Sirvi Autor "Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja" järgi

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Baltic States identity through banal nationalism: postage stamp iconography analysis
(Tartu Ülikool, 2023) Gomankov, Gleb; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This paper researches the reflection of nation-based discourses and national symbolism in the postage iconography of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from the perspective of banal nationalism practices. There are two main research questions this paper seeks to answer. The first one is: What are the main postage stamp iconography themes used to construct and popularize the national discourses of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania? For that, a database consisting of 3069 stamps issued by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania between 1918-1940 and 1991-2018 was analyzed, applying Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to postage imagery and the official catalog inscription. The dominant patterns revealed common practices of banal nationalism in the selected states. The results revealed that national coats of arms remained a continuous trend in national symbolism manifestation in all states, also covering the subnational level of municipalities and cities. In addition, authoritarian regimes affected the iconography patterns, elevating the leader's role in collective memory. In contemporary practices, discourses became more inclusive at the subnational level by introducing new patterns of commemoration of people, heritage, and anniversaries. The second question is: how political developments within the state and participation in supranational organizations affected the postage stamps iconography of the Baltics States concerning national, regional, and European scales? The finding shows that authoritarian regimes emphasized the role of the leader and boasted the nation's pride via celebrations of independence accompanied by constant reminders of the collective trauma the Independence wars left. The new developments emphasized the inclusion of subnational symbolism in postage iconography alongside the promotion of European integrity and shared regional heritage.
Icons of defiance, images of loss: the monument to the ghetto heroes and the semiotics of commemoration
(Tartu Ülikool, 2025) Sturken, Sarah; Gawlas-Zajączkowska, Agnieszka, juhendaja; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examines the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, unveiled in 1948 in Warsaw’s Muranów district and designed by Natan Rapoport, as a pivotal site of Jewish memory and postwar commemoration. While the Monument is renowned for its dual façades—one dramatizing heroic resistance, the other memorializing martyrdom—it is also a deeply symbolic response to the destruction of Polish Jewry and the Holocaust. This study investigates how the Monument mediated and shaped collective memory among surviving Polish Jews at the moment of its creation and unveiling. Employing a multimodal social semiotic analytic framework, the research explores the interplay between the Monument’s visual and material dimensions, its spatial context within the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the shifting socio-political landscape of early postwar Poland. The analysis is grounded in theories of collective memory, focusing on the evolution of Jewish memory traditions and the emerging Zionist national mythology. Through detailed semiotic analysis of the Monument and its placement, this thesis argues that Rapoport’s work functioned as a dynamic site of memory, encoding a dialectic of martyrdom and resistance rooted in ancient Jewish tropes yet profoundly shaped by the ideological imperatives of its time. Ultimately, Rapoport’s Monument emerges not merely as an aesthetic or commemorative object, but as an active agent in the reconstruction and negotiation of Jewish memory in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
The lack of interest in the remembrance of communist prison and labour camps in the Balkans: a case-study of Yugoslav Goli Otok
(Tartu Ülikool, 2025) Formanek, Agathe; Bakić, Sarina, juhendaja; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis investigates the memory of Goli Otok, the notorious political prison of the former Yugoslavia, within contemporary Croatian public life, focusing on the attitude of the Croatian State. Despite its historical significance, Goli Otok occupies a marginal position in public memory, characterized by indifference and minimal political engagement. The study addresses two research questions: how the Croatian State’s attitude can be defined, and why this apparent lack of interest persists. The analysis is grounded in memory studies, emphasizing conceptualizations of forgetting, silencing, and amnesia, which are particularly suited to examining a memory defined by absence. Empirical insights are drawn from six expert interviews, analyzed using thematic analysis. One core finding is that if a memory cannot serve a political function, it loses relevance. Goli Otok’s historical complexity. including its association with leftist prisoners and contested meanings, prevents its integration into simplified narratives that support national identity and state continuity. Consequently, it remains largely untouched by the Croatian State, which prioritizes memories that yield political benefits. Engagement with Goli Otok carries minimal reward but significant risk of backlash if mishandled, further discouraging action. Experts emphasized that this lack of engagement is not driven by malice but by political pragmatism. As a result, Goli Otok occupies a liminal space: neither actively suppressed nor fully commemorated, lying at the intersection of Hirst and Coman’s selective retrieval-induced forgetting and Connerton’s repressive erasure. Although limited by the small sample of interviews, this study provides a first in-depth exploration of the interplay between political utility, historical complexity, and collective memory in Croatia. It highlights the structural and perceptual factors that maintain Goli Otok’s marginal status while pointing to avenues for further research, including discourse analysis and comparative studies with other politically contested sites in the Balkans.
