I don't live in Italy anymore.
October 16, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I'm not too much into Halloween but, for seasonal reading, I did get these additions to my Dylan Dog collection. They're getting increasingly difficult to source now that I don't live in Italy anymore.
"It is my pride and joy to be the shepherd of my country's trees." (The Caribbean Forester, 3:1 (1941))
September 24, 2025 at 8:34 AM
"It is my pride and joy to be the shepherd of my country's trees." (The Caribbean Forester, 3:1 (1941))
Absolutely wild to me that this guy gets a heroic feature in the NY Times when his clearly articulated climate policy throughout has been "let's not do a single thing to reach the previous government's climate targets but just keep them on the books anyway to point at in case anyone asks".
September 22, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Absolutely wild to me that this guy gets a heroic feature in the NY Times when his clearly articulated climate policy throughout has been "let's not do a single thing to reach the previous government's climate targets but just keep them on the books anyway to point at in case anyone asks".
Andrey Kurkov wrote Death and the Penguin from December 1995 to February 1996, according to the book's postscript. Neon Genesis Evangelion was first broadcast in Japan from October 1995 to March 1996. There is a slight chance that Kurkov was inspired by seeing Pen Pen on early bootleg VHS tapes.
September 2, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Andrey Kurkov wrote Death and the Penguin from December 1995 to February 1996, according to the book's postscript. Neon Genesis Evangelion was first broadcast in Japan from October 1995 to March 1996. There is a slight chance that Kurkov was inspired by seeing Pen Pen on early bootleg VHS tapes.
Author copies have arrived! The book is demonstrably real! Official publication date in about two weeks but I've heard it will already be available at ENIUGH next week. Check out the full info over at: lup.nl/publications...
September 2, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Author copies have arrived! The book is demonstrably real! Official publication date in about two weeks but I've heard it will already be available at ENIUGH next week. Check out the full info over at: lup.nl/publications...
Summer is the time for ghost stories! And this year I happened upon this collection of Edith Wharton's contributions to the genre. Fun stuff, it's all well-written and enjoyable, but there are two stories that outshine the rest by far, achieving a transcendental kind of horror lacking in the rest.
August 27, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Summer is the time for ghost stories! And this year I happened upon this collection of Edith Wharton's contributions to the genre. Fun stuff, it's all well-written and enjoyable, but there are two stories that outshine the rest by far, achieving a transcendental kind of horror lacking in the rest.
This is a bit controversial but for me, the gold standard for a university rebrand is the recent FU Berlin one, ditching an entirely forgettable logo without any identity for something that is unique, striking, scalable, recognisable and modern all at once. Basically no one agrees with me.
July 31, 2025 at 2:34 PM
This is a bit controversial but for me, the gold standard for a university rebrand is the recent FU Berlin one, ditching an entirely forgettable logo without any identity for something that is unique, striking, scalable, recognisable and modern all at once. Basically no one agrees with me.
People are clowning on the Warwick rebrand, which is fair, but as someone who went there I *do* actually like the fact that they're using (a modernised version) of the crest again, it was basically completely shunned when I was there. It's fun! A bit goofy, and ironic, in a good way.
July 31, 2025 at 2:24 PM
People are clowning on the Warwick rebrand, which is fair, but as someone who went there I *do* actually like the fact that they're using (a modernised version) of the crest again, it was basically completely shunned when I was there. It's fun! A bit goofy, and ironic, in a good way.
Oh to live life with the serene confidence of a late-career Jules Verne naming chapters.
July 29, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Oh to live life with the serene confidence of a late-career Jules Verne naming chapters.
Had a great time at GUHP2 in Berlin last week! And our roundtable went brilliantly (no credit to me I just sat in the audience and asked a few questions). Goes to show that the best way to think through things is to get a bunch of clever people together to go over them for you.
July 14, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Had a great time at GUHP2 in Berlin last week! And our roundtable went brilliantly (no credit to me I just sat in the audience and asked a few questions). Goes to show that the best way to think through things is to get a bunch of clever people together to go over them for you.
New week, new publication! 🎉 Excited to see my article 'An invitation to a party? Staging urban proximity and the colonial public in nineteenth-century Batavia' out in @urbanhistory.bsky.social! And it's Open Access, too, so feel free to check it out (and share, maybe?): doi.org/10.1017/S096...
June 30, 2025 at 7:16 AM
New week, new publication! 🎉 Excited to see my article 'An invitation to a party? Staging urban proximity and the colonial public in nineteenth-century Batavia' out in @urbanhistory.bsky.social! And it's Open Access, too, so feel free to check it out (and share, maybe?): doi.org/10.1017/S096...
We're slowly reaching the final stretch of proof-checking and can I just say that I still quite like the title of the conclusion here:
June 20, 2025 at 1:06 PM
We're slowly reaching the final stretch of proof-checking and can I just say that I still quite like the title of the conclusion here:
Quickly checking out Wageningen, home to what was one of *the* major colonial forestry schools (alongside Oxford and Nancy).
June 12, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Quickly checking out Wageningen, home to what was one of *the* major colonial forestry schools (alongside Oxford and Nancy).
Let's see if the rumours of chaos at the Nationaal Archief are true.
June 11, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Let's see if the rumours of chaos at the Nationaal Archief are true.
What better way to spend a Whit Monday (?) than by reading through thousands and thousands of pages of century-old forestry journals.
June 9, 2025 at 10:36 AM
What better way to spend a Whit Monday (?) than by reading through thousands and thousands of pages of century-old forestry journals.
Are you even a real historian if you haven't penned a local history column for your hometown newspaper? (Yes, obviously, but now I've also done that.)
June 5, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Are you even a real historian if you haven't penned a local history column for your hometown newspaper? (Yes, obviously, but now I've also done that.)
A magazine asked for an author headshot and I really do need to get a proper one taken soon, instead of these homemade ones. Anyway, this is me now, made a special effort not to wear anything black.
June 3, 2025 at 1:09 PM
A magazine asked for an author headshot and I really do need to get a proper one taken soon, instead of these homemade ones. Anyway, this is me now, made a special effort not to wear anything black.
Posting about my book yesterday appears to have functioned as some sort of invocation, as I've now got the proofs in my inbox! 'Empire, Tourism, and Colonial Knowledge' coming on 17 September!
June 3, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Posting about my book yesterday appears to have functioned as some sort of invocation, as I've now got the proofs in my inbox! 'Empire, Tourism, and Colonial Knowledge' coming on 17 September!
Reporting back from the powerpoint mines to give you a teaser for tomorrow's presentation (no this is not about AI why do you ask):
May 15, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reporting back from the powerpoint mines to give you a teaser for tomorrow's presentation (no this is not about AI why do you ask):
I see you and I feel you, tired Leipzig harpy.
May 15, 2025 at 10:06 AM
I see you and I feel you, tired Leipzig harpy.