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Competitions

The Institute supports and fosters the research work of scholars (social scientists, primarily historians, political scientists and lawyers) in corresponding fields of research, holding scholarship competitions. It also holds international scholarly conferences once a year.

The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory invites young scholars to participate in an international research competition on communism

The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory invites researchers aged up to 35 (included) to participate in an international research competition with their academic publications or unpublished Master’s and Doctoral theses on the history of communist ideology or the various aspects of the activities of communist regimes. The topics do not need to be related to Estonia’s history.

Submitted papers are evaluated in two categories and rewarded with €1,500 and €3,000 respectively.

Papers may be submitted in Estonian, English, Russian or German. If the paper is in a different language, please add a summary in one of the aforementioned languages. Submissions will be accepted until September 15, 2024 (included).

Further information: info@mnemosyne.ee

Statute of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory International Research Papers Competition

  1. Competition objective

The objective of this international research papers competition is to support young scholars (up to 35 years old) in the fields of research of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory (henceforth EIHM).

  1. General provisions
  2. The competition will be announced on 1 December 2023 on the EIHM website (mnemosyne.ee). The announcement will be shared via EIHM channels, EIHM’s partners and in the media.
  3. In order to participate in the competition, a research paper and other necessary documents have to be submitted by 15 September 2024 (included). The names of the winners and the titles of their papers will be disclosed on the EIHM website by 30 November 2024 at the latest.
  4. A research paper submitted to the competition can be:
    • a completed master’s thesis or a doctoral dissertation. A submitted research paper must be in Estonian, Finnish, Latvian, Swedish, English, German, Spanish or Russian;
    • a published academic article at the 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 3.1 or 3.2. level according to the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS) classification. An article that is not published in Estonian, English, German or Russian must be supplemented with a summary (up to 9,000 characters in length) in one of the above-mentioned languages.
  5. The topic of a research paper participating in the competition must tie in with one or several of the following fields of research:
    • the history of communist regimes and communist ideology;
    • human losses as a consequence of the implementation of the ideology and policies of communist regimes (including crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide);
    • material and environmental damage caused by communist regimes;
    • communist regimes’ attempts to establish predominance in other countries (so-called export of the revolution);
    • the societal and intellectual legacy of the actions, ideology, and influence of communist regimes aimed at exerting influence in countries that have formerly been ruled by communist regimes, as well as in other countries.
  6. The competition will be announced in two categories:
    • 1,500€ prize for a completed master’s thesis and 3,000€ prize for a completed doctoral dissertation. The EIHM may organise the publication of awarded unpublished research papers in a EIHM publication in agreement with the author(s);
    • 1,500€ prize for a published academic article.

III. Participation

  1. Each competition participant (henceforth participant) may submit one research paper that has been written in the same or preceding calendar year of the competition. Collectives of authors are considered a single participant.
  2. Participants submit their research papers in PDF format along with other required documents as e-mail attachments to the address info@mnemosyne.ee under the heading ‘EIHM Research Papers Competition’:
    • CV with an overview of the applicant’s academic research and publications;
    • an application of submitting the research paper to the competition.
  3. Research papers that have already participated in the same competition will not be considered.
  4. Selection procedure
  5. The EIHM will form a jury for according to the submission of research papers. The chairman of the jury is the EIHM Council or Board member. Jury members must have a doctoral degree (PhD).
  6. If a jury member is a supervisor of a research paper submitted to the competition, or a close relative, spouse or family member of a participant, or has a conflict of interest deriving from some other circumstance regarding a particular paper that had been submitted to the competition, this jury member will abstain from evaluating the research paper in question.
  7. Each jury member will independently familiarise themselves with the papers, and fills out the evaluation form for each individual research paper (see the appendix). The completed evaluation forms will be sent to all jury members.
  8. The competition winners will be selected by a simple majority vote held at a jury meeting. If the best two or more papers are tied in the number of points earned in the first voting round, a second voting round will be held for those papers. If the second voting round also produces a tie in awarded points, a third voting round will be held. Minutes will be recorded of the jury meeting(s). Jury meeting(s) may also be held electronically.
  9. The jury has the right to propose to not award some of the prizes, or to declare the competition a failure, in the event of the absence of research papers of sufficient quality.

APPENDIX 1. Evaluation form

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further information: info@mnemosyne.ee.