VU Faculty of Philology

Easter Greetings

8 April 2023

Dear colleagues, all members if the community of the Faculty of Philology,

Easter is on our doorstep. Inevitably and irrevocably. Despite that spring has to fight snowstorms. May I congratulate you on the revival of nature, days getting longer and longer, new hope. I wish you all new ideas growing into important meaningful projects, sweet moments experienced with your students upon the discovery of something new and confirming what has been already known, cosy get-together with your family and friends on a bright Easter morning.

Kind regards,

Prof. Inesa Šeškauskienė
Dean of the Faculty of Philology

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Prof. A. Desnitsky seminar "Fundamentalists, minimalists, and post-modernists studying the Bible: what do we know exactly, if anything?"

29 March 2023

We cordially invite you to prof. Andrej Desnitsky seminar Fundamentalists, minimalists, and post-modernists studying the Bible: what do we know exactly, if anything? on April 14th, 3 p.m., at room 92.

Summary

Bible narratives are essential for the (post-)Christian civilization, and not only for it. But they can be read with different eyes. The main question usually is “what has actually happened?” But in most cases, we just do not have a single answer. To mark the best-known approaches, fundamentalists insist on a literal interpretation, minimalists believe that nothing has ever happened unless it is proven archaeologically and postmodernists say it is all in the eyes of a looker. Needless to say, there are many other positions, too. What is each approach's methodological basis and how trustworthy are they, after all? The lecture will give a brief introduction to these issues. We will concentrate mostly on the Old Testament since it presents more obvious cases (such as Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the formation of Israeli monarchy, etc.) but we can touch briefly on the New Testament as well, depending on the audience’s interest.

About professor A. Desnitsky

a Russian scholar (Prof. Dr.), translator, writer, and essayist who left the country in March 2022 in disagreement with the regime;
a leading expert in Bible translation and exegesis for the Russian-speaking audience, known for his ability to teach complicated things in simple words;
a translation consultant with a large experience in building multi-ethnic teams and working across language and culture barriers;
an essayist and blogger widely known for his creative style and allegiance to democratic values (“Liberal Mission” award 2018).
author of 95 scholarly articles (in Russian, English, German, and Italian) and hundreds of essays and columns published in various media (in Russian and Italian).

Monographs

Поэтика библейского параллелизма. Москва: ББИ, 2007, 554 стр., ISBN 5-89647-133-5, тираж 1000 экз.
Введение в библейскую экзегетику. Москва: ПСТГУ, 2011, 413 стр., ISBN 978-5-7429-0660-5, тираж 2000 экз.
Современный библейский перевод: теория и методология. Москва: ПСТГУ, 2015, 430 стр., ISBN: 978-5-7429-0972-9, тираж 1000 экз.
Павловы Послания. Комментированное издание (руководитель проекта и научный редактор). Москва: Гранат – Институт перевода Библии, 2017, ISBN 978-5-93943-238-2 и 978-5-90645-628-1. 44 а.л.
Вожди и цари Израиля. Библейские переводы Андрея Десницкого. Москва: Рипол классик, 2018, ISBN 978-5-386-10413-9. 15,5 а.л.
Пророки Израиля. Библейские переводы Андрея Десницкого. Москва: Рипол классик, 2018, ISBN 978-5-386-10750-5. 14,3 а.л.
Послания апостолов. Библейские переводы Андрея Десницкого. Москва: Гранат, 2021, ISBN 978-5-906456-47-2.
Библия: что было «на самом деле»? Танах / Ветхий Завет. Москва: Альпина нон-фикшн, 2022, ISBN 978-5-00139-489-1.

International scientific conference “Language diversity in the world and for the world”

23 March 2023

We are pleased to invite you to the 58th Linguistics Colloquium titled “Linguistic Diversity in the World and for the World”. The Conference will take place at Vilnius University, Faculty of Philology, on September 20-22, 2023.

We are very happy that our plenary speakers this year come from different countries. Their talks will focus on the following topics:

Johan van der Auwera (Antwerp) “Negative and free choice indefinites: a reappraisal”
Klaus Geyer (Odense) “Ungleiche Schwestern? Über Sprachvergleiche am Beispiel Dänisch-Deutsch”
Jurgis Pakerys (Vilnius) “Baltic causatives in the Circum-Baltic context”
Lina Plaušinaitytė (Vilnius) “Welche Art litauisch-deutsches Wörterbuch brauchen wir?”

