Slavic linguistic history has been studied in Helsinki for well over a hundred years, but the understanding of Slavic languages and the origins of their speakers can, in our time, still be broadened using new methods in cooperation with representatives of various disciplines.
In recent decades, scholars of Slavic in Helsinki have been focusing their research on language contacts (for example in the Balkans) and languages in their societal context – for example, the history of literary languages, linguistic nationalism, language policy and socio-onomastics, or the societal role of names. Research activities have focused on the Slavic languages of south-eastern Europe, but significant results have been gained also in the aphasiology (study of language impairment) of Czech.