KISUVIs guest lecture: Victoria Johansson

Professor Victoria Johansson (Högskolan Kristianstad) was at the University of Turku October 30-31 as a guest of the KISUVI project. In her guest lecture on Thursday, titled What happens when a text is born, and how may (AI) writing tools shape future writing processes? Victoria presented preliminary material and results from her current research, as well as the multifaceted nature of writing processes and the impact of generative AI tools on writing and authorship. The hybrid lecture attracted many interested listeners and worked as a starting point on an interesting discussion on the impact of AI on text production and Victoria’s research.

On Friday, October 31, KISUVI organized a seminar for the project’s researchers and Victoria, where results of various KISUVI studies were presented and follow-up for the projects as well as joint research ideas were discussed. The first part of the seminar consisted of two presentations. The morning began with a presentation by KISUVIs researchers Anne-Maj Åberg and Mari Mäkilä titled Skrivflyt och -profiler hos andraspråksinlärare i svenska, engelska och tyska, which examined writers’ thoughts about their own writing and how writers plan and begin their texts in different languages. The second presentation based on KISUVIs data Pause-derived representations of writing strategies among multilingua learners: What is the role of individual variation? was given by Ilmari Ivaska. Ilmari’s presentation examined writers’ pause behavious and the distribution of pauses in texts in both their first and foreign languages.

After a lunch break, the leader of the KISUVI project Maarit Mutta presented the background and objectives of the project. The latest publications and results of KISUVI were highlighted, as well as future and ongoing research. Together with Victoria, KISUVI’s future plans and a possible follow-up project was discussed and ideas for interesting joint research projects were brainstormed.