Mershon affiliate Katherine Borland, associate professor of comparative studies and director of the Center for Folklore Studies, has been awarded the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland for 2018-19.

As part of the American Studies program of the Department of World Cultures, Borland will teach folklore and performance studies at the University of Helsinki in Finland and will explore Finnish humanities research models that connect contemporary research with existing archival collections from August 2018 though May 2019.

Borland will visit the folklore programs and ethnological archives at the University of Turko, Åbo Akademi, University of Jyväskylä, University of Eastern Finland and the Folklore Archive of the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki to interview archivists and researchers about how their work interfaces with community-based archival or research agendas.

“My aim is to identify the challenges and opportunities Finnish archivists face in articulating their value to diverse publics as well as to uncover collaborative models that I might apply to my own work at The Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies archive,” Borland said.

“My interest in researching Finnish team-based models for publicly oriented research derives from a pressing need for new models for engaged humanities research at Ohio State University, but it is grounded in the understanding of the foundational and ongoing importance of Finnish scholarship the academic study of folklore, and particularly in the strong, ongoing connection between public outreach, archives and academic research that exists in Finnish folklore studies.”

The Fulbright Bicentennial Chair was established in 1976 to institutionalize the teaching of American history, culture and language at the University of Helsinki. It was the first chair in the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program.

Previous holders of the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair have represented a wide spectrum of academic fields including history, popular culture, American borderlands, intercultural communications, legal history, music and musicology, and women's history.

The Bicentennial Chair holder has played a crucial role in developing the interdisciplinary approach to American studies found at the University of Helsinki and at other Finnish universities with American studies programs. Today it is one of the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program.

The Fulbright Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and is sponsors by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.