Irja Seurujärvi-Kari (born 21 March 1947, Utsjoki) is a Finnish

Sámi Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

politician and academic.

Education and academic career

Seurujärvi-Kari obtained a master's degree in English

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

from the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu () is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 14,200 students and 3,800 staff. 21 International Master's Programmes are offer ...

in 1974, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Ugric () is a traditional linguistic grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except for the Samoyedic languages. Its once commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is based on criteria formulated in the 19th centur ...

from the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

in 2012. Her doctoral thesis is notable for having been the first to be submitted in any of the

Sámi languages The Sámi languages ( ), also rendered in English language, English as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Indigenous Sámi peoples in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and extreme northwest ...

at the University of Helsinki. Seurujärvi-Kari has held various research and teaching ( secondary and higher education) positions, most notably as the only Lecturer in Sámi language and culture at the University of Helsinki since 1986. Her research interests include Sámi language, culture and identity politics, as well as wider

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

rights and issues. She chairs the Sámi language and culture research society, ''Dutkansearvi''.

Political career

In 2019, Seurujärvi-Kari was elected Member of the Sámi Parliament of Finland. She is Vice Chair of the Parliament's Sámi Language Council. She was president of the

Saami Council The Saami Council is a voluntary, non-governmental organization of the Sámi people made up of nine Sámi member organizations from Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. Since the founding of the Nordic Saami Council in 1956, among the first indi ...

in 1991 and 1992.

Awards and honours

In 1998, Seurujärvi-Kari received an honorary knighthood from the

Order of the White Rose of Finland The Order of the White Rose of Finland (; ) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. The President of Finland is the Grand Master of all three orders. The ...

. She was awarded the annual State Award for Public Information (''Tiedonjulkistamisen valtionpalkinto'') by the Finnish

Ministry of Education and Culture A ministry of education and culture is a cabinet position in the governments of several nations. In some nations the ministry of education and the ministry of culture are separate departments; in others, the ministry of education and culture al ...

for the 2005 book titled ''The Saami — a cultural encyclopaedia'', which she co-authored.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seurujärvi-Kari, Irja 1947 births Living people People from Utsjoki Sámi activists Sámi linguists Sámi non-fiction writers Textbook writers Finnish Sámi academics Finnish academics Finnish women academics Finnish Sámi politicians Members of the Sámi Parliament of Finland University of Oulu alumni University of Helsinki alumni Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Saami Council Sámi women writers