Terje Toomistu

Dr Terje Toomistu is a documentary film-maker and an anthropologist, a Research Fellow at the University of Tartu’s Department of Ethnology, whose prime areas of focus are gender, mobility, and affect. She received her PhD degree in Ethnology as well as two MA degrees (cum laude) in Ethnology and in Communication Studies from the University of Tartu. She has been a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California Berkeley and a visiting researcher at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Anthropology. She has also lived and studied in France, Russia, and Indonesia.
Toomistu’s major research projects cover Indonesian gender and sexuality and the late Soviet non-conformist youth. She has curated exhibitions in the U.K., Germany, Canada, and Sweden, and given lectures and seminars at universities internationally. With a filmography including „Veins of the Amazon“ (2021, co-directed with Alvaro Sarmiento and Diego Sarmiento), an award-winning „Soviet Hippies“ (2017) and „Wariazone“ (2011, co-directed with Kiwa), her work as a documentary film-maker has been featured widely in international press, including The Guardian and The Economist.