Senior research staff
Andreas Ventsel is a Professor of Political and Sociosemiotics at Tartu University, Estonia. He holds an MA degree and a PhD in Semiotics. He teaches a range of subjects in semiotics, society and politics, cultural theory. His research is interdisciplinary, which includes semiotics, discourse theory, strategic communication and political analysis. He has presented the results of research on these topics in academic journals as Semiotica; Social Semiotics; Theory, Culture & Society; Media, War & Conflict, European Security etc and has been the editor of several Estonian-based and international scientific journals. He is the author of books Towards Semiotic Theory of Hegemony(Tartu University Press, 2009), Strategic Conspiracy Narratives: A Semiotic Approach(Routledge 2021, co-author Mari-Liis Madisson), Introducing Relational Political Analysis: Political Semiotics as a Theory and Method (Palgrave Macmillan 2021, co-author Peeter Selg) and Varjatud märgid ja salaühingud: vandenõuteooriate tähendusmaailm (Postimehe kirjastus 2023. co-authors Mari-Liis Madisson, Mihhail Lotman)
Andrey Makarychev is a Professor of Regional Political Studies at the University of Tartu Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. He teaches courses on “Globalization”, “Political Systems in post-Soviet Space”, “EU-Russia Relations”, “Regional Integration in post-Soviet Space”, “Visual Politics”, and “The Essentials of Biopolitics”. He is the author of Popular Biopolitics and Populism at Europe’s Eastern Margins (Brill, 2022), and co-authored three monographs: Celebrating Borderlands in a Wider Europe: Nations and Identities in Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia (Nomos, 2016), Lotman’s Cultural Semiotics and the Political (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), and Critical Biopolitics of the Post-Soviet: from Populations to Nations (Lexington Books, 2020). He co-edited a number of academic volumes: Mega Events in post-Soviet Eurasia: Shifting Borderlines of Inclusion and Exclusion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Vocabularies of International Relations after the Crisis in Ukraine (Routledge, 2017); Borders in the Baltic Sea Region: Suturing the Ruptures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). His articles have been published in such academic journals as Geopolitics, Problems of Post-Communism, East European Politics and Societies, European Urban and Regional Studies, among others.
Mari-Liis Madisson received her PhD in Semiotics and Culture Studies from the University of Tartu, Estonia in 2016. She is a Research Fellow at the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu. Her research combines cultural semiotics, political semiotics, communication and media studies. Her research interests lie in online culture, conspiracy theories, information influence activities and extreme right communication. She is the author of The Semiotic Construction of Identities in Hypermedia Environments: The Analysis of Online Communication of the Estonian Extreme Right(2016), Strategic Conspiracy Narratives(Routledge 2021, co-author Andreas Ventsel) and Varjatud märgid ja salaühingud: vandenõuteooriate tähendusmaailm (Postimehe kirjastus. 2023 co-authors Andreas Ventsel, Mihhail Lotman)
Research staff
Katarina Damčević centers on the semiotics of hate speech and controversial symbols in (post)conflict societies with a regional focus on Southeast Europe. She defended her PhD in 2023 at the University of Tartu in Estonia. Katarina is one of the co-founders of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Research in Southeast Europe based in Croatia at the University of Rijeka’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. In March 2024 Katarina joined IOS as a researcher and academic coordinator on the project “Cooperation and conflict in Eastern Europe: The consequences of the reconfiguration of political, economic, and social spaces since the end of the Cold War (KonKoop).
Daniel Tamm is a PhD student in the Department of Semiotics in Tartu University. His previous research has been concerned with antithetical identity formation in the strategic narratives of the Russian Federation. His dissertation continues with the topic of strategic communication, but adopts a cognitive semiotic perspective, focusing on how the construal of social processes and events provides a way to model a given ideology. The study concentrates on contemporary far-right discourse in Estonia, while also discussing how such narratives pertain across different historical and political contexts.
Merit Rickberg is the head of the Juri Lotman Semiotics Repository at Tallinn University. Her Phd focuses on developing a Lotmanian framework for analysing complex cultural dynamics in contemporary educational systems (defended at UT in 2023). Her research interests are Lotmanian culture theory, edusemiotics, semiotics of conflict, and cultural memory. Her PhD thesis She is a member of the Transmedia Research Group, which investigates new educational practices based on the framework of the semiotics of culture and develops digital educational environments on the platform Education on Screen. Her contribution to this project is relevant for understanding the role of different takes on history in shaping strategic narratives of conflict and danger.
