The module include:

- General Orientation Course for International Students

- Introduction to Academic Culture and Degree Studies

- Library course:  Basics of Information Literacy

The course includes the Basics of information literacy, taught by the university library (II period), which will introduce the student to the printed and electronic library materials, and provide the student with a grasp of information retrieval, use and assessment of information, and good ethical practices in the academia.

- Personal Study Plan

Each student draws up a personal study plan (PSP, HOPS), designed first and foremost to support the student in the process of planning and completing her/his studies. The student checks and updates her/his personal study plan during her/his studies with the support provided by the degree programme.

The course spans throughout the duration of studies.

The course includes an introductory lecture series ( 2 ECTS) followed by group discussion and exercises (1 ECTS) + literature and a written study diary (2 ECTS).

Lectures will be held on Mondays at 12-14 with guest lecturers and at 14-15 is the group discussion.

One lecture is 2x 45 minutes long. After a 30 minutes pause the group meeting will take 45 minutes.

Lectures:

29.8. Mikko Lehtonen: What is this thing called culture?

5.9. Mikko Lehtonen: Cultural Studies.

12.9. Hanna Suutela:  The Archive and the Repertoire. Aspects of understanding culture.

19.9. Hanna Suutela: From theatre and performance to the theatrical and the performative.

26.9. Mahmut Mutman: Edward Said and Orientalism

3.10. Meri Kytö: Sound and culture: listening as knowing, doing and being

10.10. Hanna Suutela/Riku Roihankorpi: Performance and ethics

Maximum 50 students is accepted in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP in Cultural Studies

2. other degree students of UTA

3. exchange students

Fri 12-15, periods 1, 2, 3, 4

The Seminar for the Cultural Studies-programme runs through the whole first year of the programme, 5 ECTS /period.  During the first year of studies the student will work for approximately 20 ECTS of the 40 ECTS total.

In the seminar the student will learn and strengthen his/her basic academic skills required for the thesis. The emphasis of the work lies in the searching and deciding of the research topic, finding relevant material and selecting case studies or examples. After the seminar year the student will be able to write his/her thesis independently.

The group is divided into two subgroups, which will occasionally come together to work as a bigger seminar.

Thesis seminar is only available for students in the Master's Degree Programme in Cultural Studies.

The course is organized in collaboration with the University of Lapland and, part of the lectures are delivered online.

Available for other students at the University of Tampere.

Students will be accepted to the course in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP in Media Education and Cultural Studies

2. other degree students of UTA

4. exchange students

Students learn about how people are using media goods and services today, and how that is both the same and different in the historic
context. Lectures also highlight changing perceptions of media, emphasising what that implies for meeting expectations and accommodating variation in preferences. Coursework encourages developing more nuanced understandings in a comparative framework that offers contrasts between legacy media and new media, audiences and users in key segments (e.g. younger versus older, men versus women), and in different countries (i.e. international comparison).

• 9.11 Exam at 14.30-16.30 in PinniB building 1096
• Paper due 25.11 at 17.00

Some places available for other students at UTA. Students are accepted in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP in Media Management and MDP in Media Education

2. other degree students of UTA

3. exchange students

Some places available for other students at UTA. Students are accepted in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP in Media Management

2. other degree students of UTA

3. exchange students

Ilmoittautuminen syyskuussa

Weekly lectures on Wednesdays at 18-20, subject to change:

7.9. How to communicate in Finland? (Katja Keisala)

14.9. Finnish History - Finns and Finland between East and West (Seija-Leena Nevala)

21.9. Boundaries of Finnishness and Ethnic Minorities in Finland (Hannu Sinisalo)

28.9. Finnish Gastronomy (Arja Luiro)

5.10. Finnish Political System (Johanna Peltoniemi)

12.10. Finnish Education System (Raisa Harju-Autti)

19.10. Finnish Popular Music (Juho Kaitajärvi-Tiekso)

26.10. Technology and Innovation in Finland: Current Issues and Future Challenges (Tomi Nokelainen)

2.11. Finnish forests and forestry (Ari Vanamo)

9.11. Finnish Welfare and Social Services (Lina van Aerschot)

16.11. Finnish Art History in a Nutshell (Katja Fält)

23.11. Finnish Literature (Toni Lahtinen)

30.11. Special Features of Finnish Mass Media (Jyrki Jyrkiäinen)

7.12. Exam

14.12. Exam retake

Enrolment to the course

- TUT and TAMK students: enrolment with electronic form during the enrolment period 1.8.- 1.9.2016
<https://elomake3.uta.fi/lomakkeet/17335/lomake.html>

- UTA students: enrolment in NettiOpsu, click below

Contact person: Coordinator of international education, Anna Wansén-Kaseva

The course focuses on the basic and general features of scientific research, methodology, and argumentation, as applicable to any field of study. Some central themes in the philosophy of science will also be discussed, in an introductory manner.

The course is intended to all new international UTA Master’s degree students, but it will serve also international Doctoral students. Other degree and exchange students may join if there are free places.

