One of my best memories is from the Spring 2007 Conferment Ceremony, which would be my last before retiring at the end of the year. During the spring, MA students in theatre studies had gathered weekly in my thesis seminar. Our shared goal was that everybody would graduate and we would celebrate together at the ceremony. Therefore everyone was intensely supportive of each other and the last theses were finished in the eleventh hour. After the graduation ceremony, we gathered for a photograph on the steps of the Old Student House after midnight, much to the astonishment of a group of Japanese tourists. The University Chancellor also happened by, and was included in our photo.

Another memory is associated with a teaching situation. In the Advanced Studies Methodology seminar, two students always introduced two recent articles which the whole group had read for that session. Jutta Junnikkala and Misa Palander had been assigned Elin Diamond’s article collection Performance and Cultural Politics. The text was difficult, and included a feminist performance study. The students showed that they had read it carefully: they started the presentation by standing up and slowly opening their dark cardigans in unison. Underneath they were wearing identical T-shirts with the words Diamond Girls written in gold letters on the front--they had found them by chance in a department store. Their insightful performance relaxed everyone, including themselves, and perhaps made it easier for everyone to deal with the material.

Translated as coursework by Sara Jormakka, Saana Kallioinen, Tanja Koski, Suvi Lehikoinen, Tuomas Mäenpää, Emilia Mäkinen, Emma Niemi, Eerika Norja, Anu Piippo, Riina Vepsä, Saara Viitanen, Marilena Constantinou, Liisa Eloranta, Teemu Heikman, Marika Holmberg, Cecilia Ihatsu, Juliette Lempinen, Elviira Mattila, Sinimarja Niironen, Milla Rautio, Riikka-Liisa Salomaa, Sebastian Wandao & Elina Virros.

Revised by Nely Keinänen & John Calton