Intensive course “Implications of Crises on the State of Democracy: theoretical and methodological tools for studying the East of Europe”

Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies has successfully conducted the intensive course “Implications of Crises on the State of Democracy: theoretical and methodological tools for studying the East of Europe” within the framework of Nordplus “BAMSE” project.  

The Baltic-Nordic Network for the Advancement of Methodology in Area Studies (BAMSE) promotes state-of-the-art research and education in area studies in the Baltic-Nordic area by concentrating on the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of area studies.   

One of the key activities of the following project is related to the implementation of the joint, multidisciplinary intensive courses in collaboration with partners from the University of Helsinki, University of Tartu, Vilnius University and the University of Latvia. The intensive course in Tartu is the second intensive course implemented by the consortium. 

In the words of the academic coordinator of the project from the University of Tartu, Prof. Andrey Makarychev, “the thematic objective of the course is to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of how crisis situations affect the state of democracy. During the week of the intensive course, students had the possibility to listen to lectures which address such critical questions as how crisis effects the rule of law? What is the impact of security perceptions on people’s trust in institutions or how the role of populism and biopolitics is changing in a crisis-situation? What is the significance of the political use of history on everyday democracy?” 

According to Anna Beitane, the main organizer of Tartu’s intensive course, “upon completion of the course, students learned to use a wide multidisciplinary toolkit and improve inter/transdisciplinary thinking by experiencing various formats of learning such as hands-on workshops, prepared by partners from Helsinki, Tartu, Riga and Vilnius, group work, NGO café with Estonian civil society representatives, and the field trip to the Estonian National Museum.”  

BAMSE 2020, BAMSE 2021 and BAMSE 2022 are funded by the Nordplus Higher Education Programme and coordinated by the East Central European, Balkan and Baltic Studies (ECEBB) and the Expertise in Russian and Eastern European Studies (ExpREES) programmes at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. Network partners include the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University, Master’s Program in European Studies and Economic Diplomacy, University of Latvia and the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. 

More information about the project could be found on the BAMSE’s website - https://blogs.helsinki.fi/bamse-network/project/  

For additional questions, please contact Anna Beitane, Manager of Online Learning Projects, anna.beitane@ut.ee