Pirjo Kukkonen

Pirjo Liisa Helinä Kukkonen
Born September 5, 1949 Oulunsalo

Master of Arts (Scandinavian philology) 1974, Licentiate 1983 (Scandinavian languages), PhD 1989, University of Helsinki
Examination for authorised translators (Finnish-Swedish) 1976
Subject teacher training 1974–75, University of Helsinki
Docent in Scandinavian languages 2005–, University of Oulu

Professor of Swedish translation studies 2011–, University of Helsinki
Acting professor of Swedish translation studies 2009–11, university lecturer in Swedish (translation studies) 2004–09, University of Helsinki
Head of the Department of Translation Studies 2000–03, acting professor of Swedish translation and interpretation studies 2000–2004, University of Helsinki
Scholarship researcher 1994–96
Lecturer in Swedish translation and interpretation studies 1991–2004, Acting assistant professor 1991–94, Kouvola Institute for Translator Training/ Department of Translation Studies, University of Helsinki
Research and teaching assistant, Scandinavian languages 1983–88 and 1988–91, University of Helsinki
Part-time teacher of Scandinavian languages, acting lecturer, acting research assistant, acting assistant professor 1975–83, 1990, University of Helsinki

Member of the Scientific Board of the International Semiotics Institute 2014–
Member of the Editorial Board and Scientific Board 2013–, Punctum. International Journal of Semiotics
Principal Investigator (PI) of Swedish translation studies 2011–, University of Helsinki
Researcher and steering-group member 2013–16, TraST Research Community, University of Helsinki
Researcher 2012–, Semiotics and Cultural Heritages: Semiotics, Translation and Cultural Heritages
Executive member of IASS/AIS The International Association for Semiotic Studies – Association Internationale de Sémiotique 2009–
Director (with Ritva Hartama-Heinonen) of the 11th International Symposium on Semiotics and Translation SemTra2015 in Kaunas, Lithuania,

Board member 1999–2012, Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies
Board member, lecturer, researcher 2003–12, Finnish Network University of Semiotics
Board member 2002–13, ISI, International Institute for Semiotic and Structural Studies

Project leader, researcher 2001–04, Kouvola Research Group
Researcher 1999–2002, Popular Imagination (Nordic Network of Folklore, Åbo Akademi University)
Researcher, 1999–2000, Understanding, Misunderstanding, and Self-understanding (ESR project)
Vice president of the Semiotic Society of Finland, 1997–
Expert advisor on Swedish at various ministries 1993–96, HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management Ltd 1993–96 and Office of the President of the Republic of Finland 1994–99

Publications, research projects and other academic activity

Research themes
Language, literature and translation studies, social and cultural semiotics

Awards and special achievements
ICoN Lifetime Achievement Award 2015
Tiedeyhteisön kultainen ansiomerkki (Finnish academic medal) 2014
Festschrift in Honour of Professor Kukkonen’s 60th Birthday
‘Oscar’ of Semiotics 2006
Honorary member of the Semiotic Society of Finland 2006
University of Helsinki Superior of the Year 2001

Photo: Ari Aalto
Written by Pirjo Kukkonen (Tomas Sjöblom, ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington

Academic study and hodegetics

As principles of life, the humanities, culture, Bildung, and research are the ideals that Pirjo Kukkonen leans upon in her university teaching. Kukkonen has been involved in the development of university pedagogy and training for researchers since the beginning of the 1980s, using, among others, Johan Vilhelm Snellman’s notion of a “student’s own thinking,” i.e., university studies based on investigative, problem-based thinking, just as Snellman wrote in his work on academic study, Om det Akademiska Studium (1840).

In addition to her degrees in Scandinavian philology, and later in Scandinavian languages, Kukkonen has been educated in both Swedish pedagogics and translation. At the start of her academic career, her studies in adult education and her second major Swedish pedagogics and didactics at the University of Helsinki were a springboard for her interest in university pedagogics and didactics.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Kukkonen pondered, with a small group of students and colleagues, how university education could become more problem-based. The idea was that research and teaching would strongly support each other and that students would learn independent thinking. Gradually, systematic university pedagogy became rooted at the University.

In 1992, Kukkonen, edited and wrote together with her students, an academic handbook on argumentation, Tänk! Skriv! Argumentera. En bok om hodegetik eller vägledning i de akademiska studierna (‘Think! Write! Argue! A handbook on “hodegetics” guidance and instruction for academic studies’). It was inspired by Snellman’s Om det Akademiska Studium and his term ‘hodegetik’ (cf. meta hodos ‘along the way); i.e., instruction for academic study). The book received teaching development funding, and has been used as a textbook for academic writing and thinking. The quality of teaching has always been important to Kukkonen, as is evidenced by the book Laatua! Opiskelijan ja opettajan näkökulma: Helsingin yliopiston käännöstieteen laitoksen lukuvuosien 2001–2002 ja 2002–2003 opetuksen, opiskelun ja koulutuksen itsearviointi (‘Quality! The perspective of the student and teacher: teaching, study and education self-assessment for the 2001–02 and 2003–04 academic years at the Department of Translation Studies, University of Helsinki) Pirjo Kukkonen (ed.) (2003).

The development of studies in the humanities is a key question of our time, as Martha C. Nussbaum writes in her books Cultivating Humanity. A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education ([1997] 2003) and Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (2010).

Academic teaching and supervision are among the central tasks of a university. Kukkonen’s master’s thesis and Swedish translation research seminars are based on investigative learning, curiosity, discovery, and systematic and cumulative new knowledge, i.e., the problem-based search for information and the discovery of new knowledge. Her long experience of teaching and supervision, as both a supervisor for master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, is a higher education where there is a continuous dialogue between teaching and research. This work, where knowledge is a form of life, has been the most creative work that Kukkonen could ever have hoped to engage in.

By Written by Pirjo Kukkonen (Tomas Sjöblom ed.), translated by Matthew Billington

Pirjo Kukkonen

Pirjo Liisa Helinä Kukkonen
Born September 5, 1949 Oulunsalo

Publications, research projects and other academic activity

Research themes
Language, literature and translation studies, social and cultural semiotics

Photo: Ari Aalto
Written by Pirjo Kukkonen (Tomas Sjöblom, ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington