A Live Talk Between a Doctoral Candidate and His Opponent
On the 25th of November, Daniel Alexandrov was acting as an opponent at the defense of a doctoral thesis at the University of Tartu.
On the 25th of November, Daniel Alexandrov was acting as an opponent at the defense of a doctoral thesis at the University of Tartu. In many European countries, it is common to invite colleagues from other countries as opponents for the defense of a doctoral thesis, and such invitations are a form of recognition of their merit. These individual signs of reputation contribute to the international acceptance of universities, which, in the end, is reflected in the international ratings, such as QS or THE. An invitation extended to Daniel Alexandrov shows that his work in the field of education research is recognized and appreciated not just in our own country, but in other countries as well. This also contributes to an increasing international reputation of the Higher School of Economics.
The doctoral thesis of the Tartu researcher Maie Soll titled “The ethnic identity of Russian-speaking students in Estonia in the context of educational change” deals with an important and politically relevant problem. Socialization of teenagers takes place mostly at school, and therefore, the main formation of their ethnic identity also happens at school, not just in their families. About a third of the Estonia population is presented by several generations of migrants from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, who came to Estonia after the World War II. At our request, Prof. Alexandrov told us about the invitation, the defense of the doctoral thesis, and his discussions with the colleagues from Tartu. “First of all, I should say that since the Soviet era, a number of well-known sociologists has been working in Estonia, and the University of Tartu has been an excellent university since the beginning. The University of Tartu is famous for its school of semiotics, which was founded by Yuri Lotman and his colleagues, and for its pleiad of outstanding psychologists, sociologists, and linguists working here. I've been in touch with Estonian researchers for a while. In 2007-2010, the Tartu researchers in the field of science studies and I were studying the international orientation of the scientists in the former Soviet Union, and this last year I’ve been preparing a joint paper with researchers from Tallinn. 
Earlier this August I received a letter from a fellow sociologist Anu Masso, which read, “We have met two years ago at the ESA conference in Torino. Discussions with you about your research in the field of social networks at schools and about minority education in Estonia were very inspiring for me. Hereby I invite you to become an opponent for a PhD-thesis …” But that was just a beginning. After that, I had to send my CV to the University of Tartu, where the Council of the Department of Social Sciences considered my CV and my published papers, and only after that they informed me that I was approved as an opponent, and sent me their official invitation. I should confess that this invitation was very flattering. In the current climate, the signs of recognition from the Estonian colleagues are particularly pleasant. The doctoral thesis, which I was invited to oppose, contained very important and interesting results. I will describe just one of them.
Following the ideas of M. Verkuyten, a social psychologist from Utrecht, the author differentiated between various components of ethnic identity and investigated which of the students’ attitudes are connected to various kinds of identity. For example, students with an uncertain self-identity would describe both Russians and Estonians with a certain level of hostility; at the same time, they are indifferent to the changes in the educational system. It appears that this low level of identity is connected to their intention to leave Estonia and work in other European countries. However, students with a strong Russian self-identity describe Russians and Estonians in very positive terms; they either actively accept the educational policy, or criticize it. It’s interesting to note that a strong self-identity is connected to positive inter-ethnic attitudes.
The defense of the doctoral thesis was taking place in the main building of the University, in a hall with portraits of historical figures on the walls. The defense was following a specific order. I received the instructions about it in advance, and yet I felt that I wasn’t entirely prepared to it. According to the protocol, at first I had to read the general part of my review while standing up, and later ask more specific questions while sitting down. This was very different from the familiar procedure of doctoral defenses here, and instead of reading a prepared speech from notes, I lost the track of my prepared notes, started speaking up, and, as a result, it turned into a lively exchange between the doctoral candidate and the opponent. Actually, this was the idea behind the two parts of my role: reading from notes while standing up, and asking questions and giving comments while sitting down. After that, the dissertation committee of seven people, including me, retired to the next room with large portraits of principals (I remembered one of them from my childhood: Theodore Clement was a friend of my father), and in this solemn atmosphere it didn’t take long to come to a decision to award the degree.
The decision wasn’t hard. The thesis was cumulative, based on five already published research papers (three of them were published in reputable peer-reviewed journals), with a very detailed, very clear introduction, which explained the general problem statement and the findings. The thesis itself is published as a book, and its PDF is available from the university web site. This is an excellent way to defend a doctoral thesis.
After the defense, we had a reception at a famous university cafe Ulikooli Kohvik, and later in the evening I and several members of the dissertation committee had a dinner in a restaurant. We discussed possibilities for our joint research and difficulties in attracting students into sociology. In Estonia, as everywhere lately, the traditional sociology becomes less and less popular, and for this reason my colleagues were interested to discuss our re-organization of a “pure sociology” program into "sociology and social science”. They were especially interested in this change, because they study the sociology of the media, and, in particular, the practices of Internet usage. I am confident that our cooperation with our Estonian colleagues will continue in the future."
By Daria Khodorenko