A Tale of Two Departments

Posted on May 17, 2014 by elmava

The two English Departments in Turku, Åbo Akademi and Turun Yliopisto, congregated, as has been the custom over the years, for a joint retreat, this time on the island of Seili in the Turku archipelago. Seili, of course, is the island historically (in)famous for its leper colony and later its mental institution. For the last 50 years, the Archipelago Research Institute has had its base on Seili.

The retreat started from the River Aura, where the boat Aurelia picked us up on the two-hour sea voyage to Seili in sunny but cold spring weather. After settling in to our sleeping quarters and having lunch, it was time for official business. We started with a round of introductions, as despite a history of joint retreats, not everyone knew each other in advance. Informality characterises the retreats, and this one was no exception. Synergy cannot be achieved through official structures, but rather through interaction, spontaneity, and relaxed atmosphere. The retreats are ideal for that, as going away from your usual environment can foster new ideas.

Professor Anthony Johnson and PhD Candidate Aleksi Mäkilähde gave a presentation on their joint project on the Orationes, a collection of school plays from the late 17th century. Their excellent presentation was followed by Signe-Anita Lindgrén & Pekka Lintunen’s presentation on various learner corpora, as they chronicled the challenges involved in corpus-building, ranging from practical problems to comparability, but both also stressed that corpus-building is in fact lots of fun!

After the two joint presentations we were treated to an English-language guided walking tour of the island, on which we got to visit, for example, the island’s church which had a special section for those residents who had leprosy and thus were not allowed to sit with the other church goers back in the 18th century.

In the afternoon, the two Fulbright scholars, one past and another present, Chris LaLonde (SUNY Oswego) and Casie Hermansson (Pittsburg State University, Kansas) had a discussion about the Fulbright experience as a member of both English departments in Turku. For both Casie and Chris, the Fulbright period far exceeded their expectations, an evidence of which is the fact that this was Chris’s fourth time back in Finland since his Fulbright year 1997-1998. Taking the time to discuss the Fulbright’s benefits perhaps also served as reinforcement for the two departments’ ongoing commitment to keep the scheme going. After all, the Fulbright scholar is a teacher to whom students stick, as remarked by Professor Emeritus of ÅA’s English Department, Roger Sell.

After the Fulbright discussion, Casie and family were gifted with Åboriginal t-shirts, followed by the ÅA faculty’s moving and laughter-inducing tribute to Professor Risto Hiltunen, who is about to retire. They likened Risto to the current James Bond, Daniel Craig, and reminded him about his skill in cultivating friendships the same way that he accidentally cultivated mold in an old coffee cup back in the eighties.

The day was concluded by sauna and dip in the cold sea, followed by sausage-grilling, refreshments, enjoying the beautiful sea view, and continued conversation about the day’s topics.

The next morning, before leaving the island, we had a future-oriented workshop led by Risto, who reminded us about the twinship of the two departments, and encouraged the small groups to come up with practical suggestions about joint activities. The fruits this productive session will bear are to be seen, so both departments — including our students – will have lots to look forward to in the future!

Text: Elina Valovirta
Photos: Adam Borch

Bridging North America: Inauguration of the John Morton Center

Posted on April 30, 2014 by elmava

The recently launched John Morton Center for North American Studies held its inaugural event on Tuesday, April 29, in the University of Turku’s Calonia building. The Center’s new director and powerhouse Benita Heiskanen did not rest on her laurels in starting the center’s activities: in the past three months she has already, with the help of Co-ordinator Johanna Leinonen and Intern Malla Lehtonen, launched the center’s series of Current Events seminars, website, blog, expert directory, and announced an international conference to take place in August this year. The inaugural event followed suit the center’s dynamic start, as present at the event were everyone from the university’s past and present Rectors, Keijo Virtanen and Kalervo Väänänen, Turku city representatives, to notable members of the public sector. Video greetings were given by all embassies related to the field of study (United States, Canada, and Mexico). Bruce Oreck’s speech was shot in the US embassy’s John Morton room in honour of the center’s namesake.

In his opening words Rector Kalervo Väänänen stressed the importance of understanding foreign languages, cultures, and societies, and extended his warmest wishes for the center’s success and thanked its founders, in particular, the Rector Emeritus, Keijo Virtanen, for their efforts in establishing the center. Virtanen continued with a brief history of JMC’s coming into being, chronicling the need and desire for a center dedicated to the promotion of North American Studies with intricate links to the public sector. Chairman Jukka Valtasaari of the League of Finnish-American Societies thanked the university for securing initial funding for the center, and further elaborated on the “founding fathers'” effort to start the center.

