Employees

Elo Süld (PhD) is the head of the Asia centre who has been at the centre since its establishment in 2016. Currently, she is organizing the day-to-day work of the center, initiating new partnerships, projects to bring Asia and the Middle East closer to Estonia at both the academic and societal levels. In her research, Süld focuses on the Qur'an, Islamic religious diversity and comparative theology and is lecturer at School of Theology and Religious Studies.

Contact: elo.suld@ut.ee, +372 528 4922

Evelyn Pihla (MA) is the Head of Communication at the University of Tartu Asia Centre. In her daily work, she makes sure that information about the activities of the centre reaches out to the wider public within the university and beyond. In addition, she builds up the communication strategy of the centre and is also the main contact point for media. She is also an Assistant Manager at the centre, dealing with paperwork related to our daily duties and activities. Evelyn also works at the University of Tartu Johan Skytte Institute for Political Studies as a Marketing and Communication specialist.

Contact: evelyn.pihla@ut.ee, + 372 56158017

Tiit Tammaru (PhD) is a professor of population and urban geography at the University of Tartu and the development manager of the Asia Centre, where he helps to think about activities and strengthen the centre's research. His own research focuses on migration and cities. He is one of the editors of ‘Socioeconomic Segregation in European Cities: East Meets West’ (Routledge, 2016) and ‘Urban Socioeconomic Segregation and Income Inequality: A Global Perspective’ (Springer, 2021). Tiit is waiting for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows interested in the population and social problems of Asian cities and spatial development at the Asia Center.

Contact: tiit.tammaru@ut.ee

Urmas Hõbepappel is the analyst at the Asia Centre and a lecturer at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. His scholarly interests focus on history and identity politics, nationalism, contacts between Orient and Occident, and Chinese politics and society. He is the co-author of book ‘The Origins of Estonia-China Relations’. He has lived in China for five years.

Contact: urmas.hobepappel@ut.ee, +372 516 8744

Helen Haas (PhD) is the coordinator Middle Eastern affairs at the Asia Centre. She also works at the University of Tartu School of Theology and Religious Studies as a junior research fellow. In her research, she focuses on minority groups in Islam.

Contact: helen.haas@ut.ee

Anastasia Sinitsyna (PhD) is a research fellow at the Asia Centre. Her background relies on quantitative economics research, particularly with a focus on migration and integration-related issues. Currently she is researching the economic and social impact of Asian migration to Nordic-Baltic countries. In particular, she likes to learn more about labor market disparities across various migrant groups originating from Asian countries.

Contact: anastasia.sinitsyna@ut.ee

Kikee Doma Bhutia (PhD) is a research fellow who in her PhD explored the symbiosis of institutional Buddhism and the indigenous beliefs in the Himalayan region. Her current research interests range from conceptualizing national identity, tracing the importance of vernacular symbols in redefining, and understanding the perspective of different communities and ideas of belonging, the role of religion and culture in the wider unrest and foreign policymaking within the transnational framework of the politics of globalization.

Contact: kikee.doma.bhutia@ut.ee

Mart Tšernjuk is the coordinator of Taiwanese affairs at the University of Tartu's Asia Centre. he is also a lecturer in Chinese language and culture at the Institute of World Languages and Cultures, and Research Secretary of the Estonian Academic Oriental Society. He has lived and studied in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Cultural Studies, where his research topic is Classical Ancient Chinese Thought. At the Asian Centre, his role is to build and maintain partnerships with Taiwanese universities and research institutions.

Contact: mart.tsernjuk@ut.ee

Agnieszka Nitza-Makowska (PhD) is a research fellow at the Centre. She received her PhD from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. Her current work focuses on two specific themes. First, China's and India's soft power, and the implications of Putin's nuclear blackmail for the perception of nuclear weapons in South Asia (India and Pakistan). Second, I led a scientific project about China's environmental diplomacy and its soft power ("green soft power") funded by Poland's National Science Centre.

Contact: agnieszka.malgorzata.nitza-makowska@ut.ee