The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Diāna Popova has been awarded the 2024-2025 Aina Birnitis Dissertation-Completion Fellowship in the Humanities for Latvia.
The Aina Birnitis Scholarship supports a year of research and writing to help advanced graduate students in the humanities in the last year of Ph.D. dissertation writing. The fellowship provides a $21,000 stipend for one year plus $1,000 for university fees.
The fellowship is supported by a bequest of Aina Birnitis, a librarian by profession living in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The 2024 applications were evaluated by the AABS 2023-2024 Grants and Awards Committee consisting of AABS VP for Professional Development Dr. Kaarel Piirimäe, AABS President Dr. Dovilė Budrytė, and AABS Director-at-Large Dr. Daunis Auers. Learn about the other 2024-2025 recipients here.
Diāna Popova is a PhD candidate at the Latvian Academy of Culture. She also holds Master’s degrees in Cultural and Social Anthropology and Baltic Sea Region Studies, and a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies, all from the University of Latvia. In addition to her PhD studies, Popova works as a research assistant at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia, where she has contributed to several local and international research projects.
Project Overview
Diāna Popova’s doctoral dissertation is titled “Dark Heritage in Latvia and its Interpretation to Young Audiences.” Her research aims to identify dark heritage museums and explore the challenges museum educators encounter when addressing difficult topics with young audiences. She draws from her experience at home, including at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, and abroad, including at the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (via an Erasmus+ traineeship) and in Denmark and Norway (via study abroad programs).