We invite researchers from any country of the world and from all linguistic backgrounds to submit contributions related to linguistic diversity.

You can find all relevant information on the conference page >

Conference languages: German, French, English

Important dates

Deadline for abstract submission and registration: May 12, 2023

Notification of acceptance: June 01, 2023

Deadline of paying the Conference fee: August 01, 2023

Online publication of the Conference program: August 25, 2023

The Lund Neurolinguistics seminar 'Neurolinguistic Discoveries in Nordic Languages: Perception and Prediction of Speech Input'

14 March 2023

Centre for Scandinavian Studies is happy to announce a neurolinguistics seminar, held by The Lund Neurolinguistics group at our centre on 31st March, from 9:30 to 12:30, in Room 314 A-B. The topic of the seminar is Neurolinguistic Discoveries in Nordic Languages: Perception and Prediction of Speech Input. The event will be held in English.

Please also find the event program and abstracts attached >>

You can read about The Lund Neurolinguistics group here >>

Restoration of Independence Day Greetings

11 March 2023

Dear colleagues at the Faculty of Philology and their friends all over the world,

March 11 is a day when we all speak about our freedom, our youth and our future. Freedom—because our freedom is about the freedom in living in our country, working for it, making it more beautiful and happy every day. Youth—because our independence, restored in 1990, is young, 33 years of age; some people born during those years are even younger. Future—because the University and its values are all about the future of the country and the future of the world. We are moving into the future relying on the lessons of history, on respectable experienced people, our colleagues, all together. Let us celebrate March 11!

Kind regards,

Professor Inesa Šeškauskienė
Dean of the Faculty of Philology

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Call for Papers: International Conference “Urban Cultural Space: The Baltic Narratives

27 February 2023

International academic conference dedicated to the 700th Anniversary of Vilnius

Venue: Vilnius University Faculty of Philology.

Date: 29-30 May 2023.

Scholars, doctoral students and young researchers from the international Baltic studies centres, and Lithuanian researchers, are invited to participate in the international academic conference “Urban Cultural Space: The Baltic Narratives”. The purpose of the conference is to present and discuss the latest research on urban literature and culture, urban identity and memory narratives of the Baltic region, and to analyse the multi-ethnic culture and literature of Vilnius in the context of other Baltic cities.

We propose the following main topics for presentations:

Urban literature of the Baltic region
Vilnius literary and cultural discourse
Narratives of identity and memory of the Baltic cities
Cultural and literary connections of the cities in the Baltic region
Baltic images of urban space and their comparative studies

Conference languages: Lithuanian and English

Send the title and abstract of your presentation (up to 300 words) by March 12, 2023 to . We will confirm your participation by March 20, 2023. More information >>

MotherNet News

22 February 2023

We present to you a summary of the past activities and accomplishements of the Faculty's MotherNet research group. Read below and find out more at MotherNet website >>

Call for Papers

Upcoming events

On March 23-26, 2023 MotherNet members Ieva Balčiūnė, Valerie Heffernan, Dovilė Kuzminskaitė, and Rūta Šlapkauskaitė will participate at the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) 54th Annual Convention at the Niagara Falls Convention Center. The 2023 NeMLA conference theme is RESILIENCE, an anchor term for critical and creative work that explores how we bear up under trauma, counter ableism, redress social and racial marginalization, environmental destruction, and how we celebrate bodily, cognitive, and neurological difference, access silenced voices, recover from the pandemic, and struggle to save the humanities, and humanity itself from the maw of neoliberalism.

On 19-21 June 2023 the third MotherNet summer school will take place in Vilnius university. This summer school will focus on research dissemination, including identifying dissemination opportunities; making effective presentations; and writing for publication. The programme will be specified in due course but time will be allocated for:

Enhancing the work in research clusters
Meetings between mentors and mentees
ESR session to work on Postgraduate Symposium

Highlights

We are delighted to report the following research achievements of the MotherNet members

The Early-Stage Researcher from Vilnius University, Ieva Balčiūnė, successfully defended her PhD thesis on Abandonment of Children in Soviet Lithuania: Parents, Unwanted Children and the State

MotherNet members have published the following articles:

