The Finnish Anthropological Society has established a prize for the best anthropology MA thesis in Finland. The thesis prize for 2016 was awarded to Roosa Rytkönen. An honorable mention in the competition was awarded to Aino Pohjola. Congratulations Roosa and Aino!
The jury statements:
Roosa Rytkönen’s MA thesis Term papers and dissertations for sale! Valuing action and relations in Russian higher education is a strongly argued study about the practices and ethics of shadow writing in the world of Russian higher education. The participants speak about the purchase of essays and theses both as a rational choice and as a conflicted ethical issue. Rytkönen analyzes the structural and historical factors behind this practice and demonstrates that shadow writing is also a subject of ethical reflection that makes visible various conflicts and concerns of value. Rytkönen’s work is rich, consistent, and convincing in its use of research material, and the writer shows an independent ability to evaluate and synthesize the arguments proposed in the anthropological discussion about values and ethics. The writer’s maturity shows both in the high intellectual quality and careful execution of this study, and on these merits the Finnish Anthropological Society awards it a prize for the best MA thesis in Anthropology from 2016.
Aino Pohjola’s MA thesis Vitsi symbolina ja muita totuuksia lavakomiikasta: rituaaliteoreettinen näkökulma suomalaiseen stand up -komiikkaan (Joke as a symbol and other truths about stage comedy: a ritual-theoretical perspective to Finnish stand up comedy) is an experimental study that focuses on stand-up comedy both as a performing art and in its relation to the larger social context. The ethnographically rich work uses the anthropological theory of ritual and the scholarship on humor in order to develop a working anthropological approach to stage comedy. The study also makes anthropology visible in the field of studying Finnish popular culture and performing arts, and on these merits the Finnish Anthropological Society gives Aino Pohjola’s work an honorable mention in the Anthropology MA thesis competition of 2016.
Roosa Rytkönen: Term papers and dissertations for sale! Valuing action and relations in Russian higher education. https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/169868
Aino Pohjola: Vitsi symbolina ja muita totuuksia lavakomiikasta: rituaaliteoreettinen näkökulma suomalaiseen stand up -komiikkaan.http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfioulu-201602111162
