Kristiina Ehin is the new Visiting Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Tartu

In the coming academic year, the position of Visiting Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Tartu will be taken up by poet and prose writer Kristiina Ehin. Her lecture series “Journey to the Sensitive Human—Homo Sensibilis. Figurative Challenges of Creativity” invites on a journey to finding a unique, artistic sensibility.

The lectures will discuss the journey towards a sensitive human being or homo sensibilis which might in turn lead to the creation of original artwork. Inspiration, creativity, figurative sensibility, identity and tradition are the key terms of this journey which the lecturer will discuss through her own literary creation and her previous experience as a teacher of creative writing.

“Appointing Kristiina Ehin as the Visiting Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Tartu gives the students and non-credit students of the University of Tartu an excellent opportunity to learn from a writer who draws inspiration from Estonian folklore but also from the profound knowledge of world culture,” said Margit Sutrop, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tartu.

Kristiina Ehin is one of the best known and most translated modern day Estonian writers. Her poems and stories have been published in 22 languages, including Scottish, Cymric, Macedonian, Udmurt, French, and Norwegian. In English she has published 11 books in Ilmar Lehtpere’s translation.

Her creation is can be heard in song festivals, at the Estonian Independence Day concerts, in the Olympic Games and many other formal events which demonstrates that she is one of the most esteemed writers in her homeland.