Introduction

Uku Lember is the Director of the School of Humanities. He graduated with a degree in finance from Tartu University and then studied history at Master and PhD level at Central European University in Budapest. He has received scholarships for studying at Cornell University (USA), University College London (UK) and Uppsala University (Sweden). Uku Lember’s major research areas are the history of the Soviet Union, memory politics, nationalism and Queer-history. His doctoral dissertation centred around the Soviet-era marriages between Russians and Estonians (based on biographical interviews). Recently, he has engaged in family histories and changing memories in Ukraine during the current military conflict. Currently, he is working on Soviet era queer histories. In 2015, Uku Lember was nominated a laureate of the young scientists’ competition of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.

Areas of research

History of 19th and 20th century; comparative history; authoritarian regimes

Eastern-European, Russian and Ukrainian history (especially in the Soviet period)

Oral history and biographical method; social memory

History of nationalism

Queer history