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We kindly invite you to an experimental musical and poetic performance ENERHOMOR this Tuesday, December 6th, at the Writers' Hall (Domus Philologiae). The performance is created by our Faculty's Ukrainian language lecturer Yelyzaveta Drach in order to illuminate the terrors the Ukrainians are facing today. We talked with the author about the performance and how language can build bridges. 

How did the idea of “ENERHOMOR“ come about?

After the first massive shelling aiming to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure approximately a month ago, I came across a photo of Kyiv burdened with darkness. And it just came back to me that in March, when I was leaving my native city, being broken, I wrote a short story. This story was telling about the pain of abandoned de-energized city, where only one strange man decided to stay. But one day the main hero meets a girl on the city streets. They experience this darkness and coldness together. This photo of Kyiv which I stumbled upon made me think that I’ve predicted, though with some exaggeration, the events that are now happening in Ukraine. And I started writing music that, as for me, best reflects the sounds of energetic genocide: experiments with electrical current, meter clicking and sounds of drones. I called it ENERHOMOR (or energetic genocide), the name that we created together with my dad who is now in Kyiv. 

The performance is held in Ukrainian with a translation into Lithuanian. What part does language play in this performance? 

ENERHOMOR is based on a poem that I wrote two weeks ago; it is in Ukrainian. Though music plays a crucial role in this performance, I still think it is important to see the translation for those who do not understand Ukrainian. My poetic style was always based on alliteration and assonance that is why my poems sound like songs. I try to use unique words, to combine untypical constructions and make every line special. We are now working on Lithuanian translation of the poem together with my students. Their discussions on synonyms that would be more appropriate in this or that context seem very professional to me. 

Speaking of language, you are now a lecturer of the Ukrainian language at the Faculty of Philology. How do you find the experience of teaching your native language in Lithuania?

I am grateful to Lithuanian people, to the University, to the Faculty of Philology for this opportunity to teach, to share experience, to get inspired from students and inspire them back. Three months of teaching passed, and we are now communicating Ukrainian with students. I am truly impressed by their desire to learn, their aspiration to speak a new language. It reminded me of my students from Kyiv: the same burning eyes. What a pleasure to share my native culture and language and meet such an eagerness! 

Here is the List of Open Electives for the 2022/2023 spring semester.

These subjects can be chosen with the individual study plan instead of the electives suggested in your study programme.

More information can be found here>

We kindly invite you to an experimental musical and poetic performance ENERHOMOR on December 6th at the Writers' Hall (Domus Philologiae).

The performance is created by our Faculty's lecturer Yelyzaveta Drach in order to commemorate Holodomor and illuminate the terrors the Ukrainians are facing today. 

ENERHOMOR is a musical performance about overwhelming darkness that covers Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine these days. It is an electronic ambient and vocal composition with poetic elements and visual effects. 

ENERHOMOR is an experiment with electric current. There will be both light and dark sounds: the cold trembling of an overheated transformer, the indifferent clatter of a meter, a gentle voice that whispers through communication jamming, decreasing signal-to-noise ratio, the tight air after an explosion, the echo of eerie signals, flashes and shadows that have a whimsical nature. 

You can find all details here >> 

The performance will be presented in Ukrainian with translation to Lithuanian.

The Rectors' Scholarship Competition, which has become a tradition among the three Baltic universities - Vilnius University, the University of Latvia and the University of Tartu - is again inviting students to participate. This year, the competition is moving to Vilnius University.

The competition aims to promote the unity of the three Baltic States and encourage the study of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian languages and cultures. The winner is awarded a scholarship of EUR 2000. More information > 

From November 29th to December 2nd lectures and seminars about gender and motherhood studies and research with professor Jenny Björklund will take place at the Faculty of Philology.

Jenny Björklund is a Professor of Gender Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her current research deals with cultural representations of in/voluntary childlessness, and reproductive decision-making and climate change. Her books include Maternal Abandonment and Queer Resistance in Twenty-First-Century Swedish Literature (2021) and Lesbianism in Swedish Literature: An Ambiguous Affair (2014). Her work has also appeared in Social Science and Medicine, Women’s Studies, Scandinavian Studies, and Contemporary Women’s Writing.

Jenny Björklund has been awarded the Vilnius University Teaching and Learning Internationalisation Initiatives funding for the initiative Gender and Motherhood Studies and Research in the Baltic Sea Region. As part of this initiative in collaboration with the Horizon 2020 project MotherNet, she will deliver seminars to BA and MA students, of the Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University (in English and Swedish), will give a public lecture entitled Runaway Moms: Mothers Who Leave their Families in the Twenty-First Century, and will consult BA and MA students of the Faculty of Philology, on their final theses.

About the public lecture Runaway Moms: Mothers Who Leave their Families the Twenty-First Century

What does it mean that so many mothers leave their families in twenty-first-century Swedish literature? The lecture takes its point of departure in this question and explores how novels about mothers who leave can be understood as queer resistance against Swedish-branded ideals of parenthood, family, and reproduction. The public lecture will be streamed online.

To get the readings, please contact the MotherNet project coordinator Eglė Kačkutė-Hagan:

The visit of Prof. Jenny Björklund is a part of the project “Developing a New Network of Researchers on Contemporary European Motherhood (MotherNet)”. This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 952366.

Programme >

Vilnius University students are invited to participate in the ISEP student exchange programme for 2023/2024 Fall.

Application documents are accepted till December 3, 2022.

Information about the programme >> 

Information about registration >> 

On 7-11 November 2022 the Institute of Foreign Languages of the Faculty of Philology of Vilnius University will host three events of the Erasmus project THINK4JOBS. The THINK4JOBS project aims to strengthen University Business Collaboration for the effective promotion, development, support, and assessment of students’ Critical Thinking (CT).

A five-day Learning Teaching Training Activity (LTTA)  will be held on 7-11 November 2022.

The THINK4JOBS project combines a multidisciplinary team of scholars from Greece, Germany, Portugal, Romania, and Lithuania representing Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Labour Market Organizations (LMO). The project partners will present the results of the project on the development of critical thinking (CT) across different disciplines and the importance of close collaboration between HEI and LMO. External CT experts will also participate to share their research findings on different aspects of CT. Colleagues from the Institute of Foreign Languages: Liudmila Arcimavičienė, Ovidiu Ivancu, Simona Kontrimienė, Roma Kriaučiūnienė, Adam Mastandrea, and Svetozar Poštič will deliver presentations on possibilities of CT development in foreign language teaching and learning process. The programme of the LTTA could be found here:

On 10-11 November 2022, the THINK4JOBS Learning Teaching Training Activity (LTTA) will be combined with the THINK4JOBS 3rd Transnational Meeting. The project THINK4JOBS partners from Greece, Germany, Portugal, Romania, and Lithuania will attend the TM and each will share the project outcomes for the 25 months of the project and discuss the next steps on Project Dissemination.

The TM will be concluded with the Critical Thinking (CT) Forum that will be held on 11 November 2022. The key presenter of the Forum Prof. Dr. Daiva Penkauskienė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) will present the results of national research into CT in institutions of higher education and labour market. The project THINK4JOBS partners will share the results of their interdisciplinary research into the development of CT in HEI and LMO.

We invite all those interested in CT to attend the Critical Thinking (CT) Forum.

More about the project >