The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Joseph Ellis has been awarded a 2026-2027 Academic Events and Projects Grant to support the Baltic Studies Reading Room at Wingate University in North Carolina.
The AABS Grant for Academic Events and Projects of up to $5,000 is available for any academic event or scholarly project that promotes Baltic Studies.
The 2026 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 2026-2027 recipients here.
Joseph M. Ellis is Professor of Political Science, and Associate Dean in the Cannon College of Arts and Sciences at Wingate University in Wingate, NC (USA). A native of Tennessee, he received his BA in Political Science from Winthrop University and MA and PHD from Temple University, also in Political Science. Dr. Ellis researches the Baltic states, and is interested in questions of political transition and historical memory in the Baltics. He has published on such diverse topics as the Estonian “Singing Revolution,” Russian disinformation in the region, and the advent of flat tax in all three Baltic states. His most recent work is on Latvian refugee and religious evangelical Karlis Leyasmeyer. He is also the founding director of the Baltic Studies Reading Room at Wingate University, which houses the largest collection of Baltic books and publications in the American South.
Project Overview
The Baltic Studies Reading Room was established as a joint effort between the Ethel K. Smith Library and Dr. Joseph Ellis in 2022. Beginning with an initial donation of books from the Stanford Library, the collection has grown to close to 7,000 collected volumes, books, and journals covering the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It is the largest collection of Baltic materials in the American southeast. The Reading Room includes donated items from the estates of Latvian historian Dr. Andrejs Plakans, Latvian literature professor Dr. Rolfs Ekmanis, and Estonian poet Alexis Rannit, among others. Over twenty donors have made contributions to the collection.
With the support of Ms. Kory Paulus, the Baltic Studies Reading Room serves not only students and faculty interested in doing research on the Baltic states, but also as a training ground for students interested in library sciences. Their work includes cataloging, copy cataloging, book repair, weeding, and organizing the collection. In addition to student workers, the collection has also attracted other librarians and researchers specializing in Baltic Studies.
The development of the Reading Room has also been a catalyst to make Wingate University a home for Baltic research and interest. In Spring 2021, Wingate hosted the first Baltic Studies Teaching and Learning Workshop on Zoom, and followed-up that event with a workshop in Spring 2023 in-person. The workshop included scholars from across the United States, and included participants from Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. In Spring 2025, Wingate hosted the first in the Baltic Studies Speaker Series, which brought to campus Dr. Adam Lenton, a Russian and Eastern European specialist from Wake Forest University, to reflect on the state of Russia, the Ukraine War, and the future of Baltics in a world “post-Putin.” Pre-Covid, Wingate also developed a reputation as being one of the foremost institutions for study abroad to the Baltics, with travel seminars in 2012, 2015, and 2019 to the region. In 2027, our Music department is travelling to Latvia and Lithuania for choral performances in the region.
This grant will help to support the further development of the Baltic Studies Reading Room, funding to invite researchers and librarians to use the space, and an annual speaker’s series.