Hanna-Riikka Roine (PhD, docent) is an Associate Professor in Digital Culture at University of Bergen and an affiliate of the Center for Digital Narrative.

Previously, she has worked as the Principal Investigator of a project Imagine, Democracy! Narrative Fiction as a Tool for Imagining Democracy in Finland (funded by the Kone Foundation) at Narrare: Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies at Tampere University. The project asks how and what kind of democracy is imagined in narrative fiction written and read in Finland, and examines the ways in which narrative fiction makes use of and perhaps reforms, reinforces, or erodes different forms of imagination central to democracy.

Hanna-Riikka's postdoctoral research project Drawing the Possible into the Present: Entanglements of Human and Computer in Speculation (CO-SPEC, Academy of Finland, 2020-2023) focused on providing us with tools to recognise and analyse the ways in which our entanglement with computational media affects, guides and shapes our engagement with the possible. CO-SPEC investigated simultaneously 1) the ways in which digital technologies have become entangled with our imaginations, and 2) a variety of works of fiction that illustrate, make use of and challenge this entanglement.

Her doctoral thesis (Tampere University, 2016) addressed worldbuilding as one of the most fundamental rhetorical and communicative practices of contemporary speculative fiction, gaining a strong boost from the rise of digital media.

Hanna-Riikka's areas of expertise include digital media, narrative theory, game studies (especially narratives in games), speculative fiction, and theories of worldbuilding and imagination.

Peer-reviewed articles in English (selected)

Roine, Hanna-Riikka, forthcoming in 2024. Speculative Strategies in Stories about the Future of Finnish Democracy. In Nordic Speculative Fiction: Research, Theory, and Practice, ed. Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Jyrki Korpua, Hanna-Riikka Roine & Marta Tveit. Studies in Global Genre Fiction. London: Routledge.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2024. The Message is not the Truth: Uses and Affordances of Narrative Form on Social Media Platforms. In Dangers of Narrative and Fictionality: A Rhetorical Approach to Storytelling in Western Culture, ed. Samuli Björninen, Pernille Meyer, Maria Mäkelä & Henrik Zetterberg Nielsen, 97–118. Bern: Peter Lang.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka & Laura Piippo 2022. Social Networking Sites a Contexts for Uses of Narrative: Toward a Story-Critical Approach to Digital Environments. Poetics Today 43:2 (June 2022), 335–362.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka & Esko Suoranta 2022. Science Fiction and the Limits of Narrativizing Environmental Systems. Partial Answers 20:2, 297–312.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka, Mikko Meriläinen & Ville Kankainen 2021. "Jamming the Assessment: The Viability of a Twine Game Jam as a Learning Evaluation Tool in Higher Education." Journal of Play in Adulthood 3:2, 96–112. 

Lindberg, Susanna & Hanna-Riikka Roine 2021. Introduction: From Solving Mechanical Dilemmas to Taking Care of Digital Environments. In The Ethos of Digital Environments: Technology, Literary Theory, and Philosophy, ed. Susanna Lindberg & Hanna-Riikka Roine, 1–21. Lontoo & New York: Routledge.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka & Laura Piippo 2021. Authors vs. Assemblage in Computational Media. Teoksessa The Ethos of Digital Environments: Technology, Literary Theory, and Philosophy, ed. Susanna Lindberg & Hanna-Riikka Roine, 60–76. London & New York: Routledge.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2019. Computational Media and the Core Concepts of Narrative Theory. Narrative 27:3: 313–331.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka & Hanna Samola 2018. Johanna Sinisalo and the Weird Combination of Genres, Myths, and Folklore. In Lingua Cosmica: Essays on International Science Fiction, ed. Dale Knickerbocker, 183–200. Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2016. How You Emerge from This Game is up to you. Agency, Positioning and Narrativity in The Mass Effect Trilogy. In Narrative Theory, Literature, and New Media: Narrative Minds and Virtual Worlds, ed. Mari Hatavara, Matti Hyvärinen, Maria Mäkelä & Frans Mäyrä, 67–86. London: Routledge.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2014. What is it that Fanfiction Opposes? The Shared and Communal Features of Firefly/Serenity Fanfiction. Fafnir – Nordic Journal for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research 1 (2014): 31–45.

Peer-reviewed articles in Finnish (selected)

Feel free to ask me for a translated version!