The North American Connections panel was chaired by the Head of School, Professor Henri Vogt, where, first, Professor Katri Sieberg discussed economic reasons for some of the structural differences and similarities between US and Finnish societies, using her project on analyzing drug crime from an economics perspective as an example. Furthermore, Dr Sarri Vuorisalo-Tiitinen gave her take on cultural connections between Mexico, USA, and Canada, and stressed culture as a process rather than an essence. The panel was concluded by Professor Markku Henriksson, who reminded the audience of the cross- and multidisciplinary nature of North American Studies and called for a generalist’s knowledge and methodological multitalent as well as awareness of current events (like milk price!) as important facets of a scholar’s competence. Finally, he compared JMC to a flower, where its petals represent all the different individuals and institutions brought together by the centre itself. The flower, now budding, needs to be watered and cultivated with care in order to flourish.

The day’s cultural highlight was the live documentary show on the legendary American singer, Woody Guthrie, presented by Professor Will Kaufman of the University of Central Lancashire, England. The singer and activist, Guthrie, drew some of his song topics from the 1930s depression and dustbowl migration to California, and the tent camps which he visited frequently played a part in making him a social activist. Kaufman’s storytelling captivated, while his renditions of Guthrie’s iconic songs moved as well as entertained. The show ended with Guthrie’s most famous song, This Land Is Your Land, which in Kaufman’s magnificent version highlighted the disillusioned, anti-capitalist message of the now classic American singalong song.

The evening was concluded by a drinks reception on campus followed by the inaugural dinner at Samppalinna restaurant, where attendees continued to celebrate the future and continued success of the JMC.

Text: Elina Valovirta
Photos: Joel Kuortti

More Poetry from Our Students

Posted on April 23, 2014 by elmava

Wizard Battle

Inside enchanted magical valley
Dark, narrow, ominous alley
Dastardly, evil, warlock-meeting
Legendary Thor, coming, greeting

Attacking with spells, fantastic blunder
Powerful, brave, controlling thunder
Using lightning, scary, frightening
Boldly fighting, wrongs righting

Calling strong blizzards
Freezing poor wizards
Impervious to pain
Summoning rain
Until Enemies swimming in water
Old Nordic tales, better than Potter

By Harri Jokinen

Poetry from our students

Posted on April 10, 2014 by elmava

This academic year, our (mostly) first-year students have been assigned poetry-writing as a part of the Academic Writing Skills I course, taught by Henno Erikson Parks and Justin Parks (no relation). Our poetry expert and recent PhD, Elina Siltanen, selected some of the poems to be showcased here on the blog for your enjoyment. Well done, aspiring poets!

High, shelved, silent rows, timeworn
Heavy, dusty books, with delicate black letters on solemn pages
Old paper waiting, listening
Careful steps, hushed words, earnest young students
August room breathing beneath a dark ceiling
Columns soaring, serious white busts judging, smiling
In-between shaky ladders, paths to knowledge

By Hanna Yli-Paunu

The path to graduation is paved with… a new curriculum

Posted on March 7, 2014 by elmava

‘OMG it’s happening again’ may have been many a teacher’s first thought last autumn when planning the new MA degree began at the School of Languages and Translation Studies. This is the third curricular reorganization in ten years, and everyone is worried about the time that planning always takes, which is time away from research and teaching, our primary occupations. After dozens of meetings, the principles of the new curriculum were unveiled on 28 February, 2014, to a full house – there were actually not enough seats in the lecture room for everyone interested in the plan. What, then, does this new regime mean for our students? The English Department has an excellent curriculum now, so what will the reform change in the near future?

Not to worry: for the majority of English students, few things will change much. At the end of your BA degree you still choose the Track which you follow in the Department, but you will also choose a Path within the School: either Language Learning, Research, Language Specialist or Translation (the names of the paths may still be modified). Just as before, you select two Track-foundation courses, ideally in your fourth year, and subsequently the methodology course and thesis seminar that match your interests, organized by the Literature, SLA, Discourse or Philological Track. The rest of the Advanced Studies you can fill with courses from your selected Track and Path, the major change from the current system being that you can also choose some courses, projects and book exams offered by teachers from other language departments.

For new translation students the revised MA degree will look quite different though: practically all teaching on translation and interpretation topics will be fitted into a two-year programme, which means you can fully immerse yourself in the world of international communication at the Master’s level and also get to work with teachers and students from other language departments in a multilingual environment.

