Upcoming Events
SPRING SEMESTER 2025
See past events organised in 2024 here.
FEBRUARY
Book launch: Lähestymistapoja kirjallisuuteen (Approaches to Literature, ed. Hanna Meretoja, Aino Mäkikalli, Anna Helle, Kaisa Ilmonen & Markku Lehtimäki, SKS), in Finnish
28 February, 14-15
Arcanum A347 (coffee room)
Tilaisuudessa teoksesta esittävät puheenvuorot kotimaisen kirjallisuuden opiskelija Matilda Kirvelä, yleisen kirjallisuustieteen väitöskirjatutkija Oiva Ristimäki sekä teoksen toimittajat ja kirjoittajat.
MARCH
Seminar for Doctoral researchers: Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory
25 March, 13-15
Arcanum A259
SELMA Centre hosts a seminar for doctoral researchers related to the centre’s main topics of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory. We would like to give this platform for younger scholars to present their work, network with each other, and share experiences and tips about getting started in academia. The event is bilingual: on paper is in Finnish, three in English. The topics include afroamerican literature, Korean cultural narratives, landscape studies, and oral testimonies.
APRIL
Käsitetyöpaja: Mikä on ‘race’ suomeksi?
15 April, 12.30-16
Arcanum A229 (Loisto)
Tervetuloa SELMA-tutkimuskeskuksen sekä INTERACT- ja MadEnCounters -tutkimushankkeiden yhteiseen käsitetyöpajaan, jossa keskustellaan suomeksi kirjoittavia tutkijoita, kirjailijoita, kääntäjiä ja muita kielen kanssa toimivia ammattilaisia askarruttavista, ns. rotua, etnisyyttä ja kulttuurin moninaisuutta koskevista käsitteellisistä valinnoista. Mikä on suomeksi race, entä mixed-race, racialized/racialization – ja mitä merkitsee hiljaisuus näiden sanojen ympärillä?
Puhujina tutkijatohtori Maïmouna Matikainen-Soreau, suomentaja Anna Tuomikoski, yliopistonlehtori, dosentti Kaisa Ilmonen, tutkijatohtori Kaiju Harinen, kirjailija Fiona ‘Elone sekä POC-lukupiirin Téri Zambrano.
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Visual arts, narrative and social class
24-25 April
University of Turku / Life on a Leaf house
Art and society are deeply entangled, and visual arts offer a crucial window into historical, social and economic conditions. But art does not only reflect the existing world; art is a catalyst for change, propelling transformation and provoking unrest and dispute. Art allows us to understand, imagine, engage with, participate in and potentially transform the world through lasting historical-political and socio-economic change.
This conference is interested in the role of social class in the production, circulation and stories of the visual arts. Social class is difficult to define, and individuals live their social class through everyday experiences, opportunities and limitations. The invisible structures and processes that define and shape the experiences of social class are felt, rather than seen. Visual art is thus an exciting angle from which to explore the phenomenology of social class, translating invisible hierarchies and experiences into visual, physical and material forms.
MAY
SELMA GUEST LECTURE SERIES
27 May
Arcanum ARC
Guide through Life: Social Normativity in 19th Century Hungarian Female Conduct Books
by Dr. Judit Kerpics, Assistant Professor, University of Szeged (HU), Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, Department of Cultural Studies
&
Between Silence and Speech: Cultural Metaphors of Anxiety in Indian Narratives
by Dr. Arya Priyadarshini, Assistant Professor of English at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India
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10 YEARS OF SELMA – CELEBRATORY SEMINAR
26 May
Sibelius Museum
SELMA, Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory was launched in June 2015. We invite everyone with an interest in the Centre’s themes, especially those who have worked with the Centre – or hope to do so in the future – to celebrate its first 10 years in a seminar on 26 May 2025. The programme includes keynote lectures, roundtable on the significance of narratives, and live music. Welcome!
JUNE
Summer school and Conference: Religion, Concealed and Revealed
9-12 June
Arcanum
The aim of the summer school and conference is to bring together doctoral candidates and researchers from various academic fields that engage with the study of religion, such as theology, religious studies, study of esotericism, history, philosophy, the arts, social and political sciences and other.
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Conference: NEFK2025 – “Nordic 2.0 and beyond”
11-14 June
Åbo Akademi University and Turku University
It is time to meet again at the Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference. The 36th edition of the conference aims to reconnect with the roots of NEFK. We therefore invite all Nordic scholars, and scholars of the Nordic, to Turku/Åbo in Finland to expand our horizons once more. The theme of the conference is ”Nordic 2.0 and beyond.”
The Nordic region is frequently viewed as a model welfare society. However, what is meant by referring to the Nordic, both historically and presently? Is it a geographic region, an imagined community, a way of life, or a theoretical framework? Finally, what could Nordic 2.0 and beyond be and become? Let us explore these and other questions together!