Research Colloquium

The Research Colloquium provides a forum for faculty members and PhD students to present and discuss their current research. The aim of the colloquium is not a presentation of finished work, but rather work in progress that would benefit from the criticism and commentary of colleagues. The format includes a 15-20 minute presentation on a precirculated draft of recent research (usually an article or chapter), a 10-15 minute comment by a discussant, followed by 40-45 minutes of open discussion with all those present. Please note that this semester (unless otherwise indicated) the Research Colloquium will start promptly at 16:00 and end at 17:15 in Lossi 36-305. We are starting the colloquium a bit earlier and ending a bit earlier as well in hopes that colleagues with families and other evening commitments will find it easier to attend.

Colloquia for the 2025/2026 Academic Year

• 24 September: Isabelle DeSisto (visiting Ph.D student from Princeton), "Family Repression and Political Mobilization Across Regime Types"
• 8 October: Pirjo Turk, “Exploring the benefits of default options for reducing digital waste“
• 29 October: Piret Ehin and Liisa Talving, “Does my voice count in the EU? Political efficacy in a multilevel system, 2004-2024"
• 5 November: Edgars Eihmanis, “Gauging national reform ambition under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (2020-2026): AI-assisted coding of structural reforms in 27 national plans.”
• 19 November: Simon Sebastian Manfred Kiecker (Phd Prospectus Defense), "Transforming Growth Models: The Political Economy of Growth Model Restructuring Amid the Energy Crisis and Energy Transition."
• 3 December: Juhan Saharov, "Politics of the Self: Intellectuals and Discourses of “Self-Management” in the Estonian SSR and Slovenian SR in the 1980s.

• 25 February: Kristjan Vassil, “Licence to Innovate: Individual Support for Private-Sector Use of Biobank Data. Evidence from Estonian Public Opinion surveys 2022-2025”
• 11 March: Andres Reiljan, “Informing voters, reducing hostility? Mitigating affective polarization in Poland with a voting advice application and a conversational chatbot”
• 1 April: Liisa Talving, Piret Ehin, Ville Haapanen and Kocha Changelia, “From Consensus to Cleavage: The Evolution of the Globalisation Divide among European Parties and Voters”
• 22 April: Catherine Gibson, “Fraudulent Fundraising and the Shifting Moral Economy of Illicit Philanthropy in the Southwest Romanov Empire.”
• 6 May: Ronek Jäär, “The Distributive Consequences of EU Enlargement and Delegation Size in the European Parliament.”
• 20 May: Doctoral Prospectus Presentations 1 & 2
  16-17: Kristiina Vain, "Reconceptualising the relationship between well-being and financial well-being and using insights from behavioural public policy to improve people’s (financial) well-being"
  17-18: Kocha Changelia, "Does Migration Matter? Ownership, Salience, and the Far-Right: How Issue Competition Drives Electoral Success in Western Europe"
• 27 May: Doctoral Prospectus Presentations 3 & 4
  16-17: Ibrahim Mammadli, "Paths to Success: Explaining Strategic Outcomes in Secessionist Movements"
  17-18: Harry Fennell, "Orthodoxy Beyond Autocracy: Religion, Solidarity, and Civil Society in the Romanov Empire, 1855–1917"