Blog
For over 30 years in every October students at the University of Turku along with other interested participants make their way to the American Voices Seminar to learn about the various aspects of U.S. society and culture.
The two-day event offers a space in which current U.S. Fulbright Finland grantees share their insights on a vast variety of aspects concerning the United States to students in the North American Studies program and the interested public. “The American Voices Seminar is the public highlight of the collaboration between the and the University of Turku,” comments Janne Korkka, Senior lecturer and organizing partner at the Department of English at the University of Turku.
Each year, the grantees bring a dynamic mix of presentations to the American Voices seminar. While some presentations focus on more light-hearted topics, such as the cultural impact of Trader Joe’s or different Fall festivities throughout the U.S., others dive into timely and thought-provoking issues, including American science and health politics and different perspectives on the American workplace.
Organized jointly by the and the Department of English at the University of Turku, the seminar is a compulsory part of the curriculum for North American Studies students, who receive credits for attending and writing a report on the presentations. Some students even return to the seminar year after year. Janne Korkka has a theory about why that is.
“I see many students coming back for a third or fourth year. I believe this reflects both the varied topics and the friendly atmosphere at the seminar,” Janne says.
A student, participating in the American Voices seminar for the 4th time, shared that while certain aspects of the presentations may feel familiar from previous years, it is the new perspectives that make the sessions enriching.
A French exchange student, currently studying in the North American Studies program, noted the unique nature of the American Voices compared to other university seminars and was positively surprised by the entertaining presentations.
Janne Korkka highlights the opportunity for students to engage directly with the U.S. grantees, not just by listening to their presentations but through meaningful interaction. “I think this combination gives students an ideal setting to reflect on their own learning and engage with new ideas that they may want to explore further on other courses and their thesis work,” he says.
Space for collaboration and exchanging expertise
For the U.S. grantees, the seminar serves as an opportunity to go and venture beyond their usual academic fields and instead shine the light on potentially under-represented cultural aspects of their home country.
Anjali Rameshbabu, Fulbright-University of Tampere Scholar awardee, worked alongside her fellow scholars Robert Bird and Neo Bui on the topic of the American workplace. Anjali shares how preparing for their American Voices presentation is different to other scholarly work, but nonetheless an exciting task: “I took a more zoomed out approach than I would've in a traditional research talk. I wanted to sort of introduce the world of work and provide a picture of how worker wellbeing evolved in the U.S. and where we are now,” Anjali says.
Robert Bird, Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar awardee, focused on the difference between the American and Finnish workplace from a legal perspective.
“Preparing a talk for Finnish university students required a closer self-examination of what it means to be an American academic,” Robert says and continues, “I had to consider the policy implications of our legal system more closely in order to present that system to Finnish students more effectively.”
“In my scholarly work, certain assumptions about the law are generally accepted. Presenting here made me question those assumptions in order to compare the Finnish and U.S. legal systems optimally,” Robert concludes.
Janne Korkka underlines the increased need for spaces of collaboration and exchange beyond borders: “The seminar is an important forum for free exchange of ideas not only within the university community, but anyone seeking inspiration from cultural exchange and new ideas presented by American researchers visiting Finland,” he says.
Preparing the seminar presentations also offered a space for collaboration and the exchange of perspectives among U.S. grantees from different fields of research. “Both presentations from my colleagues have given me new knowledge that I only know very little about,” comments Neo Bui, Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar, reflecting on the collaborative experience.
Maximilian Fleischer
Project Assistant,
Maximilian Fleischer worked as Project Assistant intern at the ion from August to October 2025. From Germany, he studies in the M.A. American Studies program at the University of Tübingen.
