This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the refugee-specific challenges and difficulties experienced by professionals who work with refugees. The course explores how lived experience of war, displacement, and uncertainty shape future adaptation processes in host countries. Particular attention is given to the developmental vulnerabilities of young refugees and the ways in which early exposure to trauma may influence emotional, cognitive, and social development.

Students will learn how trauma exposure may manifest in different population groups, and how to apply trauma-informed approaches to working with refugees. Participants will explore risk factors assessment during support interventions and develop strategies for creating safer and more sensitive professional environments. Ethical considerations are discussed throughout the course, with particular emphasis on the “Do No Harm” principle.

In addition, the course addresses the impact of refugee work on professionals themselves. Participants will gain awareness of tools that prevent burnout through guided reflection and discussion. The course encourages the development of self-reflective practices that support professional resilience and ethical decision-making.

Prepare to be insulted and offended as you are introduced to the world of vulgar and obscene in this non-dictionary English course.

Students will be introduced to the full range of swearwords, exclamations, insults and everything vulgar and obscene in English, including regional variations from US English, Australia/New Zealand, and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Students will be introduced to which words and phrases are likely to cause deep offense and which can be used safely, famous historical and literary insults, and further sources of offensive and vulgar language.

In addition, the lowest depths of the English language can be a productive playground for creativity, with offensive and vulgar words being particularly flexible in their use.

Violence emerges from complex interactions between individuals, groups, and broader social systems. This two-week seminar examines violence through psychological, social, and structural lenses.

Students will explore individual risk factors such as personality traits, trauma histories, and impulsivity, while also analyzing how group processes—including deindividuation, moral disengagement, and radicalization—can escalate aggression into collective violence. The course further examines how community conditions, systemic inequities, and cultural narratives shape both the expression and prevention of violence.

A focused unit addresses psychopathy and sociopathy, drawing on empirical research and diagnostic frameworks to critically evaluate common myths and media portrayals. Throughout the course, students will apply theory to real-world case studies of notorious offenders, practicing careful ethical reasoning and trauma-informed analysis. Emphasis is placed not only on understanding violence but also on identifying evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies at multiple levels. By integrating research, discussion, and applied analysis, the course equips students with a nuanced, multi-level understanding of violent behavior and prepares them to think critically about policy, practice, and prevention.

This intensive three-week course focuses on strengthening and developing speaking skills. Through structured discussions, listening activities, guided presentations and interactive tasks, students further develop their ability to express and justify opinions, participate in debates, and respond spontaneously in various communication situations. Particular attention is paid to expanding vocabulary, improving pronunciation and increasing grammatical control in spoken language.

The course emphasises real-life communication scenarios relevant to academic, professional and everyday contexts in Estonia. Students practise both monologic and dialogic speech, receive regular individual feedback, and develop strategies for maintaining natural conversational flow. Small groups (max. 10 participants) ensure active participation, personalised guidance and measurable progress within a short period of time.

The application deadline for the course is 06 March 2026.

Designed primarily for doctoral researchers and early career researchers, this Summer School course provides a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment where participants can present their ongoing research projects, receive constructive peer and expert feedback, and engage in meaningful interdisciplinary dialogue. The programme aims to strengthen research and analytical skills while fostering international academic collaboration across disciplines and countries.

Over the course of five days, participants will explore contemporary European perspectives on STEAM and Home Economics education, drawing on recent findings from the SHAREE project. A distinctive feature of the Summer School is its hands-on engagement with the Science Kitchen activity, offering an innovative space to examine how theoretical approaches and practical applications can be meaningfully integrated. Through workshops, seminars and round-table discussions, participants will critically reflect on current trends, challenges and future opportunities in education for the 21st century.

A central component of the programme is the academic writing workshop, where participants will work on a draft article, an extended abstract or a research concept. Guided by experienced scholars, the workshop focuses on structure, argumentation, publishing strategies, or peer review, supporting participants in developing research outputs suitable for academic publication.

In today’s dynamic marketplace, brands serve as powerful connectors between businesses and consumers across cultures. Global Brand Strategy: Building Meaning in a Connected Marketplace invites participants to explore how brands create, communicate, and sustain value in a global context while navigating cultural differences and emerging technologies.

Built around classic marketing and management theories, the course emphasizes the integration of strategic analysis, brand positioning, and execution. Participants will examine how global brands build value for consumers and the organization. They will also explore how culture shapes consumer perceptions and brand behavior, gaining insights into managing brands effectively across diverse markets.

A key feature of the course is its focus on generative AI as a tool for enhancing creativity and decision-making in brand strategy. Participants will use AI to analyze market opportunities, craft positioning statements, and develop storytelling strategies that resonate globally.

