{"id":6,"date":"2026-02-16T14:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/?page_id=6"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:05:20","slug":"research-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/research-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Eva Piirim\u00e4e<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Eva Piirim\u00e4e (PhD, University of Cambridge, 2006) is Professor of Political Theory at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. Piirim\u00e4e is the author of the award-winning Herder and Enlightenment Politics<\/em> (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and the co-editor of Herder on Empathy and Sympathy\/ Einf\u00fchlung und Sympathie im Denken Herders<\/em> (Leiden: Brill, 2020)<\/a> as well as several special issues. Piirim\u00e4e\u2019s research interests include Enlightenment moral and political thought, the intellectual history of the self-determination of peoples and human rights, and historical and contemporary theories of patriotism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. From 2020-2024 she led a large research project \u201cSelf-Determination of Peoples in Historical Perspective\u201d<\/a> funded by the Estonian Research Council. For more information, see ETIS<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teva.piirimae@ut.ee<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t

Selected relevant works:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Herder and Enlightenment Politics<\/em> (2023).<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Crisis of the Nation-State and \u201cTrue Self-Determination\u201d in Baltic German Political Thought, 1918\u20131934\u201d,\u00a0Journal of Baltic Studies<\/em>, Volume 57, Issue 1 (2026), 1-26.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAfterword: Self-Determination and Recognition in the Baltic States, 1917\u20131922\u201d,\u00a0Acta Historica Tallinnesia<\/em>, Volume 28, Issue 2 (2022), 330-352.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Liisi Veski-Kuldkepp<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Liisi Veski-Kuldkepp (PhD in Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow, 2022) is a Lecturer in the History of Political Thought at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. Her research focuses on the intellectual history of nation-statehood and democracy in interwar Estonia, as well as the history of Konstantin P\u00e4ts\u2019s authoritarian regime (1934\u20131940). From 2022 to 2024, she led the postdoctoral research project The School for Democracy: Co-operation, Civil Society, and Intrastate Federalism in Estonian Intellectual History, 1900\u20131940<\/em>, funded by the Estonian Research Council.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tliisi.veski@ut.ee<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t

Selected relevant works:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPaving the Third Way: Corporatist Ideas and Practices in 1930s Estonia\u201d, Journal of Baltic Studies<\/em>, Volume 57, Issue 1 (2026), 51\u221276.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe School for Democracy: Co-Operation and the Authoritarian State in 1930s Estonia\u201d, Acta Historica Tallinnensia<\/em>, Volume 30, Issue 1 (2024), 83\u2212112.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTowards Stronger National Unity: Statist Ideas in Estonian Nationalism During the \u201cEra of Silence\u201d (1934\u20131940)\u201d, Journal of Baltic Studies, Volume 55, Issue 1 (2024), 173\u2212195.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Alexander Schmidt<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Description coming soon!<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talexander.schmidt@vanderbilt.edu<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Timo Aava<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Timo Aava is a historian of modern Europe focusing on the history of political thought and minority rights. He holds a PhD from the University of Vienna. He has held several visiting fellowships and post-doctoral appointments at Yale University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford. Timo is a Research Fellow in the History of Political Thought at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, where, as a part of this research project, he will continue research into minorities and ideas of statehood and rights in the Baltics. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Archaeology, where he is working on the history of the United Nations in the early 1990s.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttimo.aava@univie.ac.at<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t

Selected relevant works:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBetween the individual and the group: minority rights in interwar Estonia\u201d,\u00a0Journal of Baltic Studies<\/em>, Volume 57, Issue 1 (2026), 1-23.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cRefugees and diaspora nationalism: national activists in Estonian settlements in Siberia and non-territorial autonomy between 1917 and 1920\u201d,\u00a0Journal of Baltic Studies<\/em>, Volume 54, Issue 3 (2023), 601-623.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Kadi K\u00e4h\u00e4r-Peterson<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Description coming soon!<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tkadi.kahar-peterson@ut.ee<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Hent Kalmo<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Description coming soon!<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thent-raul.kalmo@ut.ee<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Karl Lembit Laane<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Karl Lembit Laane is a Junior Research Fellow and PhD candidate at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu. His PhD thesis, entitled \u201cThe Crisis and Renewal of Procedural Democracy\u201d focuses on the link between normative political theory and institutional design in democracies to realise the idea of self-determination of the people and to identify mechanisms for guaranteeing equal political freedom.\u00a0The baseline for this approach is the theory of procedural democracy, contemporarily most popularised by Nadia Urbinati, which has its roots in the works on democracy by the Austrian legal scholar and political theorist Hans Kelsen (1881-1973). Karl Lembit\u2019s work will examine the specific links between Kelsen\u2019s democratic theory and concept of self-determination, including the self-determination of national and cultural minorities in nation-states.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tkarl.lembit.laane@ut.ee<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Oliver Rowe<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Oliver Rowe works as an analyst at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, where he is also a PhD candidate under the supervision of Eva Piirim\u00e4e. His doctoral dissertation is entitled Self-determination in Theory and Practice: The Reconfiguration of the \u2018Russian\u2019 Empire, 1914-1924<\/em> and will be defended in August 2026. Oliver\u2019s work in relation to this project is both research-related and technical. On the research front, he will examine Russian nation-state ideas in the first half of the twentieth century, from the legacy of the idea of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly following the Russian Revolution to the conceptions of the Russian nation and\/or the Russian state within the famous \u00e9migr\u00e9<\/em> organisations of Europe and Asia. Beyond research, Oliver maintains and updates the shared bibliographic databases for the project, and is responsible for the English language version of this website.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toliver.rowe@ut.ee<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t

Selected relevant works:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Self-determination in Theory and Practice: The Reconfiguration of the \u2018Russian\u2019 Empire, 1914-1924<\/em> (forthcoming doctoral dissertation, 2026).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a United Russia<\/em>? The White Movement\u2019s Rejection of National Self-Determination, 1918-1920\u2033,\u00a0The Russian Review<\/em>, Volume 83, Issue 4 (2024), 577-594.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Self-determination to Secession? The Bolsheviks and National Self-determination, 1914-1924\u201d,\u00a0Revolutionary Russia<\/em>, Volume 37, Issue 1 (2024), 16-38.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/89"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/thenation-state\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}