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.
You are warmly invited to the Interdisciplinary Research Symposium
Drama and Early Modern Education in Britain
on Friday 17 October, 2025 in Helikon (Arken, Tehtaankatu 2).
Individual topics will be addressed from Social, Historical, Linguistic, Literary, and Digital perspectives.
The programme is available here.
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.
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!
Welcome to SPREMI on Thursday 20 February 2025 at 15.15 – 17.00 in aud. Helikon (A201, Arken, Fabriksgatan 2).
The speaker of the day is Bobbi Reiman form KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt The title of her talk is “The Rise of Christian Nationalism in the U.S.: Causes, Complications, and Consequences.”.
Please see the abstract for more information.
The seminar can also be attended online at: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/66312703059 (Meeting ID: 663 1270 3059)
Everyone is warmly welcome!
Welcome to SPREMI on Thursday 6 February 2025 at 15.15 – 17.00 in aud. Helikon (A201, Arken, Fabriksgatan 2).
The speaker of the day is Izabela Cerniak, project researcher in English Language at Åbo Akademi University. The title of her talk is “There was once a Country-man, which came to London, (…)”: Some considerations on relativisation strategies in (Early) Modern English.
Please see the abstract for more information.
The seminar can also be attended online at: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/66312703059 (Meeting ID: 663 1270 3059)
Everyone is warmly welcome!
Interdisciplinary seminar on nationalism
23 January 2025
Arken, Helikon
Online participation via Zoom: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/66312703059 (Meeting ID: 663 1270 3059).
Many of us at Åbo Akademi are working on topics that have some connection to nationalism, even if nationalism would not be the main topic of the research. This interdisciplinary seminar, organised by Johanna Ilmakunnas (Nordic History) and Urpo Nikanne (Finnish Language) seeks to open a wider picture of nationalism in language, society, and culture and the research on it from all kinds of point of view. The seminar programme demonstrates how a number of issues in our research are linked to nationalism, today or in past, as well as within methodologies or theoretical perspectives.
The new academic year at the department starts with three introductory meetings on Monday 2 September in Källan (C201, Arken)
The introduction is an important occasion where you will get a lot of essential information concerning your studies. So do come along!
