When research work is done by commission, your current project is always the most important one. Each research project is a potential reference for a future employer.

– If I were to reflect on the general significance of my research, I’d say the work with a lasting impact has been the books and articles on the history of child welfare and social policy, which are still in constant use,’ says Panu Pulma. ‘Similarly, works which dealt with the history of the Roma, such as Suljetut ovet (‘Closed doors’ (2006), which discusses policies towards the Roma in the Nordic countries, and Suomen romanien historia (‘A history of the Roma in Finland’ (2013), have proven to be socially relevant, says Panu Pulma.

Over the years, Pulma has been involved in several large-scale research projects.

– Out of my research projects, the family history project, which was ground-breaking in its field, the Finnish Roma History project, and the Sveaborg Project, about the fortress island just off the coast of Helsinki, the results of which will be more visible in due course - these are the kinds of things to be proud of.

Pulma finds project work exciting and rewarding, as well as far and away the best part of a researcher’s work. He says that he is a little too lazy to be the lone scholar chipping away at the scholarly coalface.

– I might add that the projects have given me an enormous amount of material for teaching and have reinforced the social nature of my work.