James Montgomery Baxenfield

James Montgomery Baxenfield is a Junior Research Fellow at Tallinn University School of Humanities. He researches Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian political and diplomatic history, with a particular focus on the idea of establishing a Latvian-Lithuanian state. Baxenfield is currently completing his PhD with the Institute of History, Archaeology & Art History. His doctoral dissertation, Footnotes to the Past: Forgotten Episodes of Latvian-Lithuanian Federation & Confederation, 1884–1984, examines various notions of establishing a Latvian-Lithuanian state from the period of national awakening until the final decades of the twentieth century. Baxenfield completed his MA in Comparative History of Eastern, Central, and Southeastern Europe at Central European University, Budapest. In 2022 he was a co-guest editor for a special issue of Acta Historica Tallinnensia – entitled “Recognition: de facto and de jure” – that corresponded with the centenary of the 1922 diplomatic recognition of the governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania by the United States of America. Also in 2022, he 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, and received a Dissertation Grant for Graduate Students from AABS. He is a member of AABS, the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA), and the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA).