Doctor of Philosophy Mirkka Lappalainen has a great deal of good memories from her university days. The most significant ones concern the beginning of her studies as a history student and, on the other hand, the day of the defence of her doctoral thesis.

When Lappalainen began studying in the autumn of 1994, the Department of History was still housed in the Heimola building.

– You had to take a ramshackle lift in order to get to the department facilities, which were on the fifth floor. Through the floor boards you could see the department of mathematics, which was situated on the floor below. The times I spent in that shabby building with my fellow students are full of precious memories, says Lappalainen.

Another memory from Lappalainen’s time as a student concerns taking part in Kronikka, the magazine of the eponymous association of history students.

– Regular computers could not handle layouts back then, so we spent nights and weekends at the university IT station on Fabianinkatu. There, the magazine was put together in a cheerful atmosphere.

For Mirkka Lappalainen, the most memorable day at the university was the day of the defence of her doctoral thesis in the spring of 2005.

– The defence was a near euphoric experience for me: the feeling that now I was really defending my thesis! Almost all of the people who had become important during the process of writing the thesis were present at the post-doctoral party. Doing a thesis is not just about writing it. For me, it was about growing into a researcher and a historian. I could not have made it through the process without great colleagues and the amazing professors we have here. It felt fantastic to celebrate that moment with them and my other friends.