Through lectures, guest speakers, and company visits, participants will experience how branding comes to life in the European and Estonian marketplace. They will apply what they learn in interactive exercises and a capstone project that challenges them to design an integrated global brand strategy.

Global Brand Strategy: Building Meaning in a Connected Marketplace encourages participants to think strategically, act ethically, and communicate creatively. By the end of the course, they will understand how to develop and manage brand strategies that are culturally sensitive, technologically informed, and globally relevant.

The security environment of the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—has rapidly evolved in recent years and has become one of the most important regions in European and broader transatlantic security policy. The course Baltic Security offers a comprehensive overview of these developments, providing students with both a structured theoretical framework and a practical understanding of the region’s strategic challenges.

The course focuses on key issues in the defense and security policies of the Baltic states, including military strategy, the role of national and allied force structures, regional defense planning, and NATO’s presence and deterrence posture. It also examines the diplomatic processes of the European Union and Europe more broadly that shape the region’s security architecture and forms of cooperation.

Special attention is given to Russia’s influence and contemporary hybrid threats, which include information warfare, influence operations, cyberattacks, and strategies for societal resilience. The course also analyzes the importance of energy security, discussing how vulnerabilities in supply chains and geopolitical energy relationships affect the independence and crisis resilience of the Baltic states.

Teaching relies on a diverse set of methods: case studies, simulations, scenario analysis, and discussions based on expert assessments and real policy documents. The aim of the course is to develop students’ ability to interpret the Baltic region’s security situation, assess threats, and offer well-informed and strategically grounded policy recommendations.

A workshop in Conversational Russian is designed to help individuals learn and practice the Russian language in everyday, real-life communication scenarios. This workshop focuses on improving your spoken language skills, comprehension, and confidence in using Russian in various conversational contexts.

The primary goal of the workshop is to enhance your ability to communicate effectively in Russian. This includes speaking, listening, and understanding spoken Russian. You’ll learn to engage in conversations on everyday topics. The conversational Russian workshop involves interactive activities, role-playing, and group discussions to provide practical experience and boost your confidence in speaking Russian.

You will get new skills and knowledge:

• Improving oral communication: the conversation club is designed to help participants develop oral communication skills in Russian, increasing their confidence in communication.
• Vocabulary expansion: each topic provides participants with the opportunity to learn new words and expressions related to Russian culture and society.

Possible topics to be covered during the course:

• How do you look like?
• Why is it useful to speak foreign languages?
• My best trip
• Music in our life
• Bon appetit!
• Back to school
• What books do you prefer?
• Films and TV series
• Our pets
• Our professions

Sustainability is one of the defining challenges of our era, linking environmental change with social and economic transformations. Yet the concept is not uniform: it has been developed through different schools of thought and is often contested. This course provides a concise, cross-disciplinary introduction to sustainability and environmental management. It is designed for students from diverse fields who wish to grasp the foundations of sustainability and resilience concepts, while also engaging with critical perspectives on how these ideas are applied in practice.

The course examines the environmental dimension of sustainability, including the drivers and necessity of sustainable action framed by e.g the planetary boundaries concept. Topics such as the importance of biodiversity, and the societal impacts of climate change and ecological degradation are linked to the development of solutions – methods, strategies, goals, and agreements.

The social and economic dimensions are addressed through the lens of socio-ecological systems and resilience. Students will apply systemic thinking to analyze interdependencies between environment, society, and economy, and to evaluate potential pathways for strengthening sustainability and enhancing resilience. Attention is given to the implications for human well-being, including mental health, and to strategies of mitigation and adaptation.

Finally, the course explores environmental management as a set of tools and frameworks to address the sustainability challenge. Students will consider the principles of the EU environmental policy, sustainable development frameworks, and the role of environmental management at multiple scales. Case examples illustrate environmental management tools and measures, which are discussed not only in terms of their intended outcomes but also from a critical standpoint.

By the end of the course, students will understand the complexity and contested nature of sustainability, recognize different schools of thought, and apply both systemic and critical thinking. They will also be able to connect sustainability principles with environmental management practices across scales and sectors, and apply this knowledge to their own fields.

This two-week course provides an accessible introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Large Language Models (LLMs). Beginning with the foundations of human language—how sounds, words, and grammar create meaning—the course gradually shifts toward the computational methods that power modern AI systems, including chatbots, machine translation, and voice assistants.
Students will explore key concepts such as linguistic structure, corpus analysis, statistical modelling, neural networks, and Transformer architectures. Through hands-on labs, they will work with industry-standard tools like NLTK, spaCy, Hugging Face Transformers, LLM platforms gaining practical experience in processing, analysing, and modelling language data.

During the final sessions, participants will work in teams to design and build a small prototype application, applying the concepts and tools learned throughout the course.

By the end of the programme, students will understand both the theoretical foundations and the real-world relevance of modern NLP and LLMs.