Overall, it doesn’t look bad, this brave new degree. However, a lot of details will have to be sorted out in the next few weeks. We will provide more information through official channels later this spring, and the New Curriculum will kick in after the summer.
Janne Skaffari

Upcoming event: MA Thesis Symposium

Posted on February 20, 2014 by elmava

11 March, 10-12
Lecture room X

The first MA Thesis Symposium of the English department was organised last year. Six speakers, from different Advanced Studies tracks, gave a ten-minute paper on their pro gradu projects. The audience consisted of students and staff members, and many good questions were answered after the presentations.

The second MA Thesis Symposium will take place on 11 March, 10-12, in Lecture room X. Five speakers from different tracks have been invited to introduce their thesis projects (a more detailed programme will be published later). This is a great opportunity to hear about very different thesis topics and methods, and will no doubt be very useful especially to those students starting their pro gradu project soon. The event also offers a chance for the speakers to practise giving a talk in front of a friendly audience.

Students and staff from all departments are warmly welcome!

Hard Work Made Easy

Posted on February 7, 2014 by elmava

On the last day of January, 2014, a fifty-strong crowd gathered in the Tauno Nurmela auditorium to listen to the defence of Elina Siltanen’s doctoral dissertation “Hard Work? Reciprocal Communication in Contemporary American Experimental Poetry”.

The opponent who discussed the dissertation with Siltanen was professor emeritus Charles Molesworth (Queens College, The City University of New York). An eminent scholar of poetry, he has published The Fierce Embrace: A Study in Contemporary American Poetry, as well as critical books on Marianne Moore, Gary Snyder and Donald Barthelme, and biographies of Alain Locke and, most recently, Countee Cullen (2012). He has also two poetry titles to his name, Common Elegies and Words to That Effect. In the 1970s, he served as a Fulbright Professor in Turku, and the reunion with former colleagues was an amicable one.

In Siltanen’s study, the focus was on the works of three American experimental poets: John Ashbery (born 1927), Lyn Hejinian (1941) and Ron Silliman (1946). A literary critic herself, she proposes – on the basis of the discontinuous and repetitive character of experimental poetry – new ways of reading poetry that do not require clear-cut interpretations nor consistent subjectivity

Siltanen was one of the pioneers in the inter-university scheme Cotutelle, which is an agreement between two universities for a double degree in both universities; in this case the University of Turku and the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. For the defence, this posed a technological challenge as the event was simultaneously videoed to Luleå, and the Swedish grading committee was present in Turku and took part in the discussion after the opponent.

The respondent was very lucid in her comments to the questions posed to her first by the opponent and then the committee. Afterwards, several audience members commended the discussion for its clarity, and especially the approachability of the introductory lecture by the doctoral candidate (lectio praecursoria) was acclaimed. It made the hard work easier.

It was with satisfaction that I concluded the defence.

Joel Kuortti
custos

“What a long strange trip it’s been”, is a famous exclamation by Jerry Garcia, which the poet Ron Silliman adapted to his poetry. The sentiment might be shared by Elina and her supervisor, Professor Lydia Kokkkola.

Mixing and Switching

Posted on January 7, 2014 by elmava

”Etkö voisi please auttaa tässä?”
”And then she was like, no ei se mitään.”

As language users – speakers, writers, listeners, readers – we are constantly surrounded by linguistic data, and some of the material we observe is bi- or multilingual. The examples above may not be authentic (as in ‘cited from a corpus of genuine conversation’), but they are certainly realistic (as in ‘I think I have heard something like this before, and not just once’). They exemplify code-switching, the use or two languages, dialects, language varieties or, more briefly, codes in a single communicative situation. People who know two or more languages are prone to code-switch on occasion.

The English Department offered a team-taught optional course on code-switching in the second half of the autumn semester, a unique enterprise bringing together eight teachers and researchers from the five tracks of the department. This ensured that the students were offered multiple viewpoints and approaches, ranging from written code-switching in medieval materials to multilingual practices in the EU to translations of postcolonial literature. One of the surprises offered in the lectures was that the use of students’ first language alongside their second or foreign language in the classroom also counts as code-switching, and that there are language classes in the world where the use of the first language is strictly forbidden – a feature not easily grasped by those who have learned English and other languages at Finnish schools.

The course was well received by the nearly forty students who attended the lecture series. The participants were asked to write a variety of short texts about code-switching during the course and also to report on their own multilingual communication and the language-mixing they observed around them. Many said that they had not realized until this semester that code-switching was so frequent and had so many functions, and that it was such a huge issue that the six weeks of teaching were not nearly enough for a thorough survey. Indeed, several students have already chosen code-switching topics for their BA projects to be able to carry on with koodinvaihto research.

Janne Skaffari

Our Literary Lady in London

Posted on December 10, 2013 by elmava

I still often think of the hours spent reading for my MA dissertation in the English department seminar library in Juslenia in 2007-2008. At least in two distinct ways, those hours were to have a lasting influence on my life.

