Varpu Lindström (1948–2012) was a Canadian historian and educator. She was the leading expert on the social history of
Finnish women in Canada.
Personal life and career
Born in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
, she emigrated to Canada as a teen in 1963 with her family. She was a respected historian and professor of History and Women's Studies at
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
. She founded the Canadian Friends of Finland friendship society in 1982, which encouraged cultural exchanges between the two countries.
Her research contributed to the creation of Kelly Saxberg's 2004 historical documentary
Letters from Karelia' about the fate of
Finnish Canadians
Finnish Canadians are Canadian citizens of Finnish ancestry or Finns who emigrated to and reside in Canada. In 2016, 143,645 Canadians claimed Finnish ancestry. Finns started coming to Canada in the early 1880s, and in much larger numbers in the e ...
lured back to
Soviet Karelia
The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR; fi, ; rus, Каре́ло-Фи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика, r=Karelo-Finskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Resp ...
only to be killed in
Stalinist purges of the 1930s.
Lindström died in 2012.
Selected publications
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Awards and honours
* She was one of the first to receive York University's Atkinson Teaching Award in 1989.
* In 1992, she was awarded the Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, First Class, in recognition of outstanding service to Finland and Finnish Canadians.
* She received the
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012.
* The
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
hosts an annual memorial lecture in her honour.
References
External links
Letters from Karelia(2005). NFB.
Canadian Friends of Finland
Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, York University Libraries.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindström, Varpu
Finnish emigrants to Canada
Social historians
Canadian women historians
20th-century Canadian historians
1948 births
2012 deaths
Order of the White Rose of Finland