Multiscalar Ethnic Intermediation in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

Baltic and Eastern European countries offer several important case studies to broaden scholars' understandings of governments in transition.

In particular, post-communist Baltic and Eastern European countries provide rich examples of how diverse states with varied historical, geopolitical, and demographic realities operationalize their rhetoric in adapting to the norms of Europeanization.

In unpacking post-communist transition, my research focuses on ethnic communities in Baltic and Eastern European countries.

While the scholarship typically characterizes adaptation to Europeanization norms in binary terms (compliance or non-compliance), ethnographic research on ethnic minorities in Baltic and Eastern European countries reflects a complex process more accurately resembling a spectrum.

To date, I have undertaken fieldwork in Bulgaria and Romania (and, from March until June, I will be conducting fieldwork in Latvia). Future research will include at least the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Poland.

Employing multiscalar and multi-sited ethnographic methodologies, my research builds on the theoretical framework of ethnic intermediation to unpack the diverse ways in which post-communist Baltic and Eastern European countries interact with minority ethnic groups in their distinct transitions, and how these interactions restructure various states in processes related to Europeanization.