Expatriate Estonian visiting professor teaches a course on the history of Russia and Europe in the autumn semester

David Ilmar Lepasaar Beecher, the first expatriate Estonian visiting professor of the University of Tartu, teaches a course on the history of Russia and Europe in the autumn semester. 

The English-taught course aims to offer a broader understanding of the history of Russia in the European context, discussing the mutual cultural and intellectual approaching of Russia and Europe from the reign of Peter the Great until today.

The main focus of the course is on political, literary, and cultural texts of the 19th and 20th century that explore the common questions and different solutions provided in Russia and Europe to the main problem of the modern world: how to achieve a society based on the integrated ideals of development and democracy. Reading and discussing the key texts also helps to make sense of what is currently going on in Russia and Europe.

Within the expatriate Estonian visiting professorship, acknowledged researchers of Estonian descent who work in academia in other countries can be invited to work at the University of Tartu for at least one semester. The visiting professor of the 2020/2021 academic year is David Ilmar Lepasaar Beecher. Beecher is a historian and social scientist of Estonian descent, working as a lecturer of history and global studies at the University of California, Berkeley (USA). His main research focus is the cultural and intellectual history of modern Europe and Russia.

The English-taught course “History of Russia and Europe since 1700” (P2EC.00.090) is aimed mostly at master’s students and runs at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies throughout the autumn semester. 

More information on the expatriate Estonian visiting professorship is available on the UT website.