Contact person: Coordinator of international education, Anna Wansén-Kaseva

In cases where more students register for a course than space allows, priority is assigned as follows:

1. First priority is given to the degree students of the University of Tampere
2. Second priority is given to the exchange students of the University of Tampere
3. Third priority is given to the Tampere3 students and to the high school students of the UTA Teacher Training School

The course will introduce students to various aspects of Russian digital culture. We will start with the historical perspective: how can digital communication be studied in the broad context of the history of reading and how the Russian internet, Runet, has evolved technologically, culturally and socially. We will take a closer look to specific areas of digital culture, such as, electronic libraries, social media, internet’s regulation and online popular culture. All these topics offer important insights into Russian contemporary culture and society from the point of view of digital communication while introducing theoretical and analytical frameworks that will be useful when planning individual theses and further studies.

The course consists of 20 hrs lectures and seminar work as well as individual assignments prepared outside the class work. The students are expected to attend lectures, read 1-2 articles before each lecture and participate in class discussion. There will be 2 mini-assignments during the course, which are presented and discussed in the last class. In addition, the students will write a final paper (7-10 pages) on a selected topic related to the course theme. The return date of the final papers is one month after the last lecture.

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.

The course will be organized as an intensive course (Sep. 12th-Sep 16th, 2016).

Does freedom of speech exist in Russia? What does it mean in Russian culture? Who are the agents of state control? How did Russian media operate in the climate of oligarchs? How did Russian media change after the emergence of the networked society? What is the political potential of social media in Russia?

The course provides students with conceptual frameworks for thinking through a range of key issues related to Russian (new) media: authorship, regulation, convergence and freedom of expression. The course provides a chronological survey of the history of digital media in Russia as well as a synthetic approach to media studies. The focus will be on Russian media of the past 20 years, emergence and function of new media in Russian culture. The objectives of this module are: 1) to study the theory of media and its institutions and economics in relation to the issues of media regulation; and 2) to study the practice of new media in contemporary Russia.

Vlad Strukov is Associate Professor in Digital Culture in  University of Leeds, UK.

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.

This course is offered as an investigative art/research workshop where students explore questions related to sexual and gender politics in Finnish and Russian societies. The course consists of pre-readings, short lectures, group discussions and joint practical art-making workshops. The students learn to make short videos and to edit them. The students do not have to have previous experience of making videos or practicing art.

The workshop is intended to function as a space of cross-cultural and cross-sectoral knowledge production. We will critically explore a variety of borders that relate to the politics of gender and sexuality, e.g. the East-West divide or the boundary between academic research and artistic practice. We seek to explore the limits of established and conventionalized ways of knowledge production within academia, to recognize forms of sexual nationalism as well as to identify new kinds of solutions to problems related to the politics of gender & sexuality both in Finland and in Russia. 

The point of departure of the workshop is the idea that while questions related to sexual and gender politics are differently structured in Finnish and Russian societies, much is also shared. The workshop will explore the following types of questions: 

(1)   What kinds of meanings do gender and sexuality acquire in different cultural-political contexts? How are these meanings contested and questioned in Finland and in Russia?

(2)   How do politics of gender and sexuality articulate conceptions of social justice and equality in Finnish and Russian societies? What kind of practices of power, marginalization and exclusion are associated with these conceptions, and how can they be countered?

(3)   What kinds of cultural translations does the joint exploration of sexuality and gender bring to the fore? How can these acts of translation inform us about the cultural articulations concerning politics of gender and sexuality in Finland and Russia?

(4)   What kind of cultural and social ‘infrastructure’ is there in the past and present of the Russian and Finnish societies that would enable identifying solutions to the social issues related to politics of gender and sexuality?

Work load

Total hours 135 hrs (contact teaching 35 hrs, independent work 100 hrs) 

• Before the workshop: a set of pre-readings and a reflective learning diary (app. 2000 words) 
• Active attendance at the workshop sessions and practical art-making 
• After the workshop: a finalized artwork and/or an essay (app. 3000 words)

This module is made up of class sessions including group work (20 hours), as well as independent out of class tasks (61 hours). The module will be two periods long.

Workshop includes meetings ( 1 ECTS), practical exercises based on relevant literature (2 ECTS) and the building and introduction of the student’s own case examples ( 2 ECTS).

This workshop is available only for students in Master's degree Programme in Cultural Studies.

The course includes an introductory lecture series including group discussion and exercises (3 ECTS) + literature and a written study diary (2 ECTS).

Lectures:

25.10. Mikko Lehtonen: Becoming of culture: From material to symbolic activity and back 4h

1.11. Mikko Lehtonen: Culture as material and bodily practices 4h

8.11. Mikko Lehtonen: Transnationalism and culture 4h

15.11. Mikko Lehtonen: Economy, politics and culture: Spheres or what? 3h

22.11. Kaarina Nikunen: Gender, affects and culture 3h

29.11. Mahmut Mutman: "Michel Foucault's Concept of Power" (Discipline and Punish and History of Sexuality, excerpts)

Maximum 50 students is accepted to the course in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP in Cultural Studies

2. other degree students of UTA

3. exchange students

This course is offered as an art/research workshop where students explore questions related to gender politics of masculinities in Finnish and Russian societies. The course consists of pre-readings, short lectures, discussions and independent work on men studies, and Finnish and Russian case studies.

