Cecilia af Forselles

Maria Cecilia af Forselles
Born June 30, 1954, Helsinki

Master of Arts 1982, PhD 2001 (history), University of Helsinki

Library Director 2005-, Finnish Literature Society

Researcher at the University of Helsinki and various posts at the National Library of Finland 1986–2004
Board member 2014- and vice-chairman 2015, Federation of Finnish Learned Societies
Chairman 2013-, The Finnish Society for the History of Science and Learning
Board member 2014-, National Library of Finland
Programme committee member for the Science Forum 2017

Research themes
Oral tradition and literary culture, the cultural history of translations of the Kalevala, literary memory and currents of thought, the history of European ideas, science and learning

Recent research has dealt with literary culture and currents of thought, the cultural history of translations of the Kalevala, reading culture, changes in the academic community, and the rise of oral culture as a topic of academic research in the 18th century.

Selection of publications
“Intryck, inspiration och idéer. Beskrivningar av Kina i Europa, Sverige och Finland.” In Kleion pauloissa (2014)
“Englanninkieliset käännökset. Kalevalan muuttuvat ylikansalliset tehtävät.” In Kalevala maailmalla. Kalevalan käännösten kulttuurihistoria ( 2012)
The Emergence of Finnish Book and Reading Culture in the 1700s (Ed. 2011)
Kirjakulttuuri kaupungissa 1700-luvulla (Ed. 2008)
The A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection. Annotated Catalogue of Maps made up to 1800. Vol. 5:1. & 5:2 (1995)

Awards and honours
Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland 2014
Silver medal of honour, the Finnish Literature Society 2012
Cultural award of the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation 1997

Written by Cecilia af Forselles (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta, ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington

My vision

I am lucky to be able to operate in the dynamic and intellectually inspiring environment of scholarly societies. For the academic community, a central issue is dissemination of information and exchange of views. In addition to the dissemination of knowledge, the significance of face-to-face meetings and conversations cannot be overstated. Third sector research institutes, cultural memory organisations and scholarly societies should be more widely acknowledged as academic bodies that not only publish, store, and disseminate scientific information but also organise academic seminars and conferences.

It is crucial that researchers can share their findings with others. The influence of a publication is also dependent on the speed at which findings are published and how effectively the results reach other researchers interested in the same topics. Publications hiding behind licences and usernames in academic libraries serve but a handful of researchers, and fail the experts and researchers in society at large. We use public resources for such an inequitable distribution of knowledge on the Internet.

Open science and Open Access publishing will hopefully improve the situation. They are driven by the demand that research findings be disseminated without cost to users. By promoting the development of open science in Finland, we can hopefully guarantee more equitable distribution of information in the future. In addition, with the help of improved search engines and servers, the ability to find and use material on the Internet will improve, both nationally and internationally.

I also see this development as of interest to those in the humanities, as it increases both the amount of available source material and the number of research findings and also enables researchers to find and use material which is otherwise difficult to access.

I hope, nevertheless, that in all development work we remember the fact that the aim should be to create a humane, compassionate environment. Science, the production and dissemination of knowledge and presence on the Internet should also support this aim. My own identity as a humanist is strong, and I would like that the cultivation of virtues, the significance of human dignity and the concept of learning as an ideal, inherited from the classical period and the Renaissance, were valued and emphasized in every way in all arenas of science and knowledge.