Curriculum Vitae
(updated 18.05.2026)

Born: 12 July 1983
Place of birth: Tallinn, Estonia
Nationality: Estonian
E-mail address: martin.molder@ut.ee
ORCID: 0000-0002-9701-1771

Position:
Associate Professor of Political Science, Programme Director for Politics and Governance in the Digital Age, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia.

Research and areas of interest:
Party politics, party systems, elections, social science methodology, quantitative methods, R.

Work and positions:
2024 – … Associate Professor of Political Science, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu
2019 – 2024 Research Fellow in Comparative Politics, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu
2017 – 2019 Research Fellow, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu

Education:
2012 – 2017 Central European University, PhD (summa cum laude), comparative politics (minor in social science methodology)
2006 – 2008 MA, University of Tartu, (cum laude), comparative politics
2002 – 2006 BA, University of Tartu, government and politics
2002 Tallinn English College, secondary education

Funding and grants:
2026 – 2030 “Maintaining democratic resilience and social cohesion in an era of affective polarization” (PSG1155), Estonian Research Council. PI: Andres Reiljan. (€117,000)
2025 – 2026 “Analysis of the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund’s unemployment prevention services ‘Work and learn’” (hange 288865), Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. PI: Merle Mägi. (€97,155)
2022 – 2026 “INcrease Corporate political responsibility and Accountability” (INCA, 101061653), European Commission. PI: Piret Ehin. (€353,766)
2021 – 2025 “National identity and Estonian-Russian relations: a longitudinal study of elite and mass discourses” (PRG1052), Estonian Research Council. PI: Alar Kilp. (€869,100)
2021 – 2023 “ParlaMint: Towards Comparable Parliamentary Corpora” (MSVJS21668), CLARIN ERIC. PI: Martin Mölder. (€5,000)
2020 – 2024 “When every act is war: Post-Crimea conflict dynamics and Russian foreign policy” (WARU, MSVJS20239), Research Council of Norway. PI: Kristiina Tõnnisson. (€64,391)
2020 – 2023 “Developments and contradictions on the Estonian political landscape 2011–2023 through the analysis of big textual data” (POST36), Young-Estonia grant from Postimees Group. PI: Martin Mölder. (€207,722)
2019 – 2020 “Developing Data Competence as a Universal Future Competence in the Curricula of the UT Institute of Social Science and Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies” (DSVUH19187), Information Technology Foundation for Education. PI: Kairi Kasearu. (€70,738)
2017 – 2019 “Perceptual Spaces of Party Politics: An Inductive Study of European Party Systems” (Mobilitas Pluss, MOBJD256), Estonian Research Council. PI: Martin Mölder. (€66,424)
2015 Kristjan Jaak Formal Studies Grant, academic year 2015/2016, Archimedes Foundation, Estonia.
2015 Estonian Students Fund in USA, stipend.
2015 International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), grant for organizing a class on political psychology at the CEU Summer University 2015.
2014 – 2019 “Political Community in Flux: Identity, Sovereignty and Democracy in a Transforming World” (IUT20-39), Estonian Research Council. PI: Eiki Berg. (€689,217)
2009 – 2010 “Constructing a demos in de facto states. Legitimacy and regime support in Abkhazia, Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh” (SSORG09053E), Estonian Science Foundation. PI: Eiki Berg. (€34,512)

Administrative and managerial work:
2026 – … Deputy Head for Academic Affairs, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu
2020 – … Member of the council of the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu
2013 – 2015 student president (until autumn 2014) and student vice-president (from autumn 2014), Political Behaviour Research Group (PolBeRG), Central European University
2011 – 2015 managing editor, EU-Russia Papers, Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS), University of Tartu

Teaching (University of Tartu):
Parties and Elections (2025/2026, 2026/2027)
Quantitative Methods (2017/2018 – 2026/2027)
Quantitative Methods II (2022/2023 – 2024/2025, 2026/2027)
Basics of Statistical Analysis (2021/2022 – 2026/2027)
Research Design and Methods for Area Studies (2025/2026)
Elections and Political Behaviour (2017/2018 – 2024/2025)
Updating my Digital Skills (2023/2024, 2024/2025)
Democracy and Democratic Institutions (2010/2011, 2017/2018)
Political System (2017/2018)
Parties and Party Systems (2008/2009 – 2013/2014)
Political Culture (2009/2010)

