Perspectives from the PhD students at Stockholm University:

We are a group of PhD students in literature from different language departments at Stockholm University who have participated in a workshop on literary studies for PhD students together with students from the University of Helsinki. We all agree that it was a very profitable experience. We spent three days immersed in texts on literary topics written for a variety of purposes, such as papers intended to be published as articles, parts of dissertation chapters and other research projects on literature written by students from both universities.

     The workshop gave us the possibility to get to know what students from both universities are working on, and it was great to see so many different perspectives on literary studies. The workshop allowed us to exchange ideas and knowledge in the field of literature and other related fields, such as translation studies and discourse analysis. Besides that, the workshop was so well organized that we had plenty of time to ask questions, present problem areas in our research, and to give and receive constructive feedback on our texts. There were also two interesting lectures on literary theory in the areas of intermediality and psychoanalysis. The scholars presenting the lectures focused not only on the theory but also on how to apply it in the literary analysis. This was of incredible value for us, since it is usually a problem area in our papers. We benefitted from having the chance to engage in fruitful discussions about literature and from practicing how to present our ideas and to argue for them in front of a group of peers. This is important and necessary preparation for PhD students who want to participate in conferences and in other contexts of academic discussion.
     All in all, it was a wonderful experience and highly recommended for PhD students working on literature and literary studies!

Azucena Castro for the Phd students from Stockholm University
Participating students from the Department of Baltic languages, Finnish, and German, Department of Oriental languages, Department of Romance Studies and Classics, Department of Slavic languages, and the English Department

Perspectives from the PhD students at Helsinki University:

It was so important just to be there. We were separated not only by University, city, and a body of water, but nearly all of us came from different theoretical approaches, different fields of study, and even different disciplines. What brought us together, however, was literature and the study of literary phenomenon, and the sum total of our different approaches to the same phenomenon made the discussion unique, refreshing and renewing. It was a privilege to have a dozen talented people read my paper and take the time to try and help me move forward with it.

Lauri Niskanen for the PhD students from Helsinki University