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

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 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

Mart Tšernjuk is the coordinator of Taiwanese affairs at the University of Tartu's Asian 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

Heidi Maiberg is the head of communication at the Asia Center. In her daily work, she makes sure that information about activities of the Center reaches out to wider public within University and beyond. In addition, she builds up the communication strategy of the Center and acts as a main contact point. In her academic life, she focuses on deradicalisation of extremists at Royal Holloway University of London

Contact: heidi.maiberg@ut.ee

Anastasia Sinitsyna 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

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.nitza.makowska@ut.ee

Lelde Luik is the research fellow at the Asia Centre. Her scientific interest is in how culture and history impact society’s understanding of democracy and what normative ideas on democracy we can develop. Currently, she is developing an article that would explore the idea of cultural and political clashes regarding the notion of ‘democracy’ between certain Asian countries and the West in the context of the war in Ukraine, and Russia’s aggression there.

Contact: lelde.luik@ut.ee