AFinLA (Association Finlandaise de Linguistique Appliquée) awards the Afinlandia prize annually for a distinguished Master’s thesis, and every three years for a Doctoral dissertation. This year, the prize is awarded in both the Master’s thesis and Doctoral dissertation series. Several theses of outstanding quality were nominated from multiple areas of applied linguistics and numerous Finnish universities. The awardees were announced on 7 November during the conference dinner organized in conjunction with the AFinLA Symposium.
This year, the awardees are:
In the Master’s thesis series:
Reetta Viljaharju (University of Jyväskylä) for her master’s thesis titled Saamen kielen elvytyksestä sen haltuunottoon – Autobiografinen tutkimus kielellisten käännekohtien vaikutuksesta identiteettiin
This award-winning work analyses the linguistic turning points in the life of a young adult who, as a child, unknowingly participated in the revival of a minority language, an experience that shaped her identity in various ways. Particular attention is paid to the role of Skolt Sámi, Northern Sámi and Finnish in his life. The research is positioned in the fields of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. The study’s value has been reflected from personal, communal, societal and scientific perspectives. Clearly, in line with the author’s intentions, many other Sámi people who have moved outside the Sámi region can also identify with the themes of the research and its outcomes.
In the Doctoral dissertation series:
Penni Pietilä (University of Helsinki) for her doctoral dissertation titled Äidinkielen luokka ja sukupuoli: etnografinen tutkimus äidinkielen/suomen opinnoista osaamisperusteisessa tekniikan alan ammatillisessa perustutkintokoulutuksessa
The dissertation focuses on mother tongue/Finnish studies in vocational education. The research is a feminist, multi-sited ethnography contextualized within educational policy. It is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on educational sociology, applied linguistics and gender studies. It touches on the competence-based nature of education, concerns about boys’ literacy and discussions in research literature on gender and social class.
The focus is on mother tongue classes, referring both to the classroom and to the social class produced through mother tongue/Finnish studies. This class is characterised by somewhat contradictory norm centres, which are used to define and justify the curriculum. According to the researcher, ‘working-class boys’ are guided towards a masculine and working-class status that opposes school and education. The poor state of core subjects in vocational education received widespread media attention, and discussions about how to improve the situation were held even within the Ministry of Education.
In addition to the Afinlandia awards presented, AFinLA also wishes to recognize the following doctoral dissertation
Kirsi Leskinen (University of Jyväskylä): Korkeakoulutaustaiset maahanmuuttaneet koulutuspolulla Suomessa: neksusanalyysi tekstitoiminnasta, kielellisistä resursseista ja osallisuuden mahdollisuuksista.
For details, please contact:
Saija Merke, AFinLA ry. (Afinlandia-coordinator), saija.merke(at)abo.fi, tel. 050 3590 318
AFinLA ry. : http://www.afinla.fi/