SPEAKERS

Conference moderator

Kai Klandorf

Kai has over 16 years of experience as a moderator, discussion leader and trainer. Kai has led and participated in various global debate programs, for example promoting the debate movement in countries such as Nepal, Norway, Moldova, Myanmar, etc. Kai holds a Bachelor's degree in education and a Master's degree in English from the University of Tartu. In recent years, Kai has furthered her education by obtaining a coaching qualification. Kai has worked for many years as a director of the Estonian Civil Society. Since 2023, she has been working in the Innovation Team of the Government Office.

Bridging Borders: Fostering Impact and Connection through Cultural Collaboration – a British Council Perspective

Kerry McCall Magan

Kerry McCall Magan is the Country Director for British Council Ireland. As Director, Kerry leads British Council Ireland in strategic cultural relations activity between Ireland and the UK. Excited by the possibilities and untapped potential in Arts and Education in the bilateral relationship, Kerry works constructively to convene and broker relationships between people and organisations, fostering mutual understanding, trust, knowledge and respect.

Prior to this role, Kerry’s career spanned senior roles in higher education and the cultural sectors in Ireland. She has been a Steering Group member of the National Campaign for the Arts; the Expert Panel of Creative Ireland; the Expert Committee of Culture2025: a national cultural policy for Ireland; co-founder of the Arts Management Research Studies Stream in the European Sociological Association; co-founder of Cultural Policy Observatory Ireland: an all-island research network (2014) and the Irish Journal for Arts Management and Cultural Policy (2013).

In 2023, she published Cultural Participation: the perpetuation of middle-class privilege in Dublin, Ireland (Palgrave MacMillan) and, with academics in Queen’s University Belfast and University College Dublin, she is co-editing Cultural Policy: Perspectives on the Island of Ireland (Routledge, forthcoming 2025). Kerry is a Board member of Dublin City Council Culture Company.

Panel discussion: The resilience of democracy – a dream or societal choice?

Prof Zsuzsa Csergő

Prof Zsuzsa Csergő is The Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Nationalism and Democracy Studies in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University, Canada. She specializes in the study of nationalism and contemporary challenges to democracy, with particular expertise on Central and Eastern Europe. Before joining the Queen’s faculty, she was Assistant Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Women’s Leadership Program in U.S. and International Politics at the George Washington University. From 2013-2020, she was President of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), the largest international scholarly association in the field of nationalism and ethnicity studies. She currently serves as Director of the association’s online initiative, “Virtual ASN.”

Dr. Csergő's research contributes to the understanding of tensions between nationalism and democracy in multiethnic societies. Her articles about nationalism, majority-minority relations, kin-state politics, and minority democratic agency in the EU context have appeared in leading journals in her field, including Perspectives on Politics, The Journal of Global Security Studies, Foreign Policy, Publius, Nations and Nationalism, Europe-Asia Studies,Problems of Post-Communism, East European Politics and Societies, and other venues. She is the author of Talk of the Nation: Language and Conflict in Romania and Slovakia (Cornell University Press, 2007), co-editor and co-author of collaborative volumes (books and special issues) focused on Europeanization and minority political agency, the securitization of cross-border kinship, and Central and East European politics. She is currently writing a book about the sources of minority democratic agency in majoritarian states, based on comparative research on six linguistic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia, Poles in Lithuania, and Russophones in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania).

Dr. Csergő leads the comparative Minority Institutions Database, which officially launched in March, 2023. She is also the Principal Investigator of a collaborative research project entitled “Major crises and minority life in majoritarian states” (funded by SSHRC). Csergő is a General Editor of the European Yearbook of Minority Issues, and a member of KINPOL: Observatory on Kin-State Policies, hosted at the University of Glasgow.

Prof Stefano Braghiroli

Prof Stefano Braghiroli is an Associate Professor of European Studies at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, where he also serves as Director of the Master's programme in European Studies. He received his PhD from the University of Siena (Italy) in 2010 and has previously held positions at the ARENA Centre for European Studies (University of Oslo) and the Bahçeşehir University Center for Economic and Social Research (BETAM) in Istanbul.

His research focuses on party politics in the European Parliament, EU politics, Euroscepticism and populism, and comparative politics. His recent work has appeared in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Contemporary European Studies, New Perspectives, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Journal of Legislative Studies, East European Politics, and Religion, State and Society, as well as in edited volumes published by renowned academic presses.