Supervision (PhD dissertations):
2026 Tatiana Lupacheva, “Voice, Visibility, and Viability: Connecting Parliamentary Speech, Media Coverage, and Electoral Performance of MPs in Estonia”

Supervision (MA theses):
2025 Parvin Gojazade, “Introduction of an e-voting system in Azerbaijan: readiness of citizens and government”
2025 Simon Berner, “Telegram-Based Russian Hacktivism as a New Phenomenon and the Influence of Media Visibility on Target Selection”
2025 Julia Noelle Suzuki, “Just Transition as a Political Strategy: Just Transition Initiatives and Citizens’ Climate Policy Preferences in the U.S.”
2025 Yang Zhang, “Aid as an Authoritarian Gift: The Associations between the Chinese Aid and Democracy”
2024 Asilbek Usmanov, “Corruption, Populism, and Polarization: Unraveling the Causes of Democratic Backsliding in 68 Countries”
2024 Robin Vollmer, “When Citizens Adopt the ‘e’: Conditions for High Usage Rates of Public E-services Among the EU-27 National States”
2024 Yurii Kondratyk, “Winners’ Bliss, Losers’ Discontent: The Impact of Affective Polarization on Satisfaction with Democracy in Europe” (co-supervised with Andres Reiljan)
2024 Kirill Jurkov, “The Impact of Social Media Use on Voter Turnout and Voting Mode Preferences: Analysis of Estonian Parliament Elections in 2019 and 2023”
2024 Mariam Kartvelishvili, “What Makes a Populist Voter – Is There a Common Ground?” (co-supervised with Grzegorz Pozarlik)
2023 Tatia Vakhtangadze, “Reasons for the Failure of the Opposition Coalition in the 2022 Hungarian Parliamentary Elections: Contemporary Party Politics and Pre-electoral Coalitions” (co-supervised with Jozsef Duro)
2022 Luis Alberto Apaestegui Cam, “Analyzing the populist voter in Europe: the effects of political news and internet usage on voting behaviour”
2022 Pärt Dolenko, “Political neutrality or editorial slant? Comparing coverage and content of Estonia’s largest nationwide daily newspapers”
2022 Joshua Jarad Smith, “Democracy and trends in wealth inequality: a global empirical study”
2021 Ruslan Yagudin, “Transformation of Electoral Systems in Russian Regions”
2021 Martin Daniel Hayford, “Assessing the Validity of Structural Reform Aggregations in Economic Growth Models of 24 Transition Economies” (co-supervised with Raul Eamets)
2021 Yelyzaveta Churkina, “The Brexit Effect: The UK Citizens’ Attitudes in the Years Following the Referendum”
2021 Uliana Kysheniuk, “Sovereignism Through the Prism of Populism: The Case of Law and Justice Party” (co-supervised with Katarzyna Żukrowska)
2020 Artem Goriunov, “The determinants of legislative speechmaking on salient issues: The analysis of parliamentary debates on Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement using structural topic models”
2020 Oleksandr Kuchynskyi, “Shifting fortunes: anti-establishment reform parties, the catch-all strategy and the territorial cleavage in Ukraine”
2020 Tatiana Lupacheva, “Do parties and voters reward parliamentary behavior? Evidence from Estonia”
2020 Anastasiia Mirovednikova, “Should the guardians be independent? Electoral management and bodies and electoral integrity”
2019 Adam Mikołaj Wylegalski, “Solidarity-based versus liberal Poland: Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s discourse of thin-centered populism in the light of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis”
2019 Santa Liepiņa, “European Parliament members’ activism: the case of the Baltic States”
2019 Helen Urmann, “What affects the electoral success of female candidates? Analysis of Estonian Parliamentary elections of 2015 and 2019”
2019 Volodymyr Panov, “The relationship between electoral instability and programmatic configuration in contemporary party system”
2018 Naira Baghdasaryan, “From Votes to Nicheness or from Nicheness to Votes? – The Relationship Between Electoral Fortunes and Political Strategies in Scandinavian Countries”
2018 Saleh Mehdizade, “Does Presidentialism Breed Dictatorship – the Case of Turkey and the Erdogan Regime”

Languages:
Estonian – native language
English – very good spoken and written
German – basic, passive
Finnish – basic, passive
Russian – basic, passive