Baltic Sea Region Studiesat the University of Tartu

Dr Heiko PääboCentre for Baltic Studies

Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies

Baltic Sea RegionBaltic Sea Region• The region includes all

countries around the Baltic Sea + closely cooperating neighbours (e.g. Norway, Iceland)

• Almost the EU internal sea (the first EU macro-region strategy)

• In the middle of the process of active region-building

• Since 2014 changing security environment

IMRCEES at UTIMRCEES at UT• Various courses on politics,

history, international relations, economics, sociology, energy studies, memory and identity studies

• International faculty members and students

• Estonian and Russian language classes

• Internship opportunities• Research Centre for EU-

Russian Studies

Study fields• Security studies• Regionalism and region-building, including comparative

dimension• Energy policy, energy-security nexus• Nationalism and ethnopolitics• Critical geopolitics• Sovereignty, de facto states• Cross-border cooperation• Identity politics and bordering practices• Memory studies: politics of memory, social memory, cultural

memory• E-voting, e-democracy• Political and economic transition• Religion and politics• Urban semiotics• Gender studies

Areas of research• EU-Russian relations• Russian foreign policy• Foreign policy and security politics in the Baltic Sea region• EU’s Neighbourhood Policy and its Relationship with Russia• Political development in the Baltic Sea region• Political Transformation Process in East and Central Europe• Memory and identity conflicts in Russia, Baltic states• Transitional justice and reconciliation in the post-Soviet

societies• Minorities and Human Rights in Post-Communist Countries• International Law and Russia

Earlier MA theses• Dwelling in Visaginas: the phenomenology of post-socialist town• Towards a common identity? A comparative analysis of Estonian

integration• Belarus's national narratives and representation of the Grand Duchy of

Lithuania in Belarus's history textbooks• Re-defining the meaning of place: a discourse analysis of the

Hauptstadtdebatte• Institutional barriers to investment climate of Armenia and Russia's role

in it• The Effect of Hegemonic Masculinity in the Proportion of Women in

Post-Communist Parliaments: a Case Study of Estonia and Poland• Lost and Found: Urban and Rural Spaces in Contemporary Estonian

Cinema• Trauma, Memory and Victimhood: Estonia and the Holocaust, 1998-

2012• Europeanisation, Globalisation, and Unconventional Energy: A

Stepwise Comparison of Telecommuniations and Energy in Estonia and Poland, 1990-2011

• See more: http://cbs.ut.ee/index.php/current/defended

MA thesis support• Regular MA seminars (second half of

September, early October)• October 31, research proposal• November peer-reviewing and consulting

of research projects• February-April presenting draft chapters• Pre-defence in June (defence opportunity

in June)• Defence early September

WELCOME!WELCOME!