Team


Judith Pallot, FAcSS
PI and Research Director

Professor (emerita), University of Oxford and Christ Church; President of BASEES

I am the leader and PI of this new project. My duties include a range of administrative and organisational task that come with managing a large project, plus the intellectual leadership of the project, and coordination of the research of the projects’ participants.

I am also the PI of the ERC-funded project Gulag Echoes in the “multicultural prison”: historical and geographical influences on the identity and politics of ethnic minority prisoners in the communist successor states of Russia and Europe. Although distinct, there should be exciting synergies between these two projects.

Olga Kantokoski, PhD
Post-doctoral researcher

I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Helsinki. I hold BA and MA degrees in European studies. In May 2020, I graduated with a PhD degree in world politics from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki. My PhD dissertation dealt with the politics of the European Union’s police cooperation in the Western Balkans.

I am part of Professor Pallot’s research team not only due to my long-standing interest in the still under-explored Southeastern part of the EU’s periphery, but primarily because of my passion for complex historical projects. Through this project, I intend to contribute to a better understanding of the complex socio-political fabric of the Balkans, and hopefully help to construct ways for the EU to deal with this region.

Mykhailo Romanov, PhD
Visiting Researcher

In September 2022, the Academy of Finland made funding available to attach Ukrainian scholars to ongoing research projects in Finland. Under this programme we have been able to invite Mykhailo Romanov to be attached to GULAGECHOES and the Yugoslavian Penal Politics projects in the Aleksanteri Institute. Under current Ukrainian regulations, Mykhailo will be able to join us in person for only one month and otherwise will be contributing to both projects remotely.

Brendan Humphreys, PhD
Senior researcher

I am a political historian with extensive experience of Balkan studies. I defended my doctoral thesis in 2013; its topic was partly on the politics of history and memory in the Balkans.

I have taught Balkan history and culture for over a decade; worked in the national archive in Serbia, and been a visiting lecturer in the University of Sarajevo.

My research has paid particular attention to issues of nationalism, to social breakdown and conflict; I have also lectured and published on issues of corruption and biographical studies.