In 2025, he was awarded the Order of the Star of Italy (Ordine della Stella d’Italia), rank of Knight (Cavaliere), by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella. 

Dr Marina Nord

Dr Marina Nord is a postdoctoral researcher at the V-Dem Institute (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) and is one of the authors of the V-Dem Institute’s annual Democracy Report. Her research focuses on explaining autocratization and democratization processes, sources of democratic resilience, as well as interplay between economic processes and regime transformation. Before joining the V-Dem Institute, she worked on several research projects at the Hertie School and at the German Institute for Economic Research, where she became passionate about bridging the gap between academic research and policy domains.

Margo Loor

Moderator

Margo is a leading expert in his field and the lead trainer and moderator at SpeakSmart. Margo has over 20 years of experience, having led countless trainings and discussions, from panel discussions to negotiations, from an open-air festival to business conferences and live TV broadcasts. Describing the role of a moderator, Margo said: "A great discussion is engaging, makes maximum use of the contribution of each participant and reaches the desired result. The result of a great discussion is bigger than the sum of its participants, where group synergy creates thoughts and results, which no one could have even expected at the beginning of the discussion. A good moderator always produces at least a good discussion, but always aims towards a great discussion." 

Margo started his journey in Estonian Debating Society in 1994 as a competitive debater to gain stage confidence, public speaking techniques, the ability to clearly express thoughts, time management, analytical skills and thinking. Specializing in law at the University of Tartu and work at the law firm Hedman Osborne Clarke gave him the skills of systematic thinking and calm, rational negotiation as well as knowledge of meeting formats. In Good Deed Foundation, Margo was responsible for facilitating strategy creation and strategic discussion of organisations in his portfolio, giving him abilities of visually guiding and clarifying meetings and methods for leading strategic planning scenarios.

As a CEO of Estonian Debating Society for 4 years, Margo was often in situations, where it was necessary to talk to the media or to carry out joint projects with media channels. Multi-year inside experience with media production, especially television and online media, working side by side with producers, directors, editors, was the valuable added skillset. Volunteering his time to Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations as their chairman of supervisory board has taught Margo one-on-one coaching, which relies heavily upon listening skills and leading by asking socratic questions. Same skills, that enable a moderator to steer a difficult discussion. Additionally, Margo has developed various conversational abilities in non-formal training courses, such as Gordon Training, non-violent communication and vocal skills.

Lecture: ‘What is Democratic Resilience and how can we strengthen it?’

Prof Wolfgang Merkel

Prof Wolfgang Merkel is a German political scientist. In 2020 - 2022 he was a Fellow at the Democracy Institute of the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, prior to that from 2004 to 2020 he was Director of the Department of Democracy and Democratization at the Berlin Social Science Center and Professor of Comparative Politics and Democracy Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2007 he was appointed as a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Merkel is one of the most respected representatives of comparative politics in the German-speaking world. He has significantly shaped research on democratization processes, system changes, and system collapses, his most recent publications open up the topic of democratic resilience.

Merkel has received numerous academic honours and memberships for his research. In January 1996, Merkel received a first prize from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for his article "Restrictions and Opportunities for Democratic Consolidation in Post-Communist Societies of East Central Europe in Comparison." Since 1998, Merkel has been a non-partisan full member of the SPD's Basic Values ​​Commission. Since December 2007, he has been a full member of the social science class of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He was appointed to the academic advisory board and the university commission of the University of Heidelberg (2006–2012). Merkel is a member of the advisory board of the Bertelsmann Transformation Index.

Panel discussion: ‘Sense of belonging and social cohesion – what comes first?’

Dr. Anneli Portman

Dr. Anneli Portman is a Senior Specialist in the Safety and Protection unit at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). Her main tasks are related to developing the professional competence of social and health care professionals, which includes the creation of the vulnerability/risk assessment tool Valiant, and local and international networking. She is a member of the National Coordination Group for the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Extremism, as well as a member of the Thematic Panel on Local prevention of the EU Knowledge Hub on Radicalisation. Her expertise includes the local prevention of violent extremism and multiprofessional collaboration, with a strong focus on violence prevention, social inclusion, and youth crime. Her research interests cover values, societal trust, and political rhetoric. She holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of Helsinki.

