I hold a Doctorate degree in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute (EUI), a Master of Research degree in Political and Social Sciences from the same institute, and a Master of Philosophy degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. My Ph.D. dissertation "Contested States: The Struggle for Survival and Recognition in the Post-1945 International Order" won the 2020 Linz-Rokkan Prize for the Best Thesis in Political Sociology. My M.Phil. thesis "Using Soft Power: the EU’s Ability to Influence the Domestic and Foreign Policies of the States of the Western Balkans" passed with distinctions.
I had gap academic years between high school and undergraduate education. I was training to become a professional basketball player, then got into fixing computers in the midst of wanting to pursue my all-loved field of studying pharmacology. I can still play (some) basketball. I know how to fix computers of the 2000s, and I can only purchase things in the pharmacy that a doctor prescribes. I had my other gap years between undergraduate and graduate school, trying to work in and understand how the telecommunications industry works during the late 2000s. I have learned a lot, but it eventually became boring.
So I continued with gap academic years between my graduate school and my doctorate degree. During this period, when I thought I had grown up enough to have some articulable political thoughts and ideas, I very passionately engaged in active non-partisan political and social activism. I have done so through policy research and advocacy; organization of street protests as part of different (dis)organized communities and political groups; and a very active public engagement. It never became boring. I made many mistakes along the way. I learned a lot. I held strong political beliefs. They became even stronger as I evolved and matured to the present day.
Ever since I started my Ph.D. in 2015, I have almost solely focused on research and teaching. You may have already guessed why: I like and enjoy both. I live in Tartu, Estonia. I teach at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu. I conduct my independent and collaborative research often as part of the De Facto State Research Unit at the same institute. I have previously taught in Kosovo and in The Netherlands.
I believe research and teaching should serve the public, unconditionally.
I teach several international relations- and- political science-related courses, including those dealing with methods in social science. I employ teaching methods that stimulate independent and collective critical thinking, the ability to question past and present knowledge, and the chance for students to leave my classes with more questions than what they had before coming to class. If this does not happen, then I have failed in my teaching. Such a failure does not lead to the end of the world, but certainly, for students, it leads to a missed chance to learn to question authority - the essence of education. Education ought not to be about being good with grades, it ought to be about questions and questioning.
On OpenAI and education: It is senseless for academic staff and education institutions to police OpenAI. Governments are not panicking. Teaching staff around schools and universities shouldn't either. Making classes interesting, exciting, fun, and intellectually stimulating for pupils and students can turn OpenAI into a great resource for education. OpenAI's (un)usefulness for education boils down to how much governments prioritize education with their policies and budgets.
Though I have my preferences, I do not belong to any social science methodological or epistemological religions. I do not ask my social science questions based on methodological preferences. I ask them based on curiosity and recognizable gaps in knowledge. I am after evidence. I study social science questions of my interest through various methodological approaches and techniques. They range from ethnography, archival research, small-N comparative analyses, large-N survey experimental statistical analyses, and mid-and-large-N set-theoretic comparative analyses. These are all unnecessarily fancy phrases. They all boil down to systematically analyzing evidence in service of producing as robust answers as one possibly can to questions. Albeit at times unsuccessfully, I attempt to meet expectations of the existing social scientific paradigms and methodological religions, on the one hand, and formal logic, on the other. The former shift with time and come in waves, while the latter is universal both in time and space. I am a bit obsessed with formal logic. It can get on your way a bit, but it can be fun.
I do not respect those (including myself when I do so) who set methodological and epistemological scientific beliefs as logical supersets of evidence for open questions when interpreting truth.
I am quite familiar with the following languages. All can get me around with little hassle.
I am currently learning the following languages. They yet have to get me around.
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Estonian (Uralic: Finno-Ugric). Check up for updates on this in about 10 years.