Roine, Hanna-Riikka, forthcoming 2024. Räätälöityjä kaavoja toden ja fantasian rajoilla: Romanssimekaniikat Dragon Age -roolipelisarjassa. [=Templates Tailored between Real and Fantasy: Romance Mechanics in the Dragon Age Role-playing Series.] In 2000-luvun romanssi ja muita parinmuodostuskertomuksia [=21st Century Romance and Other Narratives of Pairings], ed. Saija Isomaa, Matias Nurminen & Hanna Samola. Tampere University Press.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2022. Kohti vastavuoroisempaa: Transmediaalisuus narratologiassa digitaalisen murroksen jälkeen. [=Towards Reciprocity: Transmediality in Narratology after the Digital Turn.] In Intermediaalisuus kirjallisuudessa [=Intermediality in Literature], ed. Laura Piippo & Juha-Pekka Kilpiö, 245–268. Jyväskylä: Nykykulttuurin tutkimuskeskus.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka & Laura Piippo 2021. Kirjallisuus ja sen tutkimus digitaalisissa ympäristöissä. [=Literary Research in Digital Environments.] Avain – Finnish Review of Literary Studies 18:2, 6–27.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2021. Fantasia ja digikulttuuri. [=Fantasy and Digital Culture.] In Fantasia – Lajit, ilmiöt ja yhteiskunta [=Fantasy – Genres, Phenomena and Society], ed. Jyrki Korpua, Irma Hirsjärvi, Urpo Kovala & Tanja Välisalo, 145–156. Jyväskylä: Nykykulttuurin tutkimuskeskus.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2021. Tieteisfantasia lajityyppien rajoilla. [=Science Fantasy on the Boundary of Genres.] In Fantasia – Lajit, ilmiöt ja yhteiskunta [=Fantasy – Genres, Phenomena and Society], ed. Jyrki Korpua, Irma Hirsjärvi, Urpo Kovala & Tanja Välisalo, 191–202. Jyväskylä: Nykykulttuurin tutkimuskeskus.

Kortekallio, Kaisa, Hanna-Riikka Roine, Esko Suoranta & Jouni Teittinen 2019. Spekulatiivinen fiktio nyrjäyttää ihmiskeskeisen ajattelun rutiinit. [=Speculative Fiction Disrupts the Routines of Anthropocentric Thinking.] Tiede & Edistys 4 (2019): 349–354.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2016. Maailmojenrakentaminen kuvittelun muotona tieteisfiktiossa. [=Worldbuilding as a Form of Imagining in Science Fiction.] Niin & Näin 4: 89–98.

Edited journal issues and books (selected)

Glas, René, Souvik Mukherjee, Hanna-Riikka Roine & Jaakko Stenros, forthcoming in 2024. Gamebooks. Special issue in Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 16:2.

Koistinen, Aino-Kaisa, Jyrki Korpua, Hanna-Riikka Roine & Marta Tveit, forthcoming in 2024. Nordic Speculative Fiction: Research, Theory, and Practice. Studies in Global Genre Fiction series. London: Routledge.

Oakes, Elizabeth, Hanna-Riikka Roine & Essi Varis 2022. Speculation Tool Kit. Special issue in Fafnir - Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research 9:2.

Lindberg, Susanna & Hanna-Riikka Roine 2021. The Ethos of Digital Environments: Technology, Literary Theory, and Philosophy. London & New York: Routledge.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka & Laura Piippo 2021. Kirjallisuus digitaalisissa ympäristöissä. [=Literature in Digital Environments.] Special issue in Avain - Finnish Review of Literary Studies 18:2.

Other publications (selected)

Roine, Hanna-Riikka, Laura Piippo, Ville-Pekka Sorsa & Esko Suoranta 2023. Miksi demokratian kuvittelu on tärkeää, mutta vaikeaa? [=Why Imagining Democracy is Important but Difficult?] Niin & Näin 2 (2023): 132–133.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2020. On Speculation as a Strategy. Fafnir – Nordic Journal for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research 2 (2020), 8–15.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka & Laura Piippo 2020. Kirjallisuudesta ja sen lukijoista digitaalisissa ympäristöissä. [=On Literature and Readers in Digital Environments.] Niin & Näin 3 (2020): 29–34.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2016. Lectio pracursoria: The Rhetoric of Worldbuilding in Contemporary Speculative Fiction. Fafnir – Nordic Journal for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research 3: 63–68.

Roine, Hanna-Riikka 2014. From a World Written by One to the Worlds Visualised by Many. The Challenges of Fantastic Imagery in A Game of Thrones. In Word and Image: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches , toim. Mikko Höglund et al., 37–51. Tampere: Tampere University Press.

Research project Imagine, Democracy! Narrative Fiction as a Tool for Imagining Democracy in Finland (2023-2026, Tampere University, funded by the Kone Foundation)