Pia Koivunen is a Senior Lecturer in European and World History at the University of Turku, Finland. She has published widely on Cold War cultural diplomacy and cultural exchange, including a monograph Performing Peace and Friendship. World Youth Festivals and Soviet Cultural Diplomacy (De Gruyter, 2022) and a co-edited volume entitled Beyond the Divide: Entangled Histories of Cold War Europe (2015). Her research interest include the history of experience, mega-events, sports, museums, politics of memory as well as international organizations. Koivunen is the leader of a four-year project “Mission Finland. Cold War Cultural Diplomacy at the Crossroads of East and West”, funded by the Research Council of Finland. Pia Koivunen is the current President of the Finnish Association of Russian and East European Studies (FAREES) and a co-editor of a Finnish journal of Contemporary History (Lähihistoria).
