I am principally a folklorist, with an especial focus on folk narratives. I have a background in archaeology, specialising in landscape and public archaeology, and in critical heritage studies. I also work within the environmental humanities. My main research interests are in legends and landscapes of Britain and the Nordic region, and in environmental aspects of folklore and folkloristics. I am therefore developing approaches to what I term environmental/ecocritical folklore, including to examining the role of supernatural nonhumans within ecological consciousness and environmental engagement. I am also interested in the use and representation of folklore and archaeology in literature and film, particularly within the genres of fantasy and (folk) horror.

I seek to embed fieldwork in much of my research, particularly in the exploration of folk narratives and in considering folkloristic perspectives to environmental humanities research. Walking is a key method to my experimental and experiential approaches to landscape, such as in exploring the potential for traditional or customary walking in understanding complex human-nonhuman ecologies.

I take a multidisciplinary approach, often combining folkloristics, archaeology, and critical heritage. My doctoral research (UCL 2014) explored the early medieval to contemporary folklore of archaeological sites in Britain, and their role in local and national identity construction. This consideration of the role of folklore in relation to identity was a theme in my Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral project (University of Oslo), exploring the role of digital folklore in diversifying heritage narratives in contemporary Norway, and in enhancing content and engagement with (digitised) folklore archives. I have also explored the role of food and foodways in the representation of Nordic cultures, particularly in museum contexts.

I am passionate about the role folkloristics can play in celebrating diversity and addressing global challenges, and take a public and applied folklore approach to my work.

 

Research Networks

One By Walking 

Folklore Without Borders 

Folklore Museums Network

 

Appointments

Advisory board member, Public Archaeology, 2023-present

Advisory board member, Time and Mind, 2021-present

Reviews Editor, Folklore, 2020-2025

Editor-in-chief, Time and Mind, 2019-2021

I am the course coordinator and principle instructor on the following courses:

AHKR203: Introduction to the Environmental Humanities

KUVI301: Fra teori til metode

PhD course: More-Than-Human Humanities (October 2024)

I also teach on the following courses:

ARK124: Landscape and environment in archaeology

ARK350: Archaeology masters' thesis

KUVI100: Innføring i kulturvitenskap

KUVI104: Fortelling og fortolking fra folkeeventyr til falske nyheter

Academic article

• Juola, Marjo; Herva, Vesa-Pekka; Paphitis, Tina (2025). Monstrous Heritage: Zombies, Industrial Ruination, and the Uncertainty of Being in a Deindustrialized World. (external link)
• Herva, Vesa-Pekka; Seitsonen, Oula; Banks, Iain et al. (2024). Folk Magic and the Haunting of the Second World War in Finnish Lapland. (external link)
• Herva, Vesa-Pekka; Moshenska, Gabriel; Paphitis, Tina et al. (2024). Weird quantities: characterising monstrous landscapes of extraction in the Anthropocene. (external link)
• Norum, Roger; Herva, Vesa-Pekka; Paphitis, Tina (2021). Minding the field: sensory and affective engagements with high Arctic fieldwork. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2020). Haunted landscapes: place, past and presence. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2020). Folklore and Public Archaeology in the UK. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2013). 'Have You Come to Take the King Away?': A Survey of Archaeology and Folklore in Context. (external link)

Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

• Herva, Vesa-Pekka; Seitsonen, Oula; Paphitis, Tina et al. (2024). Spiralling into a Labyrinth of Cultural Fantasies and Extractivism: Treasures, Extraordinary Undergrounds and the 'Temple of Lemminkäinen' (Sipoo, Finland. (external link)
• Herva, Vesa-Pekka; Komu, Teresa; Paphitis, Tina (2022). Extraordinary Underground: Fear, Fantasy, and Future Extraction. (external link)

Book review

• Paphitis, Tina (2022). Supernatural cities: enchantment, anxiety and spectrality. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2022). Folklore and Social Media. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2021). By the fire: Sami folktales and legends. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2021). Northern Archaeology and Cosmology: A Relational View. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2021). Johnny Breadless: A Pacifist Fairy Tale. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2021). The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2021). Legend Tripping: A Contemporary Legend Casebook. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2021). Wanderland: a search for magic in the landscape. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2020). Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2013). The Archaeological Imagination. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2012). The Ancient Symbolic Landscape of Wessex. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2011). Revealing King Arthur: Swords, Stones and Digging for Camelot. (external link)

Editorial

• Paphitis, Tina (2021). Fielding the mind in the high North. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2021). Editorial: Diversity, Connectivity and Change. (external link)
• Hunter, Jack; Paphitis, Tina (2020). Editors' introduction. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina; Hunter, Jack (2020). Editorial. (external link)
• Paphitis, Tina (2020). Editorial: Haunted landscapes. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

I am currently a collaborative researcher on the Academy of Finland-funded project, ‘Extraordinary Underground' (University of Oulu, 2021-2025), which explores the role of long-term cultural conceptualisations and imaginaries of the underground in modern extractive industries in the European Arctic.