In the middle of May, for the tenth year, Lithuanian diaspora researchers gathered at the National Library of Lithuania. The seminar, organized annually (with only one exception during the COVID pandemic) in the spring, was attended by researchers from the Vytautas Magnus University, Vilnius University, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, the Lithuanian Institute of History, and the organizer of the event, National Library of Lithuania.
At the seminar, various topics were discussed. Researchers presented lesser known Lithuanian diaspora personalities who left a significant contribution to the nation’s history, discussed trends in the field of diaspora research, talked about research areas that remain on the margins as well as interdisciplinary challenges in this area of research. Literary and linguistic topics were also discussed.
Historian Dr. Monika Šipelytė opened the seminar with the presentation about Duchess Gabrielė Radvilaitė (Pol. Gabrielle Radziwill), who worked in the League of Nations in the early twentieth century. VMU lecturer Prof. Dalia Kuizinienė shared her thoughts on her monograph in progress about the prominent figure of the Lithuanian American diaspora, educator, and linguist Stasys Barzdukas. Another VMU representative, doctoral student Sandra Bernotaitė introduced Pranas Vaseris, a little-known Lithuanian priest who settled in Australia after World War II, who published four prose books under the pen name Erlėnas and actively collaborated in the local Lithuanian Australian press.
VMU Lithuanian Emigration Institute’s representative Dr. Asta Petraitytė-Briedienė analