BALTIC WORLDS. September 2024. Vol. XVII:3. Challenging times for academia.

BALTIC  WORLDS. September 2024. Vol. XVII:3. Challenging times for academia. Also in this issue Theme: Nationhood, gender, and classical music education; Moral dilemmas for Russian researchers in Russia; Reflections on online teaching for exile students; Sex education and propaganda in Lithuania. OPEN ACCESS: https://balticworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Baltic_Worlds_2024_vol.17_no.3_pages_1_152.pdf

(Editorial) Ninna Mörner: Academic dilemmas 

There are many considerations to take into account as an editor, especially when publishing in times of war, conflicts, and renewed attacks on democracy — and an overall tendency towards growing polarization. As an editor for Baltic Worlds, since it was launched 2009, I can verify that the considerations and the level on what is at stake are getting more severe. 

ONE OBVIOUS SIGN is the need for contributors to be anonymous to be able to publish without repercussions for themselves or their families and friends. To enable people to give their stories and opinions, and share research findings, we need to protect their identity and safety. Yet we also need quality checks and to avoid compromising too much on the academic processes. 

ANOTHER DELICATE ISSUE is of course publishing in relation to Russian and Belarusian researchers. We will not publish research that generates credit for researchers affiliated with universities that have signed the letter of support for Putin and his war. At the same time, we still see the need to support researchers and students in Russia, Belarus, and in exile under repression, at least to support their anti-war activities that could be undermining the regimes’ violent grips. One might also ask whether it is also crucial to keep up the dialogue, and carefully nourish relations with the democratic and peaceful forces because they might, one day, play an active role in shaping the future of post-Putin Russia and a new Europe? The dilemmas certainly have many layers … Ekaterina Kalinina has collected the voices of five (anonymous) Russian researchers that give different insights into the choices they make while staying and working in Russia under censorship and repressive legislation, and how they reflect on their role and decisions in relation to the moral dilemmas. This we publish.

Baltic Worlds is arranging a roundtable discussion with academic area studies journals in November (see page 150). Several representatives of scholarly journals related to the area are invited to discuss topical issues like the impact of the war in Ukraine on publishing matters. 

LATER IN THIS issue Yulia Gradskova shares her reflections on teaching an online course on gender and Soviet history for students from and in authoritarian Russia. Akvilė Giniotaitė, in a peer-reviewed article, links Russian propaganda with right-wing antigenderist rhetoric and describes how sex education in the case of Lithuania is utilized as tool in the anti-genderist propaganda spreading, above all in Eastern Europe. Many articles in this issue bring up different aspects of teaching, education, and academic work, some, as mentioned, in the context of the war. The theme section however focuses on classical music education, and particularly looks into this in relation to nationhood and the gendered heritage of classical music. Guest editor Ann Werner presents the theme section in her introduction. 

THIS VOLUMINOUS issue starts with an interview with Valentina Izmirlieva by Irina Sandomirskaja. Izmirlieva, among other things, discusses the significant transformations within the Orthodox sphere that facilitate the radical militarization of Russian society.