WHO ARE WE? HOW AND WHY FINTERDIS CAME TO EXIST

The FINTERDIS working group was founded in summer 2018 to develop the establishment of the Finnish Interdisciplinary Society. The first members of the working group were Kirsi Cheas, PhD, and Anna-Leena Riitaoja, PhD. Kirsi defended her doctoral dissertation in January 2018, while Anna-Leena defended her doctoral dissertation in 2013.

We met for the first time at Hoplop in Tammisto, Vantaa. We talked about creativity while watching our children play. At the meeting, we discussed how the school system gradually shapes people to think categorically. Children, students and recent doctoral candidates are researchers of the future, and they must be given enough space to think and develop connections between different issues before they lose their original creativity as a result of established research and teaching practices and divisions. At the same time, we noted that there are not yet enough structures and forums in Finland for early-career researchers with an interdisciplinary orientation where they could participate, influence and receive peer support from other researchers. This gave rise to the idea of the Finnish Interdisciplinary Society, which would support the interdisciplinary orientation of students and researchers at an early stage of their careers in cooperation with researchers who have advanced in their careers. In this way, the Society aims to promote interdisciplinary thinking that extends not only across disciplines but also across generations.

After the Hoplop meeting, M.Sc. Janina da Silva Gonçalves, doctoral candidate Grace I-An Gao and docent Harri Kettunen also joined the working group. In doing so, we aimed to ensure that people from different career stages are involved; We are all also specialized in different fields. The working group held a formal inaugural meeting of FINTERDIS on 4 October 2018, where rules and future activities were agreed. The invitation to the meeting was circulated on the mailing lists of Finnish universities in Finnish and English. About fifty students and researchers from different Finnish universities and fields registered for the meeting. At the founding meeting, a board of directors was elected for the Society for the academic year 2018-19 until the next regular meeting.