I am involved in several areas of research at present. I am a researcher on the Academy of Finland project “Lapland’s Dark Heritage”, involving researchers from the Universities of Helsinki and Oulu. In this project we aim to find out about the many different ways in which people, both local and further afield, engage with and respond to the cultural heritage legacy of the German presence in Finnish Lapland during World War 2.

I have been involved in the development of teaching that caters for our international student population, as well as the Finnish students – actively developing new Erasmus agreements as well as encouraging students from diverse background to take the museology courses I teach, which are of course in English.

I suppose my very best moment in the University of Helsinki occurred in late 2013, before I even moved here. It was discovering, having applied to my current post with no idea what sort of outcome to expect, that I had been offered the job!

I am really excited about developing museology at the University of Helsinki, and see in the discipline strong links with many of our other subject areas, particularly Cultural Heritage Studies. What I would like to see for this teaching, which is already an essential part of training for anyone at the university wishing to pursue a career in museums in Finland, is even closer integration with the museums sector.

Interview by Can You Dig It –blog with Suzie Thomas and her co-editor of Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, Carol McDavid.

http://c-u-d-i.blogspot.fi/2014/11/interview-with-editors-suzie-thomas-and.html