Now when the new year has fully began and everybody is back to work – hopefully feeling energetic and relaxed after the holidays – it’s time to look back to what happened in 2015. It was, in many respects, a pivotal and inspiring year for Trivium.
Perhaps the most important event of the year was that in the beginning of 2015 Trivium got the official status of a research centre at the University of Tampere and the School of Social Sciences and Humanities. Although our principles and interests remain the same as before, this enables more organised ways of acting and also makes it easier to plan and actualise new kinds of activities. To celebrate this milestone, Trivium organised an opening event and party in May, where we heard speeches, Pecha Kucha presentations by junior researchers, and were introduced to medieval and renaissance dances by members of Humalasalo. Trivium’s achievements were also recognised by the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, which granted the centre an award for the societal impact for the collaboration with museum centre Vapriikki in organising an exhibition on Fiinnish pilgrimages in the Middle Ages (’YKY yhteiskunnassa’ -palkinto).
Year 2015 included organising and participating in various conferences. The biggest investment was the sixth Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages conference held at the University of Tampere in August, this time with the theme On the Road: Travels, Pilgrimages, and Social Interaction. Trivium also took part in organising the international workshop Violence Against Parents in the North of Europe at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, in July. Furthermore, the researchers of Trivium organised two sessions at Historical Research Day Conference (Historiantutkimuksen päivät) at the Joensuu Campus of the University of Eastern Finland in October. The sessions were titled Perhepiiri ja valtasuhteet Rooman valtakunnassa (Family circle and Power Relations in Ancient Rome) and Miraculous Healing: Disorder, Disability and Death in Medieval Canonization Processes.
One of the important and very pleasant activities of Trivium, which has already become an established tradition, is the collaboration with Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (TUCEMEMS). In February the researchers of TUCEMEMS visited Tampere for a joint seminar, and in November it was our turn to enjoy their hospitality.
In many of these activities Trivium had help from our student trainee Niko Nyqvist, whose special tasks during his two-month contract were assisting in organising the ”Passages” conference, helping with the updates of the Trivium website, and assisting in the editorial work of the book Lived Religion and the Long Reformation in Northern Europe c. 1300–1700 (eds Sari Katajala-Peltomaa & Raisa Maria Toivo, forthcoming from Brill).
As for research, the year has been productive in many respects. The researchers of Trivium have published several books and articles; a list of the publications by members of the research centre who work at the University of Tampere is downloadable at our website. Of these, two books – Tiina Miettinen’s Piikojen valtakunta. Nainen, työ ja perhe 1600-1700-luvuilla (Atena) and Kun maailma aukeni. Suomalaisten pyhiinvaellukset keskiajalla, ed. by Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Christian Krötzl & Marjo Meriluoto-Jaakkola (SKS) – were shortlisted for the Tieto-Finlandia prize. Project fundings granted to the researchers at Tampere in 2015 are:
- Karivieri, Arja & project members, Segregated or Integrated? – Living and Dying in the harbour city of Ostia, 300 BCE-700 CE. Academy of Finland project, 2015–2019
- Kuuliala, Jenni, Disability, Illness and the Communal Dimensions of Healing in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher, 2015–2018
- Ojala, Maija & project members, Migration, Movement of Labour and Multi-ethnic Cities 1500–2000. Finnish Cultural Foundation, 2016–2017
- Toivo, Raisa, Catholic reformation in Lutheran Finland 1550-1700. Academy of Finland research fellow, 2015–2020
To introduce new publications and projects, to celebrate the achievements of the year and to gather together, Trivium organised a ’harvest event’ (sadonkorjuujuhla) in December. In addition to presenting new research, the evening included eating delicious medieval dishes, some sparkling wine, and enjoying a lovely evening with colleagues – some of us appropriately dressed of course! With this photo we wish you all a very happy New Year. Thank you for following us and our activities, and especially thank you to everyone, who has participated in our events, read our blog and followed us in social media! See you in 2016!
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