In collaboration with the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and various partners at Stanford University, Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom has announced the 2026 Short-Term Research Fellowships for Estonian scholars. Two of the Stanford University Fellowships for Estonian Security and Foreign Policy Experts were awarded to researchers from the University of Tartu, semioticians Mari-Liis Madisson and Andreas Ventsel.
Mari-Liis Madisson, Research Fellow plans to use her time at Stanford to study how propaganda originating from the Kremlin is portrayed in the Estonian media as a security threat, drawing on the semiotics of fear and the securitization theory of the Copenhagen School. Disinformation and propaganda are often considered dangerous, yet difficult to grasp, as their effectiveness is linked to deliberate deception and manipulation. Madisson will analyse which domains are portrayed as threatened by disinformation and what rhetorical strategies and memory associations are used when discussing vulnerabilities related to propaganda.
Professor of Political and Sociosemiotics Andreas Ventsel intends to refine his new research focus— the semiotics of deterrence—during his time at Stanford. Effective deterrence largely depends on credibility, meaning the emotional belief it evokes in its target audience. His goal is to explore how deterrence strategies and security narratives are shaped by cultural perceptions of threat—what is often referred to as strategic culture. More specifically, he will focus on Russian and Chinese influence operations in NATO countries, particularly in the Baltic region. Semiotic analysis enables a context-sensitive understanding of how states discursively construct their own deterrence and undermine the credibility of their adversaries’ deterrent efforts.
At the end of 2023, Andreas Ventsel, Mari-Liis Madisson, and Mihhail Lotman co-authored the first major Estonian-language monograph on conspiracy theories, Hidden Signs and Secret Societies: The Meaning-Making of Conspiracy Theories. In recognition of their scholarly contributions, Ventsel and Madisson were also awarded the Estonian National Research Award in 2024.
Further info about the Stanford University fellowships and our researchers' plans in Stanford with their academic background can be found on the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom website.