What’s that MA Thesis all about?

What’s that MA Thesis all about?
On 8 April 2025, students and staff members of the Department of English gathered for the annual MA Thesis Symposium. The event has been organized since 2013, so one could safely say that it is turning into a true tradition of the English Department. The MA Thesis Symposium showcases MA research done at the department. ...

Visualising knowledge: reflections from the Reading Visual Devices conference

Visualising knowledge: reflections from the Reading Visual Devices conference
On 22 May, the foyer of Arcanum buzzed with anticipation as attendees gathered for the Reading Visual Devices conference organized by the Early Modern Graphic Literacies (EModGraL) project. The event began with a warm welcome from Marjo Kaartinen, Rector of the University of Turku and a member of the EModGraL project. Rector Kaartinen highlighted the ...

TiTaRa: Between Science and Magic Symposium Through the Eyes of an Assistant

TiTaRa: Between Science and Magic Symposium Through the Eyes of an Assistant
The TiTaRa: Between Science and Magic Symposium was a great success! The symposium was held on 10–11 October here in Turku together with the Finnish Network of Magic Studies to explore topics such as Western esotericism, magic, witchcraft and early sciences bordering them (such as alchemy and astrology). Participants arrived from around the world, and ...

Doctoral researcher exploring the FINSSE-11 conference: What is the role of non-human animals when it comes to sustainability in English studies?

FINSSE, the Finnish Society for the Study of English, was founded in 1998 “to advance university-level research and teaching in Finland of the English language, literatures in English and cultures of English-speaking peoples”. Biennially, a FINSSE conference is organised “to bring together university teachers, scholars and advanced students from all fields of English studies.” This ...

A harmony of work and play – Working as a conference assistant in the Trextuality conference

A harmony of work and play – Working as a conference assistant in the Trextuality conference
Serving as a conference assistant and project intern is an excellent decision. Please, let me tell you why! The info desk of the Trextuality conference, occupied by two conference assistants (taken by the Trextuality social media team) I attended the Trextuality conference as an assistant and project intern. The conference was aimed at scholars working ...

Unraveling the Complexities of Competence

Unraveling the Complexities of Competence
Earlier this spring, I had the opportunity to attend an eye-opening event on the “complexities of competence”, namely, Marja-Leena Niitemaa’s doctoral defense on Complexities of Competence: A Study on Finnish Upper-secondary Lexical Development and Use of L2 English. I had no idea what to expect, other than it was a formal event, and, I imagined, ...

Finding the Right Answers in Fiction

Finding the Right Answers in Fiction
Nana Arjopalo gave an outstanding performance defending her doctoral dissertation Narrating Deliverance: The Literary Double in the Writing of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Bharati Mukherjee on Friday, February 24, 2023. The viva was a true celebration of literature and the impact it has on humanity. Professor Joel Kuortti testing the connection, picture and ...

A DOCTORATE will be given for the completion and defense of a dissertation

A DOCTORATE will be given for the completion and defense of a dissertation
Susanna Mäkinen defended her doctoral dissertation, Stability and variation in the genre of runaway slave notices in American newspapers 1704-1865, on Friday 20 May 2022. While the never-tiring doctoral researchers of the English department have produced quite a few dissertation and vivas to accompany them in the recent years, Susanna was the first one to ...

Defenses during Covid: Traditions and pandemics

Defenses during Covid: Traditions and pandemics
Sirkku Ruokkeinen defended her doctoral dissertation, Historical appraisal analysis: evaluation of the book in sixteenth-century England, on Saturday 4 December 2021. The defense is a culmination of years of work, and as such, often a stressful event. While the dissertation itself is naturally the focus of the years prior, the event itself has its own ...

75 Years of the Joys of English

75 Years of the Joys of English
The Department of English became a subject department at the University of Turku 75 years ago in 1946. In 1980, translation studies were transferred from Language Institutes into the university, and were merged with the philology departments in 2010. We celebrated this anniversary on Tuesday 14 December 2021. The Corona epidemic had postponed the occasion ...