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Terttu Nevalainen

Taimi Terttu Annikki Nevalainen
Born May 31, 1952, Vuolijoki

Master of Arts 1977 (English philology, phonetics, general linguistics, Romance philology), PGCE (English) 1978, Licentiate 1986 and PhD 1991, University of Helsinki; postgraduate studies 1980–81, University College London

Professor of English Philology 1997–, University of Helsinki
Academy Professor 2010–14, Academy of Finland
Leverhulme Visiting Professor 2007, University of Sheffield
Senior researcher 1996–97, 2001–02, 2008–09, Academy of Finland
Associate professor 1993–97, University of Helsinki
Visiting researcher and lecturer 1992, 1994 and 1996, University of Cambridge

Publications, research projects and other academic activities

Research themes: English language and its variation and change, corpus research, historical sociolinguistics, English during the Tudor and Stuart period.

Awards and special achievements:
Prize for best doctoral thesis 1991, University of Helsinki
Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 2001–
Festschrift Variation Past and Present 2002
City of Helsinki Science Award from 2006

Photo: Veikko Somerpuro
Written by Terttu Nevalainen (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta, ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington

Research Affairs and Organisation Activity

Over the years my administrative duties have led to my involvement in research affairs, and I have served on the university Research Council, the infrastructure committee, library committee and the research committee of the Faculty of Arts. Participating in establishing such forms of national collaboration as the Langnet Doctoral Programme and the Finnish Society for the Study of English (FINSSE) has been particularly inspiring. One of the most recent undertakings is the Publication Forum project, for which I am the chairperson of the languages panel.

My responsibilities in international organisations are also largely research related. I was involved in founding the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE), and I served two terms as the Vice-President of research. The central aim of the society is to initiate active dialogue between researchers of English from different fields. My terms on the executive board of the International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English (ICAME) were less adventurous, as the organisation championing corpus-based English research had by then been well established.

My honorary positions in Finland have included membership of the board of the Modern Language Society and responsibility, spanning ten years, for its English language publications. My longest lasting work in an organisation, however, already began when I was a student. I was recruited by the Finnish-British Society in Helsinki, first as a secretary for the Cambridge English examinations, then, after graduating , as a teacher, and finally as a member of the board and vice-chairperson for many years. Another fine vantage point to have.

The opening conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE) in Freiburg in 2008. Pictured are members of the executive team and keynote speakers.

 

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