Congratulations to Constance Bobotsi, a final year undergraduate student at PAIS! Constance was competitively selected to take part in a field trip to Latvia and Estonia (10-17 February, 2019) as part of the “Between the EU and Russia” (BEAR) Network, of which PAIS is a member. Along with 7 other BEAR Network laureates from around the world and a group of University of Glasgow students, she spent a week in the Baltics researching identity and memory. In particular, the trip focused on the history of occupation by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and how memory shapes discourses and interactions today between ethnic Latvians and Estonians, on the one hand, and Russian-speaking minorities, on the other.

The trip started in Riga, where discussions took place with the Director of the Latvian Museum of Occupation and the Editor in Chief of the National Encyclopaedia. Then the group travelled to Narva, an industrial Estonian city right on the border to Russia, where ethnic Estonians are only a minority. There, students met Kristina Kallas, Head of University of Tartu Narva College and leader of the newly-founded Estonia 200 party, as well as staff from the educational Integration Foundation. The final stop was the Estonian capital, Tallinn, where students visited the Estonian Museum of Occupation and saw monuments that sparked controversy in Estonian society a few years back.

Constance Bobotsi writes: “This trip was a unique opportunity to experience social research first-hand and to understand the challenges scholars face when researching concepts like identity. At the same time, it equipped me with new understandings of research methodologies and shortcomings and inspired me to investigate new approaches for my dissertation, which focuses on post-national identity in the era of globalisation. I would like to thank the BEAR Network and PAIS for allowing me to have this experience as an undergraduate student, and encourage everyone in PAIS to make the most of such special opportunities!”