When Liksom got the final stage of her studies, with just a dissertation to write, she was living in Denmark, in the alternative Copenhagen district of Christiania. The district has proclaimed itself a free town and is known as a home for artists, anarchists and other dissidents.

As a student of anthropology, Liksom had an idea she could base her master’s dissertation on her adopted home district. Her teacher, the social anthropologist Jeremy Gould, was keen on the idea. But with cultural anthropology as her main subject he couldn’t accept the topic. So Liksom went to see the professor of Finno-Ugrian ethnology, officially appointed to supervise the work.

“I explained my idea. The professor was dumbstruck, and had nothing to say,” Liksom explains.

The professor recommended another topic: the development of Finno-Ugrian interiors.

“It was something to do with furniture. My turn to be gobsmacked: I reckoned I’d have to manage without the dissertation. At first I thought I’d take a break from studies, but in the end the dissertation got dropped altogether. Now I think about it, I should have taken the idea elsewhere, but I didn’t get it back then; there was a real culture clash.”

Times have changed since 1985. Fortunately.

“Nowadays any number of professors would give the tattoos on their left arm to supervise a thesis on Christiana.”