Mobilizing history: a longitudinal study of the changing depictions of Ukraine and Ukrainians in Russian history textbooks, 1995–2023
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Denysenko, Olena; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis is devoted to the examination of the changes in the Russian national narrative contained in the state-approved history textbooks published from 1995 to 2023 with regard to the portrayal of Ukraine and Ukrainians. The scope of the work includes an analysis of 12 textbooks covering the highly contested historical period from 1914 to 2014. The study aims to understand how Russian national narratives and depictions of the past have been reconstructed under the influence of modern political developments in Russo-Ukrainian relations. This thesis adopts a holistic approach to textbook analysis, directing focus to all parts of a textbook. Additionally, thematic content analysis is conducted with the help of the MAXQDA software program to code the selected texts. Both thematic and structural narrative analysis are utilized to explore what content is included in the Russian national narrative about Ukraine and how it is presented. This study argues that a new war-mobilization narrative appears in Russian history textbooks regarding the portrayal of Ukraine and Ukrainians. This narrative shift aligns with and supports the current Russian state's objectives during the ongoing war. The new 2023 textbooks, compared to older ones, present an increasingly negative depiction of Ukraine through various past historical events, particularly focusing on the episode of the Great Patriotic War (GPW). Limitations of this study and directions for future research are proposed.
Politics of history on the screen: unveiling the continuity of myths in Polish state-endorsed cinema
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Harmash, Anna; Piekarska-Duraj, Łucja, juhendaja; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examines cinematic portrayals of the Warsaw Uprising in historical fiction films endorsed by two ideologically divergent regimes: the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) and the Law and Justice Party (PiS). Both regimes advanced conflicting memory of Polish history, tailoring the discourses to align with their respective ideological agendas by focalizing or silencing some pages of history. However, through a comparative analysis of films endorsed by the regimes, this thesis argues that the PZPR and PiS followed the same template in constructing their memory narratives that framed Poland as a nation of exceptional heroism and martyrdom, and justified an uncritical approach to politics of history. This thesis analyzes cinematic narratives presented in films about the Warsaw Uprising—a traumatic historical event that was marked by “blank spots” in the official memory during the People’s Republic of Poland but became an widely commemorated and glorified event, emblematic of Polish collective identity under PiS-led politics of history. A cinematic discourse analysis of six state-endorsed productions (five feature films and one episode from a popular television series released between the 1950s-1970s and the 2010s) was conducted to identify, decode, and interpret memory narratives and depictions of heroism using elements of the dominant Polish myth. The interpretation of the cinematic renderings of the Uprising relied on concepts of collective identity, national myths and schematic narrative templates, and considered the ideological, social and political contexts in which the films were produced. The research demonstrates that, while introducing some critical reflections and “remembering” the Uprising differently, the state-enforsed films produced under both regimes build their narratives on the dominant myth of Poland being “Christ Among Nations”. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to understand why seemingly ideologically divergent political regimes deploy similar narrative strategies.
Quietly postcolonial: the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on curation strategies in Estonia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Ballance, Cosima; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
It is widely understood that moments of great geopolitical change have a profound impact on the manufacture and treatment of the past. Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine has not only revealed the politicisation and weaponisation of history and memory, but also prompted more intensive discussions among scholars and politicians about the application of postcolonial perspectives and methods in the states with an entangled history with Russia. Two years on from the onset of the full-scale conflict, this thesis seeks to examine whether postcolonial approaches have also had a wider impact on national narratives, as reflected in museum design and curation strategies. By utilising a single-case study of Estonian National Museum/Eesti Rahva Muuseum (ERM) and combining ethnographic observational analysis and five expert interviews with museum workers, this thesis analyses the state of Estonian national memory in the year 2024. Whereas most previous studies on memory and postcolonialism in the Baltic states have been confined to the twentieth century, this thesis broadens these empirics and utilises a longue durée approach to Estonia’s national master narrative in order to show the interconnectedness of the different layers of Estonia’s past, rather than treating its different elements in isolation. The findings revealed that, in contrast to the wake-up call that much of academia has experienced, ERM has rather been operating in a “quietly postcolonial” manner for some time, suggesting that this public-facing institution has been ahead of much of academia and political discourse.
