Authors
David Smith3; Michael Loader3; Siobhán Hearne2; Rasa Kamarauskaite4; John Freeman1; Dmitrijs Andrejevs5; 1 University of Cambridge, UK; 2 The University of Manchester, UK; 3 University of Glasgow, UK; 4 UCL (University College London), UK; 5 University of Manchester, UK Discussion
The roundtable event is designed as a launchpad for a renewed Baltic States Study Group, with the aim of bringing together researchers of the Baltic States from various academic backgrounds to share their experiences. The community of researchers studying aspects of the Baltic States in the United Kingdom is a small but vibrant group. Researchers have often naturally found a home in Russian and Eastern European departments, however, these tend to have a Russian or Slavonic focus where Baltic aspects of the region only form a minimal part of the faculties’ expertise. In recent years, the University of Glasgow has led the way in Baltic States research. It has been joined in the last two years by the Baltic Geopolitics Programme at the University of Cambridge, which has sought to place Baltic Sea issues back on the UK academic and political agenda. Since the war in Ukraine, there has been a call in some circles to ‘de-colonise’ and ‘de-russify’ the study of Eastern Europe, and it may be possible that an upturn in research on the Baltic States may be part of that.
This roundtable seeks to discuss the environment of Baltic States study in the United Kingdom, along with its advantages and disadvantages. It will touch upon the ways in which research on the Baltic States can be further promoted in a British context, and also investigate how Baltic States research can be used to inform broader academic study from outside of the region.
