One of Kirsi Saarikangas’s best memories is when she enrolled to study at the University of Helsinki.

“It opened up an incredible world. I was able to learn about the things that interested me. At school I didn’t even know it was possible to study such subjects.”

Saarikangas began as a student of Finnish literature, but she soon changed her major to art history. She also studied general history, sociology and theoretical philosophy as extended minor subjects.

Practical courses based on reading and writing about Finnish literature obliged students to read and write every week from the very first autumn. A particularly memorable event was Marja-Liisa Nevala’s (nee Kunnas) practical course on lyrical poetry.

“Towards the end of my studies both women’s studies and French poststructuralist theories came thundering into the Finnish debate. I participated in Matti Viikari’s reading group on the history of ideas and became acquainted, among other things, with the writings of Michel Foucault. Päivi Setälä brought some books back from the USA on gender history, and we learnt to write “papers.”

Kirsi Saarikangas regrets that there were no official student exchanges during her study years. Nevertheless, she discovered the world through numerous excursions.

Of these trips, a three-week excursion to New York in 1984 was unforgettable. The trip was long in planning. Funds were raised through such activities as running a café in the Athenium Art Museum during the Ars83 exhibition.

“The trip to New York was such a great experience that I remember it to this day.”

A trip to the French city of Toulouse was also an experience. In April 1986, there was a course on the Baroque period led by Henrik Lilius at the Villa Lante in Rome. In 1988, in the heat of August, Saarikangas participated in an excavation in Cerveteri’s Etruscan area, in Lazio, Italy, as a part of a Ministry of Education cultural exchange. The summer routine of a member of the Inter Rail generation also included summer jobs and train journeys in Europe. Saarikangas was also active in Kronos, the association of history students at the University of Helsinki and Eidos, the association of students of art history. Special memories from her student days also include participation in the making of the film The Heimola Story (1984), directed by Ilari and Markus Nummi.