Louis Wierenga is a PhD student in Skytte Institut of Political Science in Tartu University. He has written about the role of social media and communication strategies of
populist radical right parties in the Baltic states. His PhD is on battle narratives in the social and party media of the
populist radical right and he also focuses on the foreign policy of radical right parties in
Estonia and Latvia. His contribution will provide a wider understanding of strategic narratives
on social media and their role in identity creation.
External partners
Maria Mälksoo is an associate professor in Department of Political Science in Copenhagen University. Her research covers conflicts over historical memory between Russia and its former Soviet/East European dependents, the competitive securitisation of the legacy of WWII and Soviet communism, and mnemonical status contestations in Eastern Europe. She is the author of “The Politics of Becoming European: A Study of Polish and Baltic Post-Cold War Security Imaginaries” (Routledge, 2010) and a co-author of “Remembering Katyn” (Polity, 2012).
Sergii Pakhomenko is an Associate Professor of International Relations and Foreign Policy Department, Mariupol State University and Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Communication Sciences of University of Latvia. His scientific interests are politics of memory, nation and nationalism studies, social security, and the problems of nationalism and ethnic minorities in the countries of the Baltic-Black Sea region.
Alister Miskimmon is a professor of Politics and International Relations in Belfast Queen ́s University. He is the leading figure in the field of international relations using strategic narrative theory in his approach. He is the author of the book Strategic Narratives: Communication Power and the New World Order, New York: Routledge, 2013 (with Ben O’Loughlin and Laura Roselle). Cooperation with Miskimmon we explore the meaning making in the dominant strategic narratives for developing the semiotic approach on strategic narrative.
Aleksandra Kuczynska-Zonik is a Political Scientist and Historian, and Assistant Professor at the Institute of East- Central Europe (IESW). Her recent research focuses on politics and security in East-Central Europe and the post-Soviet space, Russian diaspora, and Soviet heritage.
Einar Linn is deputy director of NATO Strategic Communication Centre of Exellence. Cooperation with this institution concentrates on the communicative deception strategies of the Russian Federation and countermeasures of this activities.
Vladimir Sazonov is a senior research fellow at the Estonian Military Academy (EMA). His scientific interests are related politics of memory, Russian history narratives and information security studies. Cooperation with the Estonian Military Academy allows applying our results in solving problems related to Estonia’s internal security
Nicolae-Sorin Drăgan is Associate Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Public Relations at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași (UAIC), Iași, and National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania. His research focuses on social semiotics, political communication and discourse analysis. He is co-author of the volume In Search of the Silver Bullet. Electoral marketing in Romania (Tritonic, 2020); and author of the volume The culture of political communication in Romania. A functional-semiotic analysis of the presidential debates in Romania (2004-2014)] (Pro Universitaria, 2020).
Una Bergmane is a Latvian historian and political scientist who works in Centre of European Studies, University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on the Soviet disintegration and the end of the Cold War, Russian-Baltic relations, and contemporary politics of Latvia. She is the author of the book “Politics of Uncertainty: the United States, the Baltic Question, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union” (Oxford University 2023)
Edward Lucas is a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Lucas has covered Central and Eastern European affairs since 1986, writing, broadcasting, and speaking on the politics, economics, and security of the region. He is an internationally recognised expert on espionage, subversion, the use and abuse of history, energy security and information warfare.
Dovile Jakniunaite is a professor in Department of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius University. Her main fields of expertise are foreign policy analysis, security studies, international relations theory, border studies, EU Eastern Partnership policy. She is an author of the book “Where Russia Begins and Ends: Neighborhood in International Relations” (2007).
Ulla Juske is the Coordinator of the current Project and the Administrative Manager of the Centre for Semiotic Applications. Ulla has an MA in Art in the Digital World from National College for Art and Design, Ireland and MA in Semiotics and Culture Studies from University of Tartu. As the Administrative Manager, she runs and coordinates the work-flow of The Centre for Semiotic Applications, introduces and promotes semiotic applications to the public, develops international collaborations and participates in the work experience program for the students. The Centre for Semiotic Applications was established in the Department of Semiotics at Tartu University in June 2022. It´s mission is to promote the application of semiotic theories in decision-making processes and in the context of communication, and encourage decision-making based on scientific research.