"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana, philosopher (1905)
History teaching has deep roots in the University of Turku. History has been taught and researched in the University since the year 1922, which has given the School of History ample time to develop into one of the most extensive and versatile units of history-related studies in Finland. The School of History prides itself on having a very unique and varied set of subjects, including Cultural History, Finnish History, General History and the international master's programme "European Heritage, Digital Media and the Information Society".
The School of History is active both in Finland as well as abroad. Good network of international contacts contributes to the broad scope of teaching and research within the School.
Staff
The School of History employs nearly 30 full-time staff members as well as tens of researchers and part-time teachers. Each subject has two Professors, in addition to which Cultural History has a visiting Professor. The School also has four full-time Lecturers and, depending on the subject, one to four Assistants and Senior Assistants.
International Affairs
International cooperation and collaboration is beneficial for teaching and research, as well as for individual students. Different traditions and customs, combined with an effective network of international contacts, contribute to advancing the research and studying of history.
The School of History takes actively part in international student, researcher and teacher exchange and is part of international cooperative networks. In addition, The School of History organizes various conferences.
European Heritage, Digital Media and the Information Society
European Heritage, Digital Media and the Information Society is a two-year international master’s programme organized by the universities of Coimbra, Salento, Turku and Cologne. The aim of the programme is to produce professionals with knowledge of both historical heritage and digital media. For more information, visit the programme's site.
International Networks
The most important international networks that The School of History takes part in are Tuning Educational Structures in Europe, CLIOHnet and CLIOHres. TESE functions as the voice of the academic world in the European Union. The network includes nine different branches of science, and humanistic sciences are represented solely by history. TESE aims to make the different European degrees comparable, regardless of the country of origin.
CLIOHnet (Creating Links and Innovative Overviews to Enhance Historical Perspective in European Culture) is a European Erasmus/Socrates thematic network between Departments of History, which aims to provide critical historical views of the European society and the challenges facing it. CLIOHnet regularly organizes conferences, generates teaching material and sets up international web courses.
CLIOHres (Creating Links and Innovative Overviews for a New History Research Agenda for the Citizens of Growing Europe) is a network that strives to improve European history research and postgraduate studies.
Conferences
The School of History and the Department of Political History functioned together as the top teaching unit of history in Finland during the years 1997-2001. During each of these years, teaching was themed with a key concept of history research. Since then a number of conferences, both national and international, have been organized in the University.