Mare Kõiva - Biography#

Mare Kõiva (PhD) is a Research Professor and the Head of the Department of Folkloristics at the Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu, Estonia, and Head of the Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies.

She has published several monographs and edited various books (incl. Folk Belief Today (1995), Media, Folklore, Mythology (2000, in Estonian), Estonian Incantations; co-edited Mission Possible I (2018), II (2020), Balkan and Baltic Studies (2017)). She has written a wide range of articles and chapters on folk legends and beliefs, etnomedicine, and the ritual year. Her current research focuses on mythology and belief narratives, human/non-human relationships, and incantations and folk healers, Estonian diaspora, mythology and contemporary folklore.

Mare Kõiva’s long-term research activity has yielded remarkable results in cultural studies, folkloristics, and belief studies.

Her research in the field of beliefs and mythology has resulted in the compilation of 1) the typologies of narrative lore and incantations for international comparative studies (available online); 2) academic publications dedicated to belief tradition; 3) systematic corpora of mythical texts in manuscripts and publications, open-access for all users; and 4) analysis of Estonian and comparative mythology.

In 1996 she established the first open-access academic journals in the humanities, "Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore" and "Mäetagused" and serves as editor-in-chief until today. As a member of the Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR), Mare Kõiva is one of the founders and editor-in-chief of the international journal Incantatio: An International Journal of Charms, Charmers and Charming.
She has initiated numerous research networks, partnerships and joint editing projects (e.g., with Belarus, Bulgaria, Finno-Ugric countries).