Here at my home university I have held several elected positions at the Department and Faculty level as a representative of students, other staff, and professors alike, many of them involving the planning of teaching. Since 1995 I have held positions at three separate Departments, while nevertheless sticking to the same subject: first as a student representative and then staff representative on the Steering Committee of the Department of Comparative Literature, Theatre Studies, and Aesthetics, then as staff representative and then representative of professors on the Steering Committee of the Department of Art Studies, and now finally as a representative of professors on the Department Council of the Department of Philosophy, History, Culture, and Art Studies.

I enjoy writing articles for theatre programme booklets. I sit on the board of the Finnish National Theatre. I even served as Chair of the Theatre Research Society of Finland in 2007 – 2008.

Even though I have spent my academic life at the University of Helsinki, I am also active at the international level. During my studies, international contacts were already vital to Theatre Studies, and for me the pivotal moment was attending the summer schools of the International Centre for Advanced Theatre Studies (ICATS), founded and headed by my predecessor, Professor Pirkko Koski. That was my introduction to international activity, the high point of which – so far – is a four-year term as Vice-President of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR). My brief is particularly close to my heart, working with young scholars of theatre studies. Before this I was a member of the Executive Committee of the IFTR in 2007 – 2015 and I have been an active member of the IFTR Historiography Working Group since 2001.

I sat on the board of the Nordic Association of Theatre Researchers (Nordiska Teaterforskare) for ten years, including two years as Chair. I am also a member of the review boards of Nordic Theatre Studies and Contemporary Theatre Review as well as a referee for several international journals.

Research and teaching cooperation with international colleagues is not only fun but necessary. To remain part of the international debate on research and teaching I have felt it necessary to present my research at an international conference every year and to participate in teacher exchanges. My colleagues Sruti Bala, Milija Gluhovic, and Kati Röttger I are editing an anthology on the university pedagogy of theatre and performance studies. I am proud that we have been able to include authors from every continent – except Antarctica.