In memory of Marja-Liisa Swantz

Professor Marja-Liisa Swantz passed away in Lahti in May 2025. In honour of her remarkable life and legacy, UniPID's Board Member Professor Irmeli Mustalahti has written a heartfelt obituary commemorating Professor Swantz’s contributions to development research in Finland.

Marja-Liisa (Aro) Swantz died peacefully in her sleep on a May night at the age of 99. Professor emerita Swantz was the first director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. She taught in the Departments of Ethnology, Religious Studies, Social Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, and Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. She was born in 1926 in Kuopio and grew up in Helsinki with her two sisters, Maila and Pirkko. She studied at the University of Helsinki and the University of Turku and eventually received her doctorate from Uppsala University in Sweden. Her husband was Pastor Lloyd Swantz. Marja-Liisa Swantz's daughter is the Finnish-American professor of political science and gender studies, Aili M. Tripp.

Mama Swantz, as she is known in Tanzania, lived a long and rich life and left a significant legacy in development research, development cooperation, and the Finnish Society for Development Research -FSDR, where she was a loyal and respected member. She was a pioneer in development research in Finland. She had a long and international career as a researcher and developed research methods related to participatory action research in Tanzania. Until her final years, she kept in touch with her friends in Tanzania and spoke fluent Swahili. She loved Tanzania, and her Tanzanian colleagues and friends loved her.

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Photo credits. Background picture: PerfectMirror, 2012 on UnSplash.