Research

Goals

Research in the Faculty of Humanities is of a high standard. It is the aim of the Faculty that in 2013 it reaches an internationally excellent standard in its research. This would also be reflected in an increase in external research funding, reaching one third of the total budget of the Faculty.

Values

According to the strategy of the University of Oulu, the values which function as guidelines are leadership, camaraderie and partnership. The new faculty structure supports fellowship and partnership and promotes multidisciplinary research.

Research focus areas and strengths

Research in the Faculty of Humanities is tied to the strategy of the University, which emphasizes research in the following focus areas: Information technology and wireless communication, biotechnology and molecular medicine, and northern and environmental issues.

In the Faculty of Humanities, the main focus area of research is the European cultural heritage as reflected in the Northern cultural environment. In addition, research is carried out on Northern culture and its reflections in a global world. Furthermore, multidisciplinary research in the fields of information technology and wireless communications is also significant.

The research focus areas are formed and resourced mainly through the Academy of Finland and other forms of external research funding. They interconnect mainly with research on language and communication, and research on history and culture.

Research on Language and Communication

The Academy of Finland is the main source of funding for research on language and communication and has granted funding for the following projects:

• Morphological deficits in specific language impairment (Logopedics)
• Stages in the phonological development of children acquiring Finnish (Logopedics)
• Northern societies and minority languages (Finnish)
• Health Information Practice and its Impact (HeIP) (Information Studies)
• Experiments on the effect of frequency bands on auditory speech perception by adult cochlear implant users and listeners with normal hearing (Logopedics)
• Social Action Formats: Linguistic, Prosodic and Embodied Practices in Spoken English and Finnish

Other significant sources of funding are various foundations, ministries and the government in general. Examples of projects funded by one or more of these are:

• The Nordic-Baltic-Russian Network of Finnic Minority and Regional Languages (Finnish)
• The Linguistic and Cultural Heritage Electronic Network (LICHEN) (English Philology)

Research on History and Culture

The research on history and culture is also funded to a large extent by the Academy of Finland. This includes such research projects as:

• Forcing the Way 2007-2009 (History)
• Social Change and the Environment in Nordic Prehistory: Evidence from Finland and Northern Canada (Archaeology)
• Human-animal relationships among Finland's Sami 1000-1800 AD. DNA and stable isotope analyses of bones from ritual sites (Archaeology)
• The body size, body shape and skeletal robusticity of Post-Pleistocene Europeans (Archaeology)
• Material Culture and Human Enviroment Relations in Early Modern Tornio (Archaeology)

Other significant sources of funding are different foundations, ministries and the government in general. Examples of projects which have received their funding from one or more of these are:

• Historiebok och encyklopedi om Barentsregionen (Finnish and Scandinavian history)

More detailed descriptions of these and other research projects can be found on the web pages of the respective subjects.

Activities in support of research

To support young scholars pursuing doctorate degrees, the Faculty set up a Graduate School in 2004. Currently 140 young scholars from different fields within the humanities are enrolled in this School. Each year the Faculty organises a variety of courses and training sessions for these students.

In an effort to harmonize and develop the publication policies of the Faculty, it has recently set up the Studia Humaniora Ouluensia publication series. This series offers a forum for publication of both conference proceedings and individual research, and will also contribute towards making research carried out in the Faculty more widely known.