Keyword: Faculty of Humanities

There will be nearly fifty open vacancies for fixed-term doctoral candidate positions at the University of Turku from 1 January 2019 onwards. The call for applications will be open 3–21 September 2018. This is already the sixth year for all the 16 doctoral programmes to open their call for applications simultaneously.

Despite the fact that the shared history of cats and humans is quite long, there has been very little research on cats. Professor of European and World History at the University of Turku Taina Syrjämaa has tackled this issue and, in her research, she sheds light on cats’ lives in Finland in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although the times have changed since then, the relationship between cat and human is also greatly characterised by continuity and similarity. Already in the 19th century, cats were often considered family members.

The Faculty of Humanities of the University of Turku has granted the Humanist Act of the Year Award to the Aboagora symposium which has created a new type of forum between arts and science. Johanna Skurnik, who is a doctor in European and world history, was chosen as the Humanist Doctor of the Year.

Cultural models of sense-making shape our views about who we are and who we could be – what is possible for us as individuals and as communities. Hanna Meretoja’s new book, The Ethics of Storytelling, provides us with tools for analysing cultural narrative models and understanding the power of literary narratives to expand our sense of the possible.

Researchers from the Faculty of Humanities are developing methods for facilitating language learning and cultural education through art. In addition, the Centre for Language and Communication Studies is developing a mobile app for supporting international students in Finnish language learning.