The (re)making of Georgianness: culinary glocalisation, migration and authenticity in Georgian restaurants in Kraków
(Tartu Ülikool, 2025) Tabberer, Ottilie Rose; Gajda, Kinga, juhendaja; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
In recent years, Georgian restaurants have become a notable feature of Poland’s urban foodscape, despite the absence of strong historical, colonial or large-scale migratory ties between Georgia and Poland. This dissertation explores how and why Georgian cuisine is travelling and transforming in the Polish context, focusing on the proliferation of Georgian-themed eateries and their possible roles as sites of cultural negotiation, belonging, adaptation and performance. The study draws on data gathered through several qualitative fieldwork methods, including interviews with Georgian and non-Georgian restaurant owners, Google Maps restaurant reviews and participant observation, using thematic analysis as the primary analytical method, to uncover how cuisines travel and how ‘Georgianness’ is (re)constructed and performed in another context. Using Kraków as the case study, this research contributes to broader discussions in transnational migration and culinary mobilisation and hybridity, offering insights into how cuisine becomes a travelling form of ethnic identity, oftentimes adapting and evolving to its glocal context.
Tengrism as a lived religion in Kazakhstan and its role in national identity building
(Tartu Ülikool, 2022) Scripka, Abigail; Ibadildin, Nygmet, juhendaja; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Tengrism has slowly been experiencing a revival in Turkic countries across the world, most notably in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia. This thesis seeks to explore the connection between Tengrism in Kazakhstan, national identity, and the theory of lived religion in order to better understand the relationship between this ancient religion and the people. This thesis relies on theoretical and historical frameworks along with an online survey, which was disseminated amongst 18-30 year olds living in Almaty. It consists of multiple choice, scaled, and short response questions. These responses have been coded in order to understand how this data supports, or denies, the framing of lived religion in Kazakhstan and whether or not Tengrism has a role in Kazakh national identity. It additionally explores the themes of promotion of the religion by both the media and potentially the government. The thesis is broken into seven chapters (Introduction, Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, Methodology, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion). This work is an exploratory study looking to fill the gap in research surrounding the study of Tengrism in both Kazakhstan but also as a cultural phenomenon rather than the traditional research. Through my survey, this research has found the deep-rooted role of Tengrism within Kazakh culture and in the role of identity amongst young Kazakhstanis, additionally has looked at the intersection of Islamic and Tengri traditions and their roles in Kazakhstani national identity.
“There cannot be a free body when the soul is in captivity”: religion and national identity in three Ukrainian presidents’ rhetoric, 2010-2022
(Tartu Ülikool, 2023) Walker, Daniel William John; Osypchuk, Anna, juhendaja; Gibson, Catherine, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has sparked a global interest in Ukraine. Whilst there is extensive scholarship on the relationship between religion, politics and national identity in Ukraine, there is a lack of synthesised, comparative and process-tracing work on how an incumbent’s religious politics is influenced by their predecessor(s) or how they may influence their successor(s). This thesis examines how three Ukrainian presidents – Viktor Yanukovych, Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – have used religious ideas and rhetoric as part of their political agendas and to support their ideas of Ukrainian national identity. This thesis uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyse presidential speeches, through which a process is traced mapping the development of religious politics in Ukraine across the three presidencies. Using this method, the thesis argues that religion in Ukraine is intertwined with nationalism and that the influence of religion on politics and national identity is itself influenced by other factors, i.e. geopolitical developments. The use of religious rhetoric by the current president, Zelenskyy, demonstrates the continuing influence of religion in Ukrainian politics, from which avenues for further research can be proposed.