News

Friday the 6th of April at 11.15h, Jakobi 2, room 336. We kindly invite you to the panel (Mis)uses of Memory that will take place on Friday the 6th of April at 11.15h, Jakobi 2, room 336. We will have the opportunity to listen to three presentations followed by a Q&A and a discussion. Details about the presenters can be found below.

One of the main daily newspapers in Estonia, Postimees, has elected our department's very own Mihhail Lotman as Estonia's Opinion Leader 2018, an award for "a major role in Estonia's journalism and society". Here, an interview in Postimees, in English: An interview in Postimees by Anneli Ammas. "Taking offence is not only Estonia’s problem" https://news.postimees.ee/4448549/taking-offence-is-not-only-estonia-s-problem

From March 19th to 22nd Department of Philosophy is hosting a workshop with Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen based on his award-winning book Postnarrativist Philosophy of Historiography. The workshop includes four public lectures. All the lectures take place at 16:15 in Jakobi 2-336, the titles and abstracts are below. See here for additiona information on the workshop.

March 19, 18.00 at Genialistide Klubi Seminars will take place in English. Our first presenters will be Andres Kurismaa and Israel Chavez. Find the event on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/791210914404013/.

Thursday, March 8th at 16:15 research professor Bryan Frances will give a talk at the Department of Philosophy colloquium titled "Expertise and Fundamental Controversy in Philosophy and Science". The talk is an introduction of his Mobilitas Pluss Top researcher grant (MOBTT45) and takes place at Jakobi 2-336.

Next week Sara Lenninger, PhD, from Kristianstad University, Sweden, will be visiting the Department of Semiotics and giving guest lectures on topics combining visual semiotics and semiotics of education. Having obtained her MA in art, art history and art philosophy and having defended her PhD in semiotics, Sara Lenninger research is focused around questions how children’s understanding of pictures develops and how children learn to use signs. As a lecturer, she has taught courses in semiotics, art history and visual rhetoric.

Participation 1 ECTS. SIS code is FLSE.00.305. Jakobi 2-306

On Thursday February 22nd Klaus Ruthenberg will give a talk at the Department of Philosophy Colloquium titled "No analysis without synthesis". The talk will be in Jakobi 2, 336 at 16.15.

In February, Bryan Frances joined the Department of Philosophy as a research professor. Being a recipient of the Mobilitas Pluss Top researcher grant, he will lead the project "Expertise and Fundamental Controversy in Philosophy and Science" (MOBTT45) for three years.

Timo Maran is senior researcher at the department of semiotics. Among his many other endeavours, Timo, a well-known and flourishing semiotician, is the author of "Mimicry and Meaning: Structure and Semiotics of Biological Mimicry" (2017, Springer), co-editor of "Readings in Zoosemiotics" (2011, de Gruyter), and the journal "Biosemiotics". Kalevi Kull will continue as the professor of biosemiotics.

Starting from January 1st the German Department of Tartu University runs its own doctoral school (Vladimir-Admoni-doctoral school) in cooperation with the Institute of German Philology at Georg-August-University of Göttingen supported by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).

Prof. Paul Hoyningne-Huene, who has been invited to present his work at the 2018 Winter School for University of Tartu doctoral students, will deliver two public lectures in Tartu. The first of these will be part of the winter school itself. It takes place on the 6th February at 10am, Jakobi 2 in the lecturehall 226. The subject of this talk will be "The Human Sciences between Quantification and Hermeneutics". For further information see the Winter School website.

On January 10, 2018 at 12.15, Jakobi 2-336, Silvi Salupere will defend her thesis proposed for doctoral degree, titled "О метаязыке Юрия Лотмана: проблемы, контекст, источники" („Juri Lotmani metakeelest: probleemid, kontekst, allikad“ (On Juri Lotman's Metalanguage: Problems, Context, and Sources)) Supervisor: Irina Avramets (PhD)

With great sorrow, the University of Tartu announces the unexpected death of Rector Volli Kalm on Saturday, December 23. Volli Kalm was born on February 10, 1953 in Vändra. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1976 with a degree in geology. In 1984, Kalm earned his PhD in geology from the Estonian Academy of Sciences after successfully defending his doctoral thesis "Formation, composition and usage of glaciofluvial deposits in Estonia." From 1988-1989, he attended postdoctoral studies in the geology department of the University of Alberta.

At the extraordinary senate session on 27 December, the senate of the University of Tartu unanimously appointed professor Tõnu Lehtsaar as the acting rector. In his speech to the senate, Lehtsaar said that his primary goal as the university’s acting rector is to maintain stability and find a new rector. “We will keep the university going. I asked members of the Rector’s Office at the meeting this morning if they were willing to continue in their office. I didn’t expect them to answer right away, but they confirmed that we will go forward together,” he said.

Professor Volli Kalm, Rector of the University of Tartu (10 February 1953 – 23 December 2017)

The Juri Lotman Fund announces its scholarship contest intended for graduate students from the University of Tartu whose research carries on the tradition of Lotman and his school in semiotics and slavic philology. In 2018, the Juri Lotman Fund will award two scholarships á 600€ to a master’s or a doctoral student in slavic philology and in semiotics and culture theory. The grantees will be disclosed on Juri Lotman’s birthday, 28 February 2018. To apply for the scholarship the candidate should submit:

Friday, December 1 2017 marks the 98th birthday of the Estonia’s national university in Tartu. To celebrate the event, several events take place during the week-long celebrations – honorary doctorates and doctorates are conferred, the University’s honorary member named and the laurate of The University of Tartu Award for Contribution to Estonian National Identity named.

Her supervisors professors Kalevi Kull, Ulrike Plath and Peeter Torop have also been credited! Congratulations! The thesis is available on DSpace - http://hdl.handle.net/10062/56524

The party will commence at 18.00 with coffee, cake, speeches and conversations at Jakobi 2-336 and will continue at 19.00 at Elektriteater (Jakobi 1) with the film "Lotman's World". Film is free of charge! https://elektriteater.ee/…/semiootikud-esitlevad-lotmani-ma…