Ulla-Maija Forsberg

Ulla-Maija Forsberg (née Kulonen)
Born August 2, 1960, Helsinki.

Bachelor of Arts, 1983, Master of Arts 1984, Licentiate of Philosophy, 1986 and Doctor of Philosophy, 1989 (Finno-Ugrian Languages), University of Helsinki

Professor of Finno-Ugrian Languages, University of Helsinki, 1998-
Vice-rector, University of Helsinki, 2010–13
Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, 2007–09
Researcher / Special Investigator, Institute for the Languages of Finland (KOTUS) 1989–98
Research Assistant, Academy of Finland, 1984–89

Publications, research projects and other academic activity
Research interests: historical and comparative linguistics, etymology, terminology research, lexicography, syntax, Ob-Ugrian languages, Hungarian

Most significant publications (monographs and dictionaries)
The Passive in Ob-Ugrian (PhD thesis, 1989)
Suomen sanojen alkuperä; etymologinen sanakirja 1–3 (‘Etymology of Finnish words’ vols I-III, 1992/1995/2000, Principal Editor)
Johdatus unkarin kielen historiaan (’Introduction to the history of Hungarian’, 1993)
Johdatus saamentutkimukseen (’Introduction to Saami Research’, ed. with Juha Pentikäinen and Irja Seurujärvi-Kari, 1994)
Sanojen alkuperä ja sen selittäminen. Etymologista leksikografiaa (‘The origin of words. Etymological lexicography’, 1996)
The Saami: a Cultural Encyclopaedia (ed. with Risto Pulkkinen & Irja Seurujärvi-Kari 2005)
Itämansin kielioppi ja tekstejä (’Grammar of Eastern Mansi and texts’, 2007)
Fonesteemit ja sananmuodostus (’Phonesthemes and word formation’, 2010)
Suomi-unkari -sanakirja (‘Finnish-Hungarian dictionary’, Principal Editor with Magdolna Kovács, forthcoming 2015)

Awards and special achievements
State Award for Public Information, 2006
Knight (First Class), Order of the White Rose of Finland, 2009
Swedish Assembly of Finland Award, 2013

Photo: Ari Aalto
Written by Ulla-Maija Forsberg (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta, ed.)
Translated by John Calton

To the administrative heights and back

I had barely been working at the University for ten years when I found myself in the office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts in the main building. Those were years when we were bracing ourselves for a large-scale reform of the University, and the hurry was proportionate to that.

The biggest endeavour during my term as dean was the reform of the department structure. The faculty library was transferred to a new common Helsinki University Library. Four big departments were formed and a new administrative model put in place. We were coming up with names for the new departments, and the name of my current department – Suomen kielen, suomalais-ugrilaisten ja pohjoismaisten kielten ja kirjallisuuksien laitos - ended up being the longest in the entire university!

After my period in office, I spent four years as first Vice-rector of the University. It was enlightening for a humanist to see the University as a whole and witness the diversity of different campuses and research fields. Strategy, quality work, the staff’s wellbeing and the state of the University’s buildings were some of the things I got acquainted with from a new perspective. International relations took me to places where a scholar of Finno-Ugric languages might never have ventured otherwise: China, Saudi-Arabia, South America and Africa.

The most beautiful and quite certainly the most abiding memory from that time is the completion and opening of the Kaisa Library. The building turned out smarter than I could have ever imagined. Now that I am back with duties which allow me to do research, I have spent a lot of ‘quality time’ with books and data and each time I am happy to see that the library ambiance inspires others, too.

By Written by Ulla-Maija Forsberg (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta, ed.). Translated by Kaisla Kajava. Revised by John Calton.

Ulla-Maija Forsberg

Ulla-Maija Forsberg (née Kulonen)
Born August 2, 1960, Helsinki.

Bachelor of Arts, 1983, Master of Arts 1984, Licentiate of Philosophy, 1986 and Doctor of Philosophy, 1989 (Finno-Ugrian Languages), University of Helsinki

Awards and special achievements
State Award for Public Information, 2006
Knight (First Class), Order of the White Rose of Finland, 2009
Swedish Assembly of Finland Award, 2013

Photo: Ari Aalto
Written by Ulla-Maija Forsberg (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta, ed.)
Translated by John Calton