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Tampere University Tenure and Activity
John D. Hopkins is Senior Lecturer in American Language and Culture in the
English Section of the Department of Translation Studies of the University
of Tampere, Finland (tenured 1973). He was Chair of the
English Division from 1982 to 1986, and co-founder, Coordinator and
conference organizer of the Tampere American Studies Program from 1984
until 1991. He now administers the FAST Area
Studies Program.
Hopkins has published widely in the use of telematics in international
and higher education, and worked extensively with international
educational exchange administration, development and marketing. He served
as Board Member of FUSEEC, the Finland-United States Educational
Exchange Commission (bi-national Fulbright Commission), from
1978-1990, and thereafter as Executive Consultant to the FUSEEC Board. He
introduced the International Student
Exchange (ISEP) Program to Finland in 1982, when Tampere University
became the first ISEP member in the Nordic region. Under Rector Jarmo
Visakorpi he helped develop International Education Services at Tampere
University, and in 1987-1988 served on release time from his Lectureship
as Director of the Office For U.S. Exchange Programs.
Hopkins has also served extensively in international education
leadership outside Finland. He began work with the U.S.-based NAFSA: Association of International
Educators in 1982, when Tampere University became the first Finnish
member of NAFSA. Hopkins served on NAFSA's MicroSIG (microcomputing special
interest group) Steering Committee from its inception in 1985 until 1996,
and was MicroSIG Chair from 1990-1993. He also served on NAFSA's
Communications and Information Policy Committee from 1991-1995, and
was elected to a three-year term on NAFSA's Board of Directors in
1993, becoming the first person residing outside the U.S. to be elected to
the Board. He also served on ISEP's Advisory Board from 1990-1994,
and was Board Chair from 1992-1994.
In Europe, Hopkins was a founding member of the European Association For International
Education, and charter member of its Electronic Networks and
Information Sharing Committee, of which he served as Chair from 1996-2000.
He has been a frequent presenter and Chair of workshops and sessions at
EAIE Annual Conferences. He has spoken at conferences and workshops and
consulted on international educational mobility administration,
development and marketing in Denmark, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway,
Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well as
the United States.
International education activities also included the founding and
administration of the NEXUS [formerly OSEAS]
Database (1988-96), a research and administrative tool for over
1000 IE administrators in 132 countries outside the U.S. whose work
involved academic exchange with the United States, and the
International Education Forum website (1993-97) and OSEAS-World
integrated e-mail system which served these administrators.
Hopkins has written and been published in American Studies,
International Education, and the deployment of Interactive Communications
Technologies (ICT) in higher education. Book-length publications include
American Institutions (Gummerus, 1975), and Dimensions in
American Studies (Ed., Tampere University Press, 1986). He was also
contributing author for the American English and U.S. cultural content of
WSOY Publishers' New Deal Senior Secondary English Series. In
addition to presentations published in conference reports, numerous
articles and speeches have been published by SITRA: The [Finnish]
National Fund for Research and Development, in the Newsletter of the
European Association for International Education and in other EAIE
publications, in the NAFSA Newsletter and its International
Educator magazine, in the Advising Quarterly, and in World
Education News and Reviews, published by
World Education Services in New York, for which he has been a
Contributing Editor.
Hopkins has been a plenary speaker at numerous international
conferences on International Education and the deployment of information
technologies in higher education. He presented the keynote addresses to
the Launching Conference of the EU Ortelius Database of European Higher
Education, the 49th Annual Conference of the Council for
International Educational Exchange, and the third and fourth
European Educational Advising Conferences, among others.
International Conference Organization
John Hopkins has been principal organizer of a number of major
international conferences, including the First Nordic Conference on
American Studies at the Secondary Level in Hanasaari, Finland, 1983;
the United States Educational Foundation Anniversary Conference in
Tampere, 1983; the First Tampere American Studies Conference in
1985; and the Fulbright 40th Anniversary Conference and Second
Tampere American Studies Conference in 1987. He was also primary
organizer of the 1991 and 1995 European Educational Advising
Conferences in La Grande Motte (France) and Athens (Greece),
respectively; and co-organizer of the 1992 ISEP Biennial Conference
in Budapest, Hungary.
Workshops and Seminars
Outreach activities have included workshops in American English in
Finland and Sweden; in American Education, Mass Communications, Popular
Culture, Government and Politics, and a broad range of intercultural
communications and telematic networking topics for FilmNet, Canal +
and Finnish Broadcasting Corporation translators and subtitlers;
the Association of Teachers of English in Finland; and other
educational and civic organizations.
Further information on seminars and presentations is available via
Hopkins Consulting (Lielahdenkatu 40-E-19, FI-33410 Tampere,
Finland). Hopkins Consulting provides professional writing and
editing services, general and special-field proofreading and language
revision, and consulting in International Education development and
marketing and in the deployment of new information technologies in higher
and international education.
Hopkins' extracurricular interests include recreational sports and
music, as well as gardening, reading, cooking and the history of Cooper
County and the City of Boonville, Missouri. He is a six-time Finlandia
Ski Marathon medalist, plays tennis, bicycles and runs, and played college
and semi-pro baseball. He has played trumpet in several brass bands and
dance and baroque chamber ensembles.
John Hopkins is married to Maritta Hopkins, Lecturer in
English in the Tampere University Language Center. John and Maritta have
two children, Brian Hopkins, Product Manager for Invoice Automation
at Basware, and
Christina Hopkins Poulsen, Director of Internal Communications for
the Kone Corporation. A brother, Robert
Hopkins, pianist, composer and principal accompanist for the Lahti Music
Conservatory (AMK), also lives in Finland.
Other family members include Dr. William T. Hopkins, Emeritus Professor
of Piano and Music History, San Francisco State University; the late Lt.
Colonel Woodard B.
Hopkins, Jr.; and Sara Hopkins Beene, Emeritus Speech/Language
Pathologist (SLP), Témpe, Arizona.
John Hopkins is a native of
Boonville, Missouri, and graduate of Westminster College. In April
2001 he was honored with the Westminster Alumni
Achievement Award, the highest distinction the college can give its
graduates, for career accomplishment in international education, American
Studies, and ICT innovation in European higher education.
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