Meet the full Politics and Governance teaching staff

Catlyn Kirna is from Estonia and taught both at Tallinn University and Tartu University. She teaches introductions to international relations and European Union but also courses related to her own interests such as foreign policy, regionalism and interdisciplinary issues. She is both finishing her PhD and working on her third master’s degree (in education technology). Catlyn’s previous degrees are international relations from the University of Tartu and a translation degree from Tallinn University.

Check out the one minute lecture "Why Are Small States Awesome?" by Catlyn Kirna.

Triin Lauri's research and teaching focus on the design and implementation of public policies, with particular emphasis on comparative education and welfare policy. Her work examines contemporary welfare states and public services, including their institutional structures, modes of governance, and societal impacts.

Triin teaches and supervises at all levels of higher education in both Estonian and English. She is involved in several international research projects and regularly contributes to academic and policy debates in Estonia and internationally.

Tõnis Saarts has a background in both political science and sociology. He has focused on comparative politics, political sociology, and historical sociology. More specifically, his research interests have concentrated primarily on political parties, party systems, social cleavages and the multiple challenges contemporary political parties have in modern democracies (the rise of populism, party system cartelization, etc.). He has also been interested in democratization in Central and Eastern Europe, where he has primarily focused on the Baltic States in a comparative perspective. His great passion has been historical sociology, in which he has studied the formation of modern democracy and statehood from a historical perspective. Saarts has also been active in the public sphere, in which he has written numerous media articles and provided media commentaries on the developments in Estonian politics for many well-known international media outlets.

Dr Benjamin Klasche (Germany) is a Lecturer for Political Science and International Studies at the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University and a Kone Foundation Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Dr Klasche is an International Relations scholar at heart but often draws insights from Sociology and Governance sciences. He defended his PhD in 2021 at Tallinn University with a distinction (Dealing with Global Crises: A Processual-Relational Approach to Studying and Governing Wicked Problems), and holds an MA (cum laude) in International Relations from Tallinn University and a BA in History from the University of Bonn. His main research interests are in relational theory, de-colonization of the social sciences, and the governance of wicked problems (e.g., the Climate Crisis, Migration Crises, Pandemics). He has published in International Relations, International Review of Sociology and International Studies. His forthcoming monograph (co-authored with Peeter Selg and Georg Sootla) A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems will be published by Palgrave MacMillan.

Have a look at Dr Klasche’s recent contribution on Germany’s reaction to the War in Ukraine: “What is Wrong with Germany?”

Toni Čerkez is the Curator of the Liberal Arts in Social Sciences programme. Toni obtained his IB diploma from United World College in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he is from. He received his BA in Sociology, Anthropology and International Relations (IR) from a liberal arts university, Lake Forest College in May 2017 (magna cum laude). Since then, he has gone on to receive his MA degree in IR from Central European University in Hungary (with honors) and his PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University (highest grade).

Toni’s research is in relational and critical theories of IR, with a specific focus on Anthropocene studies, political ontology of technology (predictive algorithms, AI and cybernetics), cosmological approaches and de-colonial knowledge(s) in IR. In addition, Toni is interested in political theory, specifically the thought of Hannah Arendt, Günther Anders, Yuk Hui, and Bruno Latour, as well as the broader field of philosophy of technology. He speaks BCS and English fluently, in addition to being proficient in German and intermediate in Lithuanian.

Have a look at Toni's most recent article for E-IR on droned lives in Gaza and the world here.

Priit Suve served as a police officer for over 26 years across various positions, primarily within the law enforcement division, and held the role of Prefect (Head) of the Western Police Prefecture for nearly ten years. alongside his service in the police force, he earned his Ph.D. in 2016.

Rünno Lumiste is an experienced lecturer in economics. He has been teaching entrepreneurship, public sector economics, and economic policy for many years. Since 2020, he has been working at Tallinn University. In addition, he teaches at the University of Lyon 1 and Riga Technical University. His research focuses primarily on international economics and entrepreneurship.