All students and staff of English Language and Literature are invited to the English Department’s subject moot on Wednesday 25 March 2026, at 16.45pm in Kramer (M220).

The agenda of the meeting

1. Opening of the meeting
2. Chair, secretary, scrutinizers
3. Announcements & Reminders
4. Changes
   a) Minor subject admission
   b) Staff
   c) Rooms
5. Teaching programme 2026-2027
   a) Core courses
   b) Options
6. Any other business

The Subject Moot meeting is open for all students, researchers and staff of English Language and Literature. If you would like to suggest topics to discuss, please send you suggestions by email to our department trainee by 11am on Wednesday 25 March, i.e. in the morning of the day of the moot.

NB! Before the Subject Moot, at 16.15, there will be an information session about the BA and MA theses. If you are planning to write your thesis next academic year, this is for you!

The department is looking for a trainee for the period 25 February to 25 May 2026. For more information see the trainee ad on the Department’s Moodle Notice Board and sent to enge-info.

M.A. Aino Haataja will publicly defend her doctoral thesis in English Language and Literature with a thesis entitled From Private Happiness to Public Virtue: Contextualizing Worldliness in Maria Edgeworth’s Fiction.

Professor Fiona Price, University of Chichester, United Kingdom, will serve as opponent and Professor Jason Finch, Åbo Akademi University, as custos.

The doctoral thesis can be read at Doria.

You are welcome to attend the public defence of this doctoral thesis online: webinar link.

Professor Anthony Johnson will hold his valedictory lecture on Wednesday 19 November 2025, 16.15, in Arken Helikon (Tehtaankatu 2). The title of lecture is

“From Vocation to Vacation: A Career in English Literature”

The lecture will be streamed: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/64571766075

(Photo Åbo Akademis bildbank)

Congratulations to our graduate Jillian Bainbridge!

EFNIL (European Federation of National Institutions for Language) has selected Jillian Bainbridge’s MA thesis as one of the three best in Europe. See Winners 2025 at https://efnil.org/projects/masters-thesis-award/

The thesis, completed 2024 and supervised by Martin Gill, is entitled “Renaming Bannau Brycheiniog: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Comments Below-the-Line at Two British Newspapers” (https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/188898)

M.A. Andreas Lehtinen will publicly defend his doctoral thesis in English Language and Literature on Saturday 15 November 2025 in Auditorium Armfelt (Arken, Tehtaankatu).

The thesis is entitled Voids of the Absolute: Michael Symmons Roberts’s Poetry as Hegelian (Picture-)Thought.

Professor Kristina Mendicino, Brown University, USA, will serve as opponent and Professor Emeritus Anthony Johnson, Åbo Akademi University, as custos.

The doctoral thesis can be read at Doria, the link will be published here one week before the defence.

Åbo Akademi University and The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters are organizing a symposium in memory of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor Nils Erik Enkvist..

Nils Erik Enkvist was Professor of English as well as Rector and Chancellor of Åbo Akademi University. He was an honorary member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.

The full-day symposium will take place in Turku on Monday, September 22, 2025.

The event will highlight Enkvist’s significant contributions to language and literary studies through lectures addressing key research areas from his extensive scholarly work, including Old English and applied linguistics.

Read more about the programme.

The new academic year at the department starts with three introductory meetings on Monday 1 September

New students, 9.00-9.45, Panorama

Other BA students, 15.15-16.00, Helikon

MA students 16.15-17.00, Kramer

The introduction is an important occasion where you will get a lot of essential information concerning your studies. So do come along!