Dream of a truly cultured, civilising university

At an emotional level the University of Helsinki has always been for me the “one true university,” in whose various faculties both my parents and siblings and quite a number of my near kin have studied. Both my grandfathers earned their doctorates here, and I have the honour and good fortune of being able to wear my maternal grandfather’s doctoral hat for formal academic events. (Back in 1950 the hat of medical doctors was still black instead of green, so replacing the faculty badge was sufficient to convert the hat into a Faculty of Arts model.) I think of my maternal great grandmother with particular respect, as she successfully applied to the University for an exemption from her sex and graduated in 1897 as a Master of Science, while already being the mother of a small child. Her husband, my great-grandfather, was a humanities scholar, a journalist, and a proponent of adult education, and all their nine children received a university education in the spirit of Finnish language and nationalism. These preceding generations seem to have assimilated – whatever their own field of research – the idea of the university: that the thirst for knowledge, a rounded education, and academic freedom have a value in themselves.

Now that Finnish universities are being pressured into becoming some kind of glorified vocational institutes, producing seasonal workers for the needs of an economy that sees no further than the next quarter, my dream is that even in these times of austerity the powers that be at the University of Helsinki would have the time to stop and reflect on the past and future status and course of our university and our fundamental purpose. In a true top international university there will always be space even for those subjects and fields deemed “unproductive” by the yardstick conjured up by the Ministry of Education and Culture – the real quality and impact of research and education will only be revealed in the years and decades to come.

Picture Caption: The first dissertation defence of the program of North American Studies in Auditorium XIV of the Main Building of the University of Helsinki, 31 May 2001 was a memorable last day of school, at least for the disputant and his nearest and dearest. From the left the Opponent, Dr Donald Worster (University of Kansas), the Custos, Dr Markku Henriksson in his honorary robes from York University (Canada), and the Respondent.

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By Written by Mikko Saikku, translated by Tero Heikkinen, revised by Matthew Billington

Mikko Saikku

Born February 13, 1963, Helsinki

Bachelor of Arts 1989 (general history), Master of Arts 1992, Licentiate 1993, PhD 2001 (North American Studies), University of Helsinki
Docent in American History 2007, University of Helsinki
Docent in environmental history 2002, University of Tampere

Professor of American Studies 2015–, University of Helsinki
Research fellow 2014–16, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Professor of general history 2011–13, University of Helsinki
Professor of American Studies 2006, University of Tampere
Professor of American Studies 2002–05, University of Helsinki
Lecturer in North American Studies, 2001–15, University of Helsinki
Research associate in non-European history 1996–2001, University of Helsinki

Research interests: environmental changes caused by human activity in the Southern United States, particularly in the lower reaches of the Mississippi; the culture of the Southern United States, the relationship to nature of Finnish immigrants in North America, the biology of extinction, environmental history and American Studies research methods, the history of nature conservation, the use of wilderness symbolism in the construction of national identity in North America and the Nordic countries.

Publications

Photo: Veikko Somerpuro
Written by Mikko Saikku (Tiia Niemelä, ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington