Meet the full Government and Politics teaching staff
Triin Lauri is a Appointed Professor of Public Policy at Tallinn University and the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant. The ERC-funded project she leads, EDUMERIT, examines school choice policies and related experiences, and how these shape people’s perceptions of fairness and their policy preferences.
In the doctoral programme, Triin teaches and supervises research on social policy, theories of governance, and comparative research design. Her main research interests include comparative welfare policy, educational inequality, and market-making in public services. In these areas, she is either leading or participating in several international research projects and heads the Welfare Policy Research Group at the Centre of Excellence in Welfare Sciences.
Triin Lauri in the Estonian Research Information System.
Mari-Liis Jakobson is a Professor of Comparative Politics, the Principal Investigator of the SIDESTREAM project and the Project Leader of the POLINERA project. Her research interests are related to populism and the forms and impacts of political radicalization, including the strategies and capacities of populist and far-right parties to appeal to different voter groups, as well as the effects of right- and left-wing radical politics on the political integration and transnational political participation and identity of people with a migration background. She also participates in the SustainERA project, where her area of responsibility is environmental political communication.
Mari-Liis Jakobson in the Estonian Research Information System
Leif Kalev is a Professor of Political Science. Within the Political Science curriculum, he teaches courses on state theory, citizenship, and political leadership. His research focuses primarily on statehood and citizenship, as well as the relationships and practical applications of the core dimensions of political science (politics, policy, polity).
Kalev is the project manager, author, and editor of Estonia’s first comprehensive university textbook on the foundations of politics and governance, as well as three textbooks on public policy. Currently, he leads the Estonian team for the Horizon Europe Democrat project, which develops functional democratic citizenship education for the modern era. Leif Kalev also has high-level public sector experience - from 2012 to 2015, he served as the Deputy Secretary General for Law Enforcement and Migration Policy and as the Secretary General at the Ministry of the Interior.
Leif Kalev: 1-Minute Lecture – "How to Overcome Political Stagnation?"
Leif Kalev in the Estonian Research Information System
Raivo Vetik is a Professor of Comparative Politics. Within the Political Science curriculum, he teaches courses related to political culture and ethnic relations. His research also focuses primarily on ethnic relations, which is the central theme of all his recent research projects. These include the migration and integration-focused Twinning project MIRNet and the DIMA project, which examined political and socio-psychological factors in the context of integration.
Additionally, Raivo Vetik has been involved in conducting all Estonian integration monitorings and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the 2014-2015 Estonian Human Development Report.
Raivo Vetik in the Estonian Research Information System
Birgit Poopuu is a Professor of International Relations and Head of the International Relations and Future Studies field. Birgit’s recent research explores the Syrian revolution from the perspective of Syrian activists. Her primary expertise lies in feminist peace and conflict studies, with research interests including international relations from a revolutionary perspective, peacefulness, the politics of knowledge production, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, critical IR theories, and critical relationalism.
Birgit is an editor for the journal Ariadne Lõng. Her forthcoming work, the Handbook of Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics (Oxford University Press), examines the politics of knowledge production in global politics (co-edited with Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Katarzyna Kaczmarska, Xymena Kurowska, and Andrea Warnecke). You can find Birgit on Twitter @BirgitPoopuu.
Birgit Poopuu in the Estonian Research Information System
Anu Toots is a distinguished professor of social policy who has successfully supervised numerous doctoral dissertations on the development of the welfare state and sectoral reforms. Methodologically, she favors comparative analyses and policy transfer frameworks. Having been involved at the European level in conceptualizing the so-called social investment (SI) turn of the welfare state, she is particularly interested, in her doctoral supervision, in the implementation of the SI approach across countries and within new policy domains (e.g. digital services and housing).
Anu Toots in the Estonian Research Information System
Gorg Sootla is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy. His research focuses on the organization of governance, specifically from the perspectives of both institutional structure and the policy-making process. His work has centered on governance reforms, the evolution of the cabinet and its support structures, and central-local government relations, both in a comparative perspective and through the lens of transitional societies.
Additionally, his research has covered local government, the forestry and environmental sectors, taxation, and the organization of internal security within states and communities, often in cooperation with Estonian government agencies (including the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Finance). Georg Sootla has served as an advisor and analyst for the development of Estonian forest policy and the State Forest Management Centre (RMK), the advancement of local government cooperation in Läänemaa, Hiiumaa, and Raplamaa, as well as municipal mergers and administrative reform.