Atėnė Mendelytė. (2023). Thought Experiments in Video Games: Exploring the (Un)Ethics of Motherhood in Frictional Games' Amnesia: Rebirth. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231153715
Dagnė Beržaitė. (2023). Проблема представления материнства в русской литературе XIX века. Slavvaria, 1/2022(1/2022), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.15170/SV.1/2022.85
Inga Hilbig. (2022). "Zwei Sprachen gleichzeitig? Nein, das schaff' ich nicht": A Lithuanian-German Boy's Journey to Active Bilingualism. Philologia Estonica Tallinnensis, 2022 (7), 126–147. https://doi.org/10.22601/PET.2022.07.05
Atene Mendelyte (2022) Creative and crime scene photography: staged patricide and matricide as screen memories in Aida Chehrehgosha’s To Mom, Dad and My Two Brothers, photographies, 15:2, 167-186, DOI: 10.1080/17540763.2022.2060291

New Members

MotherNet Training Activities

On 29 November – 2 December 2022 MotherNet member prof Jenny Björklund (Uppsala University (Sweden) 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 offered a series of lectures and seminars on maternity and gender studies at Vilnius University Faculty of Philology and gave a public lecture entitled Runaway Moms: Mothers Who Leave their Families in the Twenty-First Century. More information on the lectures here and listen to the public lecture here. She will offer some supervisions to BA and MA students of the Faculty of Philology on their final theses in spring of 2023.

Research Development

On 23-25 January 2023 project partners held a workshop at Vilnius University, Faculty of Philology during which Prof Valerie Heffernan and Dr Marian Crowley-Henry from Maynooth University, Prof Jenny Björklund from Uppsala University, Dr Armi Mustosmäki from Jyväskylä University, Prof Eglė Šumskienė and Dr Eglė Kačkutė from Vilnius University worked on a joint research funding application and joint publications. More information here (in Lithuanian) >>

Monthly research colloquiums offer Vilnius University researchers an opportunity to meet, share their research, engage in discussions on theories and methods, and enhance their networking and collaboration and thus the quality of research in both formal and informal ways. Eight MotherNet colloquiums have been held at Vilnius University so far. The researchers are discussing their research topics, which include differences in the Lithuanian identity among families migrating due to political and economic reasons, perspectives of working mothers with disabilities, the experiences of Lithuanian mothers, who are raising their children in the diaspora, reproductive decisions and experiences of childlessness, and historical perspectives, such as postcolonial interpretations of good motherhood in Lithuania, women in the 16th-17th c. Latin literature of the Grand duchy of Lithuania, and child abandonment practices during the Soviet era in Lithuania. For more information on colloquiums for 2023 see here >>

Podcast

MotherNet podcasts curated by the MotherNet member and professor of Vilnius University Faculty of Philosophy, Eglė Šumskienė, are a great way to follow the Network members’ research on motherhood. You can listen to the podcasts (mostly but not exclusively in Lithuanian) on Spotify or you can watch the recordings on YouTube. The latest podcast “Regretting Motherhood” features the MotherNet members Prof Valerie Heffernan (Maynooth University) and Dr Maja Bodin (Uppsala University). Previous MotherNet podcasts covered such topics as the agentive potential of the intimate relationships of Russian mothers with their sons fighting in Ukraine, child removal from the family, the role of mothers in identity construction in Lithuanian migrant families, child abandonment practices during the Soviet era in Lithuania and the experiences of Lithuanian mothers, who are raising their children in diaspora. Listen to the podcast here >>

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Finnish guest lecture: The past and present of linguistic diversity in Finland

22 February 2023

We are happy to announce a guest lecture by Dr. Sirkku Latomaa, University of Tampere, Finland, on Tuesday the 28th of February at 15.00–16.30 (including discussion), the auditorium 314AB.

Sirkku Latomaa‘s guest lecture will be in English, and it is open to all students and the whole staff.

The past and present of linguistic diversity in Finland

Migration has always been a part of human history. Finns have moved around the world, and people from all over the world have moved to Finland. Until very recently, however, Finland has been regarded as an especially homogeneous and monolingual part of the world. Is there some basis for this myth, or should it be buried as inaccurate? In my lecture, I will look at linguistic diversity in Finland over time, examining both established and more recent language minorities (including Lithuanians in Finland). I will also discuss the linguistic rights of minorities and the current citizens' initiative the purpose of which is to improve the visibility of multilingualism in demographic statistics.

Sirkku Latomaa’s research and publications focus on multilingualism in the family and school contexts, minority languages, language rights, language awareness, and language-in-education policies. In 2021-2022 she was involved in a national evaluation project implemented by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. The aim of the project was to shed light on the state and effectivenss of education meant for newly arrived pupils with migrant background in Finnish schools.

Welcome to the event!

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