Mari-Liis Jakobson:

I applied for the Vabamu short-term research fellowship at Stanford University mainly with the aim to advance my research project on understanding how the populist radical right tries to appeal to atypical supporter groups, and how these strategies are received by the voters. And indeed, the stimulating academic discussions, the well-stacked library and the hospitable Californian weather all contributed to advancing these goals. I was able to finish and submit one article, as well as present it at the weekly seminar series of CREEES, and get started on another one. I also prepared a new experimental survey instrument, which benefitted from talks hosted by the Centre for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL), the Europe Center and the Stanford Humanities Center and from discussions with faculty affiliated with CDDRL, the Politics and Social Change Lab and the Immigration Policy Lab. In addition, the Stanford Libraries collections and discussions with faculty allowed me to gain further insights into how the electoral maps have been evolving in the United States and what attitudinal patterns underline these changes.

My stay at Stanford also helped to put many other important ongoing developments into perspective. The public and private exchanges over the changing world order, bureaucratic authority, postliberalism, academic freedom and the AI revolution will no doubt remain relevant beyond 2025 and will inform my research as well as other scholarly practice in the future.

I am particularly grateful to Jovana Lazic, John Turman and Mary Grace Mylod-Vargas at CREEES who hosted me at the Centre and organized my talk, to Liisi Esse and the Stanford Libraries who made me a regular at the beautiful reading rooms at the Green Library. Since I was there during the opening of the I am also indebted to David Laitin, Hakeem Jefferson, Izzi Gainsburg, Ali Çarkoğlu, Anna Grzymala-Busse, Grigory Grigoryev and Hasheem Hallam for the inspiring conversations, feedback, linking me with other researchers and making me feel welcome at events they hosted. I was also delighted to get acquainted with other Estonian scholars at Stanford, meet the Vabamu team and witness the opening of the E-Estonia exhibition at the Green Library

After the fellowship ended, I undertook one of my most memorable road trips ever, taking me through more than a dozen national and state parks and spanning over 4600 miles through California, Southern Utah and Arizona. California is a magical place, where you can enjoy Elysian views of the ocean one day, hike through snowy mountains the next and end up on desert sand dunes and salt plains the following morning. In my opinion this compares strikingly well to the quality and diversity of the academic life at Stanford I got to experience thanks to the Vabamu scholarship.