Saara Matala

About me

Saara Matala is an assistant professor of technology and society at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

Her research examines the long-term transformation of industries and technologies and their interaction with nation-states, particularly focusing on the role of geopolitics. After gaining a doctoral degree in history of industrialization at Aalto University, Finland, in 2019, she has worked as a post-doctoral scholar in mobile platform security (Aalto University), natural resources (NTNU, Norway), and arctic maritime technology (Chalmers, Sweden). Her current research interests include oil history, economic nationalism, and arctic maritime history. Her first book History of Cold War Industrialisation. Finnish Shipbuilding Between East and West was published by Routledge in 2021.

In the Energy Lives! project, Matala works on oil refineries.