The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies will host a webinar on applying for its five cornerstone grant and fellowship opportunities on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, from 12:00-1:00 pm EST.
The grant opportunities are open to a wide variety of proposals and applicants in the field of Baltic Studies. To highlight one possibility, 2023 Research Grant for Emerging Scholars grantee Harry Merritt will discuss his experience and the impact of AABS funding on his career.
AABS Student Representative Aimee Herring (University of South Carolina) and AABS Assistant Director of Outreach and Engagement Ben Gardner-Gill will discuss application requirements and timelines for both grants. There will be ample time for Q&A with attendees.
All interested parties are invited; prospective grant applicants are encouraged to attend. Registration is required.
Panelists:
Harry Merritt
Rhode Island College
Harry C. Merritt is Assistant Professor of History at Rhode Island College. Merritt is a historian of modern Europe working on the social history of war and its consequences. He earned a Ph.D. in History from Brown University in 2020. From 2023 to 2025, Merritt was a Postdoctoral Fellow in History and Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. In 2023, Merritt was awarded a Research Grant for Emerging Scholars from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. He has been an Editorial Assistant with the Journal of Baltic Studies since 2023.
Aimee Herring
University of South Carolina
Aimee Herring is a Ph.D. student at the University of South Carolina, where she has recently transferred from Educational Foundations and Inquiry to (Linguistic) Anthropology. Her research interests concern migration, language, identity and belonging, with a focus on the Baltic region. Her anticipated dissertation research will center on the Lithuanian response to increased migration flows, including how migrant identities are constructed through linguistic practice, as well as how borders and identity are understood and constructed through discourse, social imaginaries, and material practices. Aimee’s relationship with the Baltic region goes back to the mid-1990’s, when she worked first as a Peace Corps volunteer/TEFL teacher in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and later, as a TEFL instructor, teacher trainer, and program lead for youth instruction at Soros International House in Vilnius, Lithuania. Aimee married into a Lithuanian family, and maintains ties with friends, family, and former students and colleagues there
Ben Gardner-Gill
AABS
Ben Gardner-Gill serves as AABS Assistant Director of Outreach and Engagement. In this role, he oversees AABS’ donor relations and fundraising efforts, maintains AABS’ presence on social media, advertises AABS’ grants and awards, assists the AABS Administrative Executive Director in maintaining and updating AABS’ website and publishing annual print newsletters and quarterly e-newsletters, and develops and proposes new strategies and initiatives for fostering outreach and community engagement.