On September 6th, Latvian Member of Parliament Veiko Spolitis presented a lecture titled “Russian war in Ukraine, the Baltic States in transformative Northern Europe & European Union”. Veiko Spolitis visited Canada as a guest of the Muskoka Forest University.
The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory’s exhibit “Ukraine in 20th century crises” was opened on Tartu College’s front wall on September 16th. The exhibition came to Canada thanks to the president of the Central and Eastern European Council in Canada and journalist and political scientist Marcus Kolga. The president of the Toronto branch of the UkrainianCanadian Congress Peter Schturyn spoke at the exhibit opening.
On September 27th, Jüri Allik, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Tartu and Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, presented a lecture on “The Ins and Outs of Estonian Psychology.” The lecture was inspired by his recently published book from the University of Tartu Press, introducing the history of psychology.
A culturally themed Jane’s Walk, directed by Peeter Einola, took place on October 16th. It featured a tour of the University of Toronto’s campus, bringing together those who gathered on a search for the academic footprints of Estonians in downtown Toronto.
On October 30th, a memorial event for the longtime principal of the Estonian Supplementary Schools in Toronto, Edgar Marten, took place. Edgar Marten passed away in 2020 at the age of 100. Since the pandemic prevented the community from paying their respects, they could now gather to pay their respects. Among other performers were Mr Marten’s family members, colleagues and students and St. Peter’s Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church’s pastor Mart Salumäe. Attendees could view archival recordings of Mr Marten’s recollections and an exhibit dedicated to him. VEMU’s chief archivist, Piret Noorhani and the Estonian Literary Museum’s senior researcher Piret Voolaid presented an overview of the school lore collection campaign. The event took place in partnership with Edgar Marten’s family members and on the initiative of his daughter Reet Marten Sehr.
VEMU’s Estonian book club started their new season on November 2nd. The topic of discussion was Jaan Kross’ book “Third Mountains” (“Kolmandad mäed”).
Roomer Tarajev from the Tartu municipal government presented a lecture on the topic of “Smart City Tartu – how a city has built co-creative innovation ecosystem for private-publicpartnership?” on November 8th.
November 13th was the second screening of Kaisa Pitsi and VEMU’s documentary film “Our Tartu: 50 Years of Tartu College.” Following the screening, a heartfelt and warm discussion ensued.
On November 16th, guests Tõnis Türna and Peeter Väljas from the National Archives of Estonia stepped up to present lectures. The former spoke of a co-creation project to bring historical county court documents to interested parties, and the latter spoke of the organisation of personal archives, bringing up Lennart Meri and Vello Salo’s archives as an example.
Along with the Chair of Estonian Studies University of Toronto, the 103rd anniversary of the Estonian- language University of Tartu was celebrated on November 27th. Professor Andres Kasekamp spoke on the topic of the current situation in Ukraine.