People

	Ene Kõresaar Principal Investigator. Professor of Oral History and Memory Studies. University of Tartu, Institute of Cultural Research, Department of Ethnology Ene Kõresaar has a background in ethnology, oral history and memory studies. She has published on memory of World War II and Stalinism, the post-communist narrative periodization of the 20th century as well as on the dynamics of social and cultural remembering since 1989. She has studied mnemonic processes in oral history, grassroots recognition politics, commemorative journalism and museums. She has served on the board of the Estonian National Museum and on the advisory council of the Estonian Museum of Occupations and Freedom Vabamu. She is a member of the editorial board of the Estonian National Museum Yearbook. Ene Kõresaar’s CV at the Estonian Research Information System
	Kirsti Jõesalu Researcher (PhD) at the University of Tartu, Institute of Cultural Research, Department of Ethnology Kirsti Jõesalu is an ethnologist, she has a background in oral history and memory studies. Her special interest in memory studies is public-private remembering, and she has dealt with remembering late socialism and the post-communist turn. She has studied the memory of late socialism in life stories, novels, documentaries and museums as well as heritagization of the revolutionary 1980s and 1990s in museums. She has experience in museum curatorship in the Estonian History Museum (2014-15, 2018). Kirsti has been awarded a Kone scholarship for a research stay at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2020). She is a member of the committee of operating subsidies to museums in the Ministry of Culture of Estonia (since 2018) and research council of Estonian Open Air Museum (2021). Kirsti Jõesalu’s CV at the Estonian Research Information System
	Linara Dovydaityte Researcher (PhD) and head of the Department of Art History and Criticism at the Faculty of Arts of the Vytautas Magnus University Linara Dovydaityte is a recognized museum scholar and art historian with interest in Lithuanian memory politics, community involvement and public communication. She has profound experience in curating at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius as well as teaching museum studies in the Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas. She has also a good experience in working in EU funded projects on museum discourse (EDUATOM, INNOCULT). Linara Dovydaityte’s CV at the Estonian Research Information System
	Jana Reidla Researcher (PhD) at the University of Tartu, Institute of Cultural Research, Department of Ethnology Jana Reidla is an ethnologist, she has a background in museum studies with a focus on museum collection, management, education and curatorship. She is also a museum practitioner who has worked at the Estonian National Museum as a collection keeper and head of the exhibitions department. She has also curated the permanent exhibition of the Estonian Bank museum. Currently (2021-2022) Jana is curating an exhibition on Estonian historical jewellery at the Pärnu Museum. Her dissertation focused on recent transformations in curatorial work in Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Finnish national museums as a result of implementing ideas of the ‘new museology’, structural reforms and increasing prioritization of communication function of the museum. Jana Reidla’s CV at the Estonian Research Information System
	Terje Anepaio Researcher-curator (MagPhil) at the Estonian National Museum Terje Anepaio is an experienced curator, oral historian and museum anthropologist who works with different mnemonic communities such as repressed people (NGO Memento) and the Russophone mining community in North East Estonia. She has published on the memory work and practices of commemorating the victims of Soviet mass repressions during the post-Soviet period and has made a documentary on this subject. She is experienced in the museological exposition of everyday life of the late Soviet period (exhibitions about food culture, youth culture). In the team of ENM’s present core exhibition „Encounters“ (2016), she curated topics about the everyday life of the Cold War period. Terje Anepaio in Estonian Research Information System

 

PhD and MA students involved

Paulina Vituščanka, PhD student and Junior Research Fellow in Ethnology at the University of Tartu, Institute of Cultural Research, Department of Ethnology. Topic of the thesis: “20th Century Narratives in City Museums in rural areas in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and how state memory policies and local memory practices influence them”, supervisors Ene Kõresaar and Kirsti Jõesalu.

Ilona Piirimägi, MA project (in progress) „Betti Alver museum development plan”, supervisor Kirsti Jõesalu.

Lea Korem, MA project (in progress) “Enlivening the exposition with food-themed programs at the Estonian Open Air Museum”, supervisor Ene Kõresaar.

Anastasiia Avramenko, MA thesis “Representation of Soviet everyday culture in Estonian regional museums”, supervisors Elo-Hanna Seljamaa and Kirsti Jõesalu, defended in August 2023.

Eliis Vaino, MA. “Autistic child as a museum visitor on the example of the University of Tartu Museum”, MA thesis, defended in January, 2022, supervisor Kirsti Jõesalu.

Advisory Board

Hellar Lill (Director of the Estonian War Museum, EE)

Mariann Raisma (museologist, Director of the University of Tartu Museum, EE)

Toms Ķikuts (Deputy Director in Research, National History Museum of Latvia, LV)

Agrita Ozola (Director of the Tukums museum, LV)

Maija Spurina (Researcher in museum studies at the Latvian Academy of Culture, LV)

Gabrielius Sužiedėlis (Director of Kaunas City Museum, LT)

Rūta Kačkutė (Director of the National Museum of Lithuania, LT) 

Marius Pečiulis (Director of Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum, LT) 

Members of MNEMUS project and Advisory Board at the University of Tartu Museum in August 2021. From left: 1) Jana Reidla, 2) Terje Anepaio, 3) Kirsti Jõesalu, 4) Hellar Lill, 5) Maija Spurina, 6) Linara Dovydaityte, 7) Mariann Raisma, 8) Rūta Kačkutė, 9) Toms Ķikuts, 10) Agrita Ozola, 11) Ene Kõresaar