TERJE TOOMISTU
anthropologist / documentary filmmaker
Hello and welcome to my site!
I'm an anthropologist and a documentary filmmaker from Estonia, currently employed as a Research Fellow at the University of Tartu, Institute of Cultural Research, holding a Noor-Eesti Grant awarded by the Postimees Fund.
I received my PhD in Ethnology as well as two MA degrees (Cum Laude) in Ethnology and in Communication Studies from University of Tartu. I have been a visiting fellow at the University of Sanata Dharma in Indonesia, a Fulbright fellow at the University of California Berkeley, and a visiting researcher at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Anthropology.
What I learned from experiences of traveling through different continents and living and studying in France, England, Russia, the Netherlands, the United States, and Indonesia is that the roots of so many societal issues are tied to culturally framed meanings: what is ‘unknown’ means ‘to be afraid of’, and what is ‘known’ is socially constructed in line with dominant power structures. This understanding became the driving force that guided me into the world of anthropology.
My prime areas of focus are gender, mobility, and affect. My main areas of research expertise are Indonesian gender and sexuality and late Soviet non-conformist youth. My theoretical thinking is broadly inspired by critical theory, specifically queer, feminist, and critical race theories, phenomenology as well as affect theory.
My PhD project about Indonesian waria (transgender women) from the perspectives of feminist anthropology was based on my long-term ethnographic fieldwork in urban Java and West Papua. The thesis was awarded the 1st prize at the national contest for university students in the area of Humanities and Arts in 2020. A related article received an ASAA Wang Gungwu Prize for the best article in Asian Studies Review in 2019.
Currently, I'm leading a research project “Young Estonians Abroad” which studies the young Estonian diaspora, specifically in relation to higher-education mobility. The project investigates the intersections of mobility, global capitalism, kinship, and (national) belonging through both quantitative and qualitative methods. The project also includes creative collaborative research as well as the production of a documentary film "Homing Beyond" (2022) and a forthcoming series.
I am profoundly inspired by anthropology's intersections with artistic practice and film. Since 2011, I have been running a multimedia project focusing on the late Soviet youth counter-culture, specifically the Soviet hippie movement. The project includes the production of a documentary film, an internationally traveling exhibition, a soundtrack release on vinyl, and a forthcoming book. In 2016, I founded a production company Cece OÜ that focuses on cultural production and documentary film.
My filmography includes Wariazone (2011), Archaeology of Ayahuasca (2016), the award-winning Soviet Hippies (2017), Veins of the Amazon (2021), and Homing Beyond (2022). My work has been featured widely in the international press, including The Guardian and The Economist.
I am dedicated to forging meaningful collaborations with academics, artists, and film-makers to further attend to less visible and more marginal groups, practices, and other forms of the assemblage of life, including that of the non-human, as well as to the various organization of life, which holds the promise of more sustainable, co-creational, and happy futures.
The image above by Ruudu Rahumaru.
The image below by Krõõt Tarkmeel.
