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Jouko Lindstedt

Jouko Sakari Lindstedt
Born July 15, 1955, Helsinki

Bachelor of Arts 1981, Licentiate of Philosophy 1983 and Doctor of Philosophy 1985 (Slavonic Philology), University of Helsinki

Professor of Slavonic Philology 1986-, University of Helsinki
Acting Professor of Slavonic Philology 1985, University of Helsinki

Publications, research projects and other academic activities

Research interests: development of Bulgarian and Macedonian as Balkan languages; origins, spontaneous change and nativisation of Esperanto as a language in contact; language policy in the Balkans and the European Union; Old Church Slavonic and early Slavonic studies; South Slavonic Philology; tense, aspect and evidentiality.

Member of the Helsinki Area & Language Studies group, promoting research on linguistic diversity and language ecology and fieldwork on minority-language speech communities.

Photo: Valokuvaamo Helläkoski, Lahti
Written by Jouko Lindstedt and Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta (ed.)
Translated by John Calton

The University: thinking about organisations or organising our thinking?

When I was appointed in 1986 I was the youngest professor in the University. During my academic career the organisation has undergone a complete change. In the past the subject head’s competence extended to the acquisition of stationery–even typewriters required a separate dispensation. Nowadays the head of department is in charge of a multimillion euro budget and ensuring that there’s enough money to go round for tens and even hundreds of staff. Research and academic publications are counted and compiled on databases, and departments, faculties and entire universities are locked in competition with one another.

I have witnessed two major overhauls of the University administration. In place of a collegial professoriate came first elected administrative bodies: professors were joined by elected representatives of the teachers and students. A few years ago we moved over to an executive model in which power was concentrated in the hands of the rector, the dean and heads of department, even though of course they could take heed of other members of the University.

Behind the competition and organisational change much remains the same however. Many of us academics go on with our research, experiencing the delight of finding out something new, not just to collect citation points for peer-reviewed articles. We teach students because it’s a pleasure to work with enthusiastic young people, even if they don’t always choose the most direct path towards a degree.

Not all the changes have been bad. For example teaching and supervision has improved enormously in the last decade. And yet I still feel I’m living in an age when the idea of a university needs to be defended against the organisation itself.

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