Reconfiguring Nation and Diaspora: Self-Identifying Estonians in Estonia as a Diaspora

Abstract

I will present the main reasons why this research is important. First, it helps to contest the marriage between nation and state; second, it offers new ways for understanding borderland and diaspora space; third, it offers an overview of how nonnational spaces inside the institutional borders of states are being created; fourth, it helps to bring together literature about diaspora and borderlands; and lastly it offers insights on people's identities who inhabit these spaces. My project investigates how groups grapple with and/or makes sense of their identities; how dialogues between dominant understandings and resistance identity take place, how diasporic identity and nationalism can be seen in new ways.