Bruno Mölder continues as Head of the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics; Kadri Simm to start as Head of the Department of Philosophy

On 20 January, the council of the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics unanimously elected Professor Bruno Mölder as head of the institute. His third term of office will run from 1 February 2025 to 31 January 2028. The council also elected Professor of Practical Ethics Kadri Simm as the new head of the Department of Philosophy. Her term of office starts on 1 February 2025 and ends on 31 January 2028.

At the election meeting, Bruno Mölder gave an overview of the institute’s situation in recent years and the implementation of the key performance indicators of the university’s strategic plan. The institute's budget is in a relatively good state and employees’ satisfaction with the working environment is generally high. However, a more equitable distribution of workload between staff members and their awareness of the university’s and the institute’s objectives needs attention. Other issues that need addressing are increasing the number of entrants and the number of doctoral students completing their studies on time, and reducing the drop-out rate. Mölder said he can be satisfied with research activities: the institute’s staff members publish a large number of scientific articles, and their work has a high citation rate.

Mölder admitted that, compared to the situation three years ago, the institute now takes the labour market needs more into account when teaching the students. A good example is the reform of the international master’s programme in Philosophy, which brings a more practical and applied approach to the studies. However, fundamental research should not be neglected, as posing fundamental questions is inherent to philosophy and semiotics.

Mölder also talked about the institute’s objectives. The targets should be set guided by the institute’s mission of teaching and doing research. The institute must work to ensure that it has the necessary resources to do excellent research, a sufficient number of entrants and graduates, effective teaching, and motivated students and staff. If these conditions are met, it will also help ensure a good reputation for the specialisations both in Estonia and abroad. On the other hand, the institute’s objectives are based on the university’s and the faculty’s strategic plans that contain more specific objectives but do not conflict with the institute’s activities and goals.

Mölder handed over the reins in the Department of Philosophy to Kadri Simm, who promised during her term of office to pay attention to the co-ordinated application of research projects, internal communication within the department and creating cooperation opportunities between semioticians and philosophers.

Bruno Mölder has been the Professor of Philosophy of Mind and the Head of the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics since 2019. He has studied the interpretivist approach to mind and philosophical aspects of temporal experience. Mölder has also held the position of the head of the Department of Philosophy (2016–2025) and the vice dean for research of the Faculty of Philosophy (2013–2015).

Kadri Simm is the Professor of Practical Ethics, Head of the Chair of Practical Philosophy, and the research integrity counsellor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Her research is related to practical ethics – in particular, research ethics, bioethics and medical ethics –, the methods of teaching ethics and the ontology of ethical judgments.