Andero Uusberg

Andero Uusberg is a professor of affective psychology at the University of Tartu and the scientific director of the Centre of Excellence in Welfare Studies. His research group studies understanding and influencing the “hotestt” side of human nature. How do emotions and desires arise? How do people try to manage them? How can solutions be designed to support people in this? In addition to basic research, Andero promotes the application of psychology and other behavioral sciences to solving societal problems.

Dr Olha Mukha

Olha Mukha, PhD, is a cultural analyst and philosopher, cultural manager, curator and expert on international communication and human rights. Known for her extensive work in cultural diplomacy and human rights.  

She is Co-Founder and member of Directors Board of Institute of Resilience in Reconstruction (London), Co-Founder and Programme Director of the Ukrainian Association of Cultural Studies - Lviv and Head of Educational and International Department of Memorial Museum “Territory of Terror”. Senior Strategist at Strategic Communications (IN2). 

She is an expert in crisis communication, creating participant journeys for sensitive topics, aesthetic perception, and memory studies, including oral history practices.

Curator and co-author of the illustrated literary-encyclopaedic guidebook "Lviv – City of Inspiration. Literature" (Old Lion Publishing House, 2017; awarded as best guidebook of 2018). Curator of the publication and moderator of the book and project "Dialogues On War" (VIVAT, 2024). Co-author of Stories from Ukraine: Believers (Kovyla Publishing, 2024)

Author of over 80 scientific publications, numerous articles, and columns.

Olha Mukha was the University professor in Lviv University and Pedagogical University of Kyiv, teaching culture management, legal aspects of culture market and philosophical disciplines over 15 years. She defended her PhD dissertation in Philosophy on "Category of Human Bodiness in Philosophical and Theological Tradition in the Early West European Middle Ages" (2007) and LLM (2008), docent and academic researcher. She curated a number of exhibition formats, also consulted the rebranding and development strategies of various culture institutions. 

She is a Co-Founder and former Chairwoman of the Lviv City of Literature UNESCO Office (from 2014 to 2016), representing Ukrainian literature abroad and  Honorary Ambassador of Lviv (2020-2022).  

Curator of UNSEEN FORCE - Ukrainian non-violent resistance, “Lost Childhood”, “Wounded Culture” projects, co-curator of “ANGELS” exhibition (section “Kitsch”).

Author and Host in PODCAST #gentleukrainization (UA)

Host and Moderator of DIALOGUES ON WAR (ENG)

Member of PEN Ukraine 

Information and Publishing Lead and Member of the Executive Board of the Global Ukrainian Scouts Organisation PLAST. Member of the CHYTOMO Expert Council.

Head of the Jury of Encounter Award (2023), jury member of Chytomo Award (2024). 

Between 2018 and 2023 Olha Mukha worked for the Headquarter of PEN International in London as Congresses, Committees and New Centres Manager, continuously sharing this position with her expert involvement in art, cultural, human rights, and academic projects.

Kristjan Kaldur

Kristjan has worked at the Institute of Baltic Studies since 2007. His main area of work and interest is migration and integration, and he also has a keen interest in issues related to the information society and the data-driven world.

Kristjan is originally from Jõhvi, graduated from Hugo Treffner Gymnasium Mathematics class, and holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Politics from the University of Tartu. During his studies, he has studied at various universities in Germany and Georgia on long-term scholarships. He is pursuing a PhD at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, where he also supervises BA and MA students on nationalism, ethnopolitics and migration.

Vladislav LuŠin

Moderator

Vladislav is a trainer and moderator in the SpeakSmart team since 2018. Prior to that, he has been involved in professional debating for more than 15 years and therefore has expertise in teaching argumentation and debating skills and leading discussions.

Vladislav has previously worked as a correspondent for the Estonian Broadcasting Corporation, as an advisor to the Minister of Health and Labour at the Ministry of Social Affairs, as the Communications Manager of the Youth School, as the Head of the Russian-language branch of the Estonian Debating Society and as the Communications Manager of the Freedom School. Vladislav is currently working as the director of the Laulasmaa School.

Vladislav holds a Bachelor's degree in Linguistics from the University of York (UK) and a Master's cum laude in Change Management in Society from the University of Tartu.