The course/workshop offers a forum for cross-cultural and cross-sectoral knowledge production in the field of men studies. Of special interest will be the image making, both in visual arts and verbal contexts. Both the speakers and the pre-readings will critically focus on the politics of gender and masculinity, both in Finland and in Russia. By utilizing the cooperation of academic research and artistic practice (especially film) we seek to recognize problems related to gender and masculinities in the Finnish and Russian contexts.

The point of departure of the workshop is the idea that while questions related to sexual and gender politics are differently structured in Finnish and Russian societies, much is also shared. The workshop will explore masculinities in the following contexts:

(1)   Masculinities and the representations of fatherhood in Finnish and Russian film and research

(2)   Affective history of war and peace

(3)   Politics of sexuality and image making and the role of media in de/re-constructing of masculinities

Teachers/Speakers (2. and 3. Dec. 2016)

Research: E.g. Ville Kivimäki (History, UTA), Jiri Nieminen (Politics, gender studies UTA), Elena Mescherkina (Sociology, Moscow Russia), Aleksandrina Vanke (Culture and History, Moscow, Russia), Tatjana Rjabova (History, gender studies Ivanovo, Russia), Cai Weaver (Politics, gender studies, Helsinki); Arja Rosenholm (Russian language and culture UTA), Anni Kangas (Politics, UTA)

Arts: E.g. Elena Pogrebizhskaya (Moscow); Nina Rokosa; Juhani Haukka; Masha Godovannya (St.Petersburg)

Tue 13-16 Workshop (exclusively for CS-programme)

Workshop includes meetings (1 ECTS), practical exercises based on relevant literature (2 ECTS) and the building and introduction of the student’s own case examples ( 2 ECTS).

This workshop is available only for students in Master's degree Programme in Cultural Studies.

One lecture is 2x 45 minutes long. After a 30 minute pause the group meeting will take 45 minutes.

Mon 12-14 open lectures with guest lecturers, 14-15 group discussion.

Maximum 50 students is accepted to the seminar in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP in Cultural Studies

2. other degree students of UTA

3. exchange students

By NettiOpsu till 12th January.

The course offers students basic knowledge of post-communist transformation of Russian media and journalism, including new alternative media, and discusses their conflicting roles in contemporary Russia within a global context, including BRICS. The lectures are mainly based on recent international projects funded by Academy of Finland.

Teachers: Emeritus Professor Kaarle Nordenstreng (2h), Visiting Professor Elena Vartanova, Moscow State University (4h), Docent Svetlana Pasti (6h), Researcher Dmitry Yagodin (6h), and Researcher Saara Ratilainen (2h)

In NettiOpsu by 13 February. Max 30 students.

Lectures:

Mon-13-Feb Svetlana Pasti and Kaarle Nordenstreng: Introduction to the course and to Russian media and journalism

Tue-14-Feb Elena Vartanova. Russian media system in the globalized context
Wed-15-Feb Elena Vartanova. Russian media system in the globalized context

Tue-21-Feb Dmitry Yagodin:New media forms and internet governance debate in Russia

Wed-22-Feb Dmitry Yagodin: Russian media coverage of international issues and conflicts

Thu-23-Feb Dmitry Yagodin: Russian soft power and global public diplomacy efforts

Tue-28-Feb Svetlana Pasti: Journalism profession in Russia and BRICS 

Wed-1-Mar Svetlana Pasti:  Gender and journalism in Russia and BRICS     

Thu- 2-Mar Saara Ratilainen:Online lifestyle media and creative networks on the Runet

Fri-3-Mar Study group presentations and discussion moderated by Svetlana Pasti

Mon 12-15 Workshop (exclusively for CS-programme)

Workshop includes meetings (1 ECTS), practical exercises based on relevant literature (2 ECTS) and the building and introduction of the student’s own case examples ( 2 ECTS).

This workshop is available only for students in Master's degree Programme in Cultural Studies.

Different research methods are introduced and discussed together on the basis of the lectures and chosen literature. The student groups will be provided case studies or similar challenges to try out the taught methods on previously chosen material.

By NettiOpsu By 6 March.

Especially for exchange students.

ALTERNATIVE COMPLETION: an essay (5 ECTS) based on the course literature. Contact person: professor Kaarina Nikunen

Vaihtoehtoisesta suorituksesta sovittava Kaarina Nikusen (kaarina.nikunen@uta.fi) kanssa syksyllä ennen marraskuun alkua ja keväällä ennen huhtikuuta. 

Alternative studies have to be agreed in the Autumn term before November and in the Spring term before April (kaarina.nikunen@uta.fi). 

The course is part of the Master's degree programme in Russian and European Studies (RES). RES students have priority to the course, but other students are welcome to join.