Young Historian Gets Prestigious Recognition

The Estonian Academy of Sciences recently announced that diaspora scholar Sander Jürisson’s Masters thesis, a comprehensive history of Estonians in Brazil – migration and adaptation is one of the best student research papers of 2012.

Sander Jürisson

Ethnologist Dr. Aivar Jürgenson who supervised the project at Tallinn University agrees: “In addition to skilfulness in writing and analysis, Sander has great instincts when it comes to finding and systematising archival material. I am particularly pleased with the way he combines oral history with written sources and statistics, thus making his contribution to the field rather unique.”

Sander’s research in the Immigration History Research Center (Minnesota), the National Archives (London) and several archives in Estonia, as well as fieldwork among Brazilian Estonians was made possible through grants received from the Compatriot’s Program, European Social Fund’s Doctoral Studies and Internationalization Programme DoRa, Estonian World Council, and the Estonian Students Fund in the United States.

An active participant in the Baltic Heritage Network young researcher’s seminars since their inception, Sander also has a history of excellence – in 2009 his Bachelor’s thesis received first prize at Tallinn Universities Humanities contest, as well as at the Ministry of Social Affairs population research contest. He continues to contribute to Estonian diaspora studies through his professional activities as senior bibliographer at Tallinn University Academic Library, Center of Estonian Exile Literature.

Maarja Merivoo-Parro