contributors

Articles by Ildikó Asztalos Morell

1. Introduction The national and gendered meanings of higher classical music education

   Countries in the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe have been called home by some of the great composers of music history, and the region hosts some of the world’s most prestigious higher classical music education institutions. Despite this fact, Liisamaija Hautsalo states in her essay, the last of this section, that the Finnish-born composer Kaija Saariaho was perceived as being from “a faraway periphery” when she moved in the classical music circles of France, Germany and the US. In a scholarly context I was recently told that (post-communist) Central and Eastern European institutions are not representative of European higher classical music education. The person making this statement obviously assumed that European higher classical music education happens in the UK, or maybe in Germany and Austria. While I did not agree, this feedback speaks volumes about how classical music and higher classical music education is constructed as belonging to Western Europe in international academic debate today. In this special section the authors wish to problematize the role of nation and gender in higher classical music education, and the classical music contexts this education operates in, by focusing on the Baltic and Central and Eastern European region. By doing so we put the assumed Western European identity of classical music and higher classical music education in question.

2. HELCOM and the EU The joint quest for a healthy Baltic Sea environment

   This year, HELCOM celebrates its 50th anniversary. Rüdiger Strempel, the Executive Secretary of HELCOM, is here presenting the close cooperation and alignment between HELCOM and the European Union in working against a backdrop of increasing environmental threats due to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution on the one hand and geopolitical instability on the other hand.

3. Intersectionality via zoom Reflections on teaching an online course on gender and Soviet history for students from/in authoritarian Russia

   I decided to teach free of charge a short online course on gender, intersectionality and Soviet history for students of the Russian Free University5 (Rossiiskii Svobodni Universitet). Since April 2023, the NGO-driven university has the status of an undesirable organization in Russia. More than 80 people registered for my course; however, from the beginning there was a lot of uncertainty on both sides due to fear that students could be accused by the Russian authorities of collaboration with an “undesirable organization”. In order not to be detected while participating in the online course, many students did not use their real names; some never spoke, merely writing down some comments. Indeed, the university introduced a new security protocol that allowed the students not to disclose their identity to other course participants if they did not want to.

4. The cooperation in the Baltic Sea region: Environmental challenges and the controversy over Nord Stream 2

   Since its announcement in 2015, Nord Stream 2 (NS2) has fueled European public debate about the EU’s role in a multipolar world, the scope and limits of transnational governance, and the trade-off between environment and climate protection vs. economic growth and fossil fuel lobbying. Whereas much has been said and written about the security and military risks issued by the project, the environmental and climate impact of the Russian pipeline has received limited attention. This article analyzes to what extent both institutions and civil societies of the Baltic countries (in particular, those directly involved in the permit process) developed forms of transnational cooperation in order to tackle environmental and climate challenges issued by the planned pipeline. The aim is to contribute to the following research fields: the role of environment and climate in international relations; multiple notions of “security” in the Baltic region; and transnational governance in the face of global challenges. The sources are ENGOs’ publications and statements, official reports as well as media, which are analyzed according to Critical Discourse Analysis.

5. Lithuania. Sex education as a tool in anti-genderist propaganda

   Since 1994 anti-genderism has emerged as a new participant in the discourse on sex education. One of the biggest targets of anti-genderism is public schools, where it is claimed that pupils are being indoctrinated with “gender theory”. Anti-genderism obstructs the implementation of sex education in various countries in Europe. Anti-genderist rhetoric and its interface with sex education has been analyzed up till now either as a right-wing or as a Russian propaganda narrative, only sporadically mentioning their common traits. Applying deductive content analysis, this research examined how sex education is utilized by anti-genderism. Sex education is portrayed as a frontline discipline that holds immense power to either distort or protect “traditional values” and sovereignty. Parents are depicted as powerless against sex education. Insights about approaching sex education and radical positions related to it are addressed in the discussion section.

6. Navigators in the Baltic Sea Region Professional strategies and identity constructions among early-career academics

   Drawing on in-depth interviews, this essay investigates professional strategies and researcher identity constructions in the precarious postdoctoral phase. The analysis indicates that most of the informants in the present study seem to be somewhere in the middle of the process of establishing a postdoctoral/early-career identity. The essay underlines the need for better preparing PhD students for the postdoctoral phase; and suggests that to most of the informants, the emerging researcher identities are secondary to more pressing issues, relating to survival in academia alltogether.

7. “Just give Europe to Russia …” Considerations on the relations between “East” and “West” in the 1990s

   The formula “end of the Cold War” conveyed an erroneous idea. For centuries the relations between “East” and “West” were characterized by antagonism. In the 1990s determined attempts were undertaken to overcome the polarity. Western Europe and the US responded favorably to the desire of Central/Eastern Europe and of Russia to integrate themselves into Western institutions and organisms defined by democracy and market economy. However, the force of existing mental realities — such as the fear of Russia in Central/European states or Russia`s clinging to its imperialist past and failure to handle its economy and finances well – proved to be stronger than the idealistic intentions formed in 1989–90 on both sides of the divide. Keywords: End of Cold War, “East and West”, 1990s.

8. Moral dilemmas Russian researchers between Scylla and Charybdis

   This publication shares with the reader autobiographical reflections of five scholars who still live and work in different regions of Russia. These social scientists have not left Russia for various reasons, which they themselves explain in their reflections. After having met at an informal meeting in early 2024, they have decided to voice their concerns about their troubled professional ethos caused by censorship, ideological pressure and repressive legislature. These concerns they conceptualize as moral dilemmas challenging their professional activities. We have decided to publish these texts and to preserve their voices in order to let them tell their own stories to the reader. However, for the sake of security, all authors have decided to be pseudonymized

9. A diplomat between two countries Arnolds Spekke as a cultural link between Italy and Latvia

   This article highlights some of Spekke’s activities during his proxy as head of the Latvian legation in Italy during the Soviet period, and immediately after re-independence when he was dividing his time between Italy and the United States.

10. The silent colonization of Belarus

    Russian military personnel driving vehicles without license plates, billboards advertising holidays in Moscow, and Belarusians facing the demand to speak “a normal language” — that of the aggressor country responsible for about 30,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine since 2022. As well as these, one can find many more indicators of the growing presence of the so-called “Russkiy mir” (Russian world) in Belarus, a state in which Putin’s occupation is using less obtrusive tactics.

11. « Older posts

    Newer posts »