Letter from the project PI: Round-up of year 1

Elizabeth Peterson, project PI, represented the LAIF project at the annual meeting of the Linguistics Society of America in New York City in January 2024.

The LAIF project is entering into its second year of operation, with two years of funding still to go from our funder, the Kone Foundation. The first year has had its ups and downs, as with any project. Here is a round-up of some of our highlights from year 1.  

In terms of scientific outreach, we are happy to report several notable successes. The LAIF project was represented at several academic conferences, including the International Pragmatics Association conference in Brussels, the Linguistics Society of America Conference in New York City, the Finnish Linguistics Days conferences in Oulu and Jyväskylä, as well as attending several workshops and local research meetings.  

Our research aims are moving along nicely. Our PhD researcher, Katariina Pyykkö, has successfully piloted, prepared and finished the survey portion of her PhD research on academically trained migrants in Finland. She has now begun the interview portion of her PhD research, focusing specifically on academically trained female migrants. Kata is preparing the first research article for her PhD thesis and planning her second article, which she is co-writing with one of the project’s post docs, Marika Hall.  

Post doctoral researcher and co-PI Laura Hekanaho, who started on the project in December 2023, is completing the pilot phase of her survey on language attitudes about the relationship of English and Finnish in Finland. An expert on survey research, Laura is currently working on a scientific article on the Likert scale as a methodological tool, as well as preparing the Finnish national survey on language attitudes. This survey creates the crux of her contributions to the overall project.  

Great work, researchers! They have accomplished a lot in a relatively short time, and they have contributed exceptional work to achieve the aims of the project.  

We have also had numerous notable successes in terms of social outreach and societal impact. For example, as the PI of the project, I was featured in interviews for the national Finnish dailies Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish) as well as Huvfudstadsbladet (in Swedish) -- along with pictures of my dog, Edie. I also completed an interview for the internationally known podcast of the research group Language on the Move, as well as for a forthcoming television documentary called Suomi on Amerikkalainen (Finland is American). We have established social media presence on most major platforms, and we have our own websites both through the University of Helsinki and here at www.laifproject.org.  

During the past year, we have presented guest lectures at Finnish high schools, convened with researchers for similar projects, and we have made plenty of plans for the future.

As we move forward into our second year, here are some of our main aims.  

• We will continue to develop our website at www.laifproject.org, in an effort to make it a go-to online resource for issues relating to language attitudes and ideologies. We want this to be a high-trafffic site that serves as a resource for people both in Finland throughout the world. This will entail making the website multilingual and multimodal, in addition to other features. Do you have experience creating websites for research groups? Are you interested in language-related content? Please contact us! 

• We will create and perform the finishing touches for a series of educational videos on multilingualism in Finland. Our first product will be a glimpse at the multilingual Herring Festival (Silakkamarkinnat) in Helsinki. Are you an expert on making videos? We are looking to hire some freelance video editors/producers; please contact us! 

• Starting in January 2025, we will be hiring a new science communication specialist/social outreach coordinator. This position will be up to a maximum of 80 percent full time for a one- to two-year period (depending on the working time percentage). The position will be based at the University of Jyväskylä, which will be the the new employer for PI Elizabeth Peterson, but much of the work can be done remotely. If you are interested in this post, or if you know someone, please contact Elizabeth Peterson (elizabeth.petersonAThelsinki.fi)

• The LAIF team is working on a book proposal! The aim is to create an edited volume on linguistic activism and linguistic rights, aka fourth wave linguistics. We will meet with our editor from Routledge publishing during the summer to discuss the project further. If you are a linguist working in the thematic area of the book, and you wish to be part of the project, please be in contact. 

• We continue our research, which creates the basis of our project. Major milestones in 2024 will be the Finnish survey of language attitudes, interviews with academically trained migrant women in Finland, and a critical discourse analysis of our combined data sources.  

• We aim to continue collaborating and building on existing networks of linguistic movers and shakers in Finland and internationally. At present, we have worked with others to create a Finnish-based network of forward-thinking linguists (which at the moment remains without a name). This movement links to existing project such as LangAware and Linguistic variation, social class and experiences on inequality in Eastern Finland. Would you like to be part of this network? Do you have ideas about how to interact with the public about linguistic-related issues? Please contact us!  

• We aim to hold our first in-person meeting with our advisory board, researchers and stakeholders in May 2025.  

We want to thank our scientific communities, including at the University of Helsinki, other universities and research networks in Finland, as well as the internationally-based researchers and language experts who have greeted us with warm support and encouragement during our first year of funding. The level of support shown to us has been truly overwhelming. We also thank our scientific advisory board for getting us off to a solid start from our first official month of operation until now. There have been many friends to the project, both officially and unofficially, who have helped smooth the road for us. Thank you! The most important thank you goes to our funder, the Kone Foundation, who share our vision for a better Finland and a better world. We look forward to finding out what the next year brings.