Piia Einonen
I work as senior researcher and educational vice director in The Department of History and Ethnology, and even though my career path may now seem consistent and determined, it wasn’t like that at all. I started my work career already at the age of 14 by selling jeans and that’s how I even financed my studies later on. After high school, I spent a gap year and worked temporarily as substitute teacher in the high school and the secondary school of my home municipality, teaching practically every subject possible from housekeeping to physics, of which I didn’t understand a thing. The experience wasn’t exactly empowering, nor alluring to a teacher’s career, however, at least it let me experience the daily life of a teacher. It also taught me that it is possible to cope with all sorts of things.
During the gap year, the idea of studying history clarified to me as I love history – instead, I didn’t sacrifice a thought for future career plans. I enjoyed the studies and the student life, as well as doing research and writing. However, at any point I couldn’t even think about a researcher’s career as an option, until I got a proposal to proceed to postgraduate studies. My habit was (and still is) to seize the opportunity, and so I did. My doctoral thesis dealt with the political culture of Stockholm in the late 1500s and early 1600s, and since I was doing it in a time before digital cameras, I had the occasion to spend a year in the archives of Stockholm and as visiting researcher in the University of Stockholm. My postgraduate studies were funded by a Finnish national postgraduate organization in the field of history and my temporary teaching jobs. My doctoral thesis was completed in 2005.
For a long time, I worked in temporary positions and projects, such as in the making of the book about the history of JYU and in many projects funded by the Research Council of Finland. In the course of time my research interests began to orientate towards the east and the history of Vyborg. Largely thanks to my doctoral defense opponent Kimmo Katajala I could immerse myself into the history of Vyborg in the 1800s, especially in the Research Council of Finland projects of the University of Eastern Finland. During the project called Nation Split by the Border. Changes in the Ethnic Identity, Religion and Language of the Karelians from 1809 to 2009, I also had the opportunity to work at the University of Eastern Finland, although remotely. The project deepened my interest in language, culture and religion that I have touched briefly in many of my publications later on. My interests have also expanded particularly to themes related to spatiality in the history of Vyborg, and I have written about mobility in several publications. In my most recent research article, together with Maare Paloheimo, I address thefts during conflagrations in different cities in the early decades of the 1800s, in badly burned Turku and Raahe in particular. Urban history has been the common thread of my research ever since my master’s thesis (which also was about the history of Stockholm).
Since 2012, I have worked as senior researcher in history, and even though the title suggests otherwise, teaching is a central part of the job. I obtained a broad teaching qualification through Pedagogical Studies in Adult Education after finishing my doctoral thesis, although based on my previous teaching experiences I would never have thought of ending up in pedagogical studies. I also completed career counselor studies at the end of 2010s. Every ten years I have felt the urge to educate and challenge myself more and to strengthen my competence. I look forward to seeing if this will be ahead again in couple of years. Various trainings inside and outside the university have enabled me to create irreplaceable networks and to meet new people.
I have been in my current position for over ten years, since I started as educational vice director in 2014, and in the same year I obtained a docentship in urban history. As the educational vice director, I am responsible for our department’s education, I do a lot of administrative work as well as working as an immediate manager. Nowadays the time for doing research is limited but along with teaching and guidance it is still the most rewarding part of this job – and sitting in archives and immersing myself into material the best thing I know.
In my free time I like to do things that get my mind off work. I exercise, bike, do kettlebelling and read, and I try to recall German language with Duolingo (and too often I get stuck blowing up angry birds in Dream Blast mobile game). I also enjoy watching all kinds of sports. In addition, I have returned to the most beloved hobbies of my teenage years which are going to discos and attending different live music events from symphony concerts to metal music festivals.
I would never have dared to even dream of a work career that I ended up having. I remember that at the time of my studies, after some badly gone exam together with my friend we planned to start studying to become agricultural workers, but we did not end up changing the field – and that is good.
