The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Oksana Nesterenko has been awarded the 2025-2026 Research Grant for Emerging Scholars.
The research grants of up to $6,000 support early-career scholars in any field of the Baltic studies. Proposals are evaluated according to the scholarly potential of the applicant and the quality and scholarly importance of the proposed work, especially to the development of Baltic Studies. Funds may be used for travel, duplication, materials, equipment, or other needs as specified.
The 2025 applications were evaluated by the AABS 2025-2026 Grants and Awards Committee consisting of AABS VP for Professional Development Dr. Kaarel Piirimäe, AABS President Dr. Jörg Hackmann, and AABS Director-at-Large Dr. Dovilė Budrytė. Learn about the other 2025-2026 recipients here.
Oksana Nesterenko is a music historian specializing in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music, religion, secularity, and postcolonial studies. She holds a PhD in Music History and Theory from Stony Brook University. Nesterenko’s current book project, A Forbidden Fruit? Sacred Music in the USSR before its Fall, explores sacred music in Armenia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Russia. She teaches at Union County College (NJ) and hosts the contemporary music podcast Extended Techniques.
Project Overview: A Forbidden Fruit?
The AABS Emerging Scholars grant will support onsite research in Tallinn for the fourth and fifth chapters of Nesterenko’s book, A Forbidden Fruit? Sacred Music in the USSR before its Fall (under contract with Indiana University Press). Titled “Tallinn: Masses of Resistance and Hope,” Chapter Four describes sacred music in the late 1980s in Estonia, focusing on works by Kuldar Sink, Raimo Kangro, and Urmas Sisask. Chapter Five, “After the Fall,” outlines sacred music trends in post-Soviet nations since the 1991 proclamation of independence.