PhD scholarships 2011

Press release — 2 July 2011

Three CEURUS PhD scholarships awarded

CEURUS announces that two full CEURUS PhD scholarships have been awarded to the following candidates:

• Ryhor Nizhnikau, 1st year Ph.D.  student in Political Science
  (preliminary) Title of the Ph.D. project: “EU Foreign Policy and Democracy Promotion in the Eastern Neighborhood”

Ryhor Nizhnikau is originally from Belarus and just recently completed an MA degree in Politics and International Studies at the Dept. of Peace and Conflict Research, University of Uppsala, Sweden. He majored in Eurasian Studies with a focus on Russia and the EU neighborhood. With his keen interest in all matters concerning EU-Russia relations, democracy promotion and the Partnership countries he will be an asset to the researcher team at CEURUS.

• Maili Vilson, 1st year Ph.D. student in Political Science
  (preliminary) Title of the Ph.D. project: ” Theoretical Perspectives of the European Neighborhood Policy”

Maili Vilson is from Estonia and graduated in the MA program EU-Russia Studies at the UT EuroCollege this summer. Already in her master thesis she discussed EU neighborhood policy and became so engaged with the topic that she decided to further explore it by pursuing a PhD. With her interests both in practical neighborhood policy as well as in related theoretical considerations, she will fit well in CEURUS’ research framework.

One CEURUS supplementary scholarship was awarded to an already enrolled political science PhD student:

• Raul Toomla , 3rd year Ph.D. student in Political Science
  Title of the Ph.D. project: “De facto States in the International System: From Boycott to Recognition”