James Baxenfield

James Baxenfield is a doctoral candidate at Tallinn University, Estonia, in the discipline of History. His PhD dissertation, ”Footnotes to the Past,” examines notions of establishing a common Latvian-Lithuanian state from the period of national awakenings in the eastern Baltic region until the final decades of the twentieth century. He primarily examines marginal, unrealised, and not-yet-realised phenomena through interdisciplinary lenses.

Baxenfield’s academic research is complemented by experience in scholarly publishing, including ongoing journal editorial work, language editing and proofreading, and guest-editing special issues and other publications. He devised and guest co-edited the “Recognition: de facto and de jure” special issue of Acta Historica Tallinnensia (Vol. 28, No. 2, 2022). The co-authored introductory article, “Precarious Roads to Recognition: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, 1917–1922,” was awarded second place in the annual Tallinn University Competition for Published Research in the category of Society and Open Governance. In 2026, he served as a guest editor for Carnival (Vol. XXV), published by the International Students of History Association (ISHA).

Baxenfield completed both an MA in History (2012) and an MA in the Comparative History of Eastern, Central, and Southeastern Europe (2012) at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. In 2022, Baxenfield was the recipient of a Baumanis Grant for Creative Research in Baltic Studies from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS). In 2023, he undertook a visiting fellowship at the Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany, and received a Dissertation Grant for Graduate Students from AABS.

Since 2024, Baxenfield has been an Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Baltic Studies. He is a member of AABS, the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), and the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA).