Marika Kivinen is a mezzosoprano, a historian, a gender studies scholar, a racism scholar and a columnist. She is completing a doctoral dissertation in general history at Åbo Akademi University on exoticism and racialisation in early 20th-century vocal music and culture. Kivinen performs regularly as a singer, having appeared for instance as mezzo soloist in the Requiems of Verdi and Mozart. This spring Kivinen released an album on Refrain Records, on which Marika and her long-time collaborator Jenna Ristilä perform Christian Holmqvist’s solo songs. She is a voice teacher at the Arts Academy of the Turku University of Applied Sciences and sings alto with Ensemble MMXX. She is on the Board of Directors of Suoni, a research association promoting activist musicological research.