Academic procession at Åbo Akademi Rector Gunilla Widén’s inauguration ceremony: photo credit Åbo Akademi University/Pamela Friström

On 3rd September 2026, I was delighted to attend the ceremony at which Professor Gunilla Widén was formally inaugurated as Rector (Vice Chancellor) of Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. Even though most of the proceedings were conducted in Swedish, I was still able to follow the main components of the event. I particularly enjoyed the music and the singing of the choir.

The choir at Åbo Akademi Rector Gunilla Widén’s inauguration ceremony: photo credit Åbo Akademi University/Pamela Friström

Further celebrations followed the formal part of the day. First there was an afternoon reception in the University’s beautiful Akademihuset for everyone who had been at the ceremony. Then, in the evening, there was a dinner for around 50 of Gunilla’s closest colleagues and family members.

Professors Hazel Hall and Gunilla Widén following the ceremony (with Hazel wearing a splint to support the wrist that she broke on 18th July 2026)

My main contribution to the day was a short speech, which I delivered during the dinner. During this, I recalled that Gunilla and I first met as PhD students at the third Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) conference in Gothenburg, Sweden in August 2000. At the time we were both conducting research into information behaviour and use in large corporate organisations: Gunilla in the insurance industry, and I in professional services firms. We recognised then that there were many overlaps in our academic interests. Reflecting on this a quarter of a century later, it seems that it was almost inevitable that we would be keen to work together in the future. Our collaborations have been many and varied. For instance, we have:

• Worked on a multi-authored book published in 2023, for which Gunilla was one of the two editors: Information literacy and the digitalisation of the workplace.
• Supported PhD students together e.g. Gunilla and I co-supervised Åbo Akademi doctoral student Ming (Vincent) Zhang’s PhD on public libraries and big data, examined in 2021; Gunilla arranged for Centre for Social Informatics PhD Lyndsey Middleton (née Jenkins) to undertake data collection for her doctoral study in Finland in 2017; I served as the ‘opponent’ at the doctoral defence of Åbo Akademi doctoral student Maria Kronqvist-Berg in 2014.
• Delivered seminar papers as guests at our two universities, e.g. I presented at a workshop on workplace information literacy at Åbo Akademi in 2017.
• Co-authored publications, e.g. the 2010 paper ‘Not what you know, nor who you know, but who you know already: examining online information sharing behaviours in a blogging environment through the lens of Social Exchange Theory’.
• Shared the same stage at several conferences around the world, e.g. in a panel session at ASIST 2009 in Vancouver, Canada.

It is also perhaps unsurprising that as we have both progressed through our careers our relationship has developed. We started out in the same cohort of PhD students, became collaborating colleagues, and have ended up as fellow senior academics. We have also become firm friends, always looking forward to spending social time with one another whenever possible, as can be seen in the slideshow below.

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Towards the end of my short speech at the dinner, I identified three key qualities that Gunilla offers to her new role of Rector: she practises collaborative leadership; she champions others; and she has credibility as an academic with a long track record of funded research and publications that underpins her international reputation for research and teaching in Information Studies. Given the current challenges in academic leadership worldwide, I should have perhaps added courage to this list.

At the dinner

A fuller report of the inauguration ceremony, which took place as part of the traditional opening of the academic year, is available as a news item on the Åbo Akademi University website.