First of all, they installed in me the desire to do further research. I had spent the spring of 2007 as a visiting student at King’s College London, where the thought of doing a PhD had gradually started taking shape. When I began to express interest in academic career, the staff members at our department in Turku were brilliant, offering me support and invaluable guidance without which I would not be where I am today. At KCL, I had attended a course on Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu and Proust had been close to my heart ever since I started reading the Recherche at the age of 16. Once I began to think about a prospective topic for my PhD, Proust kept cropping up in every context. I had studied French as my minor (partly in order to be able to read Proust in the original language) and finally decided to apply for a PhD position in the KCL French department. My proposal was successful and a scholarship from the Oskar Huttunen Foundation enabled me to take this leap and move to London in 2009.

The other major impact those hours in the library had was my research topic. While at the time (reading for my MA thesis on Wilde) it seemed as if the books transported me into another time and place, what has actually remained with me from those hours is the psycho-physical context of reading: I remember the light, the temperature, the humidity, the smell of books, my excitement, and the changing of the seasons outside the window – all this much more vividly than the actual contents of the books. This realisation gradually became the crux of my PhD thesis – the highly individualised and potentially deeply revelatory memories that the reading experience may encompass.

When I was finishing my PhD, I was approached by the Head of the French Department at Royal Holloway, University of London: due to staff migration, they needed someone to teach a module on Proust in the spring 2013. After a successful interview, I started as a visiting lecturer at RHUL and was consequently offered some more teaching in the Comparative Literature programme. I’m currently planning my first postdoctoral project on the imagery of breathing, and living in London has also given me a chance to pursue my other long-term passions as a free-lance photographer.

Still, with all the excitement London has to offer, sitting somewhere with a book in my hand continues to be one of my favourite pastimes. For over the years, Proust’s Narrator’s suggestion that reading offers us a gateway to our own reality by showing us the connection between our ‘immediate sensations and the memories which envelop us simultaneously with them’ – that an hour of reading is ‘never merely an hour’ – has proven immensely true to me.

Dr Anna Orhanen
Visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London
(Student at the English Department in Turku 2002-2008; Assistant at the English Department in Turku 2008-2009)
Anna was also a member of a research group in the department jokingly named ‘the Literary Ladies’.

Shakespeare’s Othello: Still Contemporary after 400 Years

Posted on November 18, 2013 by elmava

The story is a familiar one: a father cannot approve of his daughter’s elopement with a powerful and ambitious military leader, who, despite his respectability and his service to the powers that be, remains a social outcast due to his race. One of this leader’s trusted advisors, who feels that he has been passed over for a promotion, slowly poisons his superior’s mind, finally managing to convince him that his wife has been unfaithful with another of his favored advisors. Despite the woman’s valiant efforts to defend herself and her reputation, the story ends in tragedy for all involved. Shakespeare’s Othello plays on the familiar themes of ambition, jealousy, and racial intolerance to create a tragedy that builds to its inevitable crescendo through Iago’s masterful and unfeeling manipulation and Othello’s unfortunate susceptibility to manipulation.

Othello was staged—or rather, screened—as part of the British National Theatre’s series of performances recorded live in London and presented in one-night-only screenings at cinemas throughout Europe. If you can’t make it to London, this may be the next best thing.

Director Nicholas Hytner’s adaptation of Othello does not so much “update” a classic by adding modern elements as it does reveal the lasting relevance of the play itself. Shakespeare’s original lines seem oddly appropriate to the production’s contemporary settings: the corporate boardroom, the modular buildings of a military base somewhere in the Middle East. Rory Kinnear’s Iago is chillingly self-satisfied while Adrian Lester’s Othello is frustratingly willing to be misled. Olivia Vinall is powerful as Desdemona, and Lyndsey Marshal’s Emilia lends great dramatic energy to the latter half of the play. The scene in which Lester’s Othello succeeds in strangling Vinall’s Desdemona is so stark and wrenchingly visceral that it is difficult to watch.

If anything, this production gets a bit carried away in furnishing contemporary details. (For instance, why is someone drinking something in nearly every scene—a cup of Starbucks coffee, as well as numerous plastic bottles of water, and several cans of Heineken? Such details almost become part of the play’s plot themselves.) All in all, though, this was a powerful production of Othello, and a rare opportunity to catch Shakespeare “live” in Turku.
Justin Parks

Click here for further info on National Theatre Live at Finnkino. Next shows: Macbeth Nov 18, Hamlet Dec 2.

EnglanTY

What the dickens is happening at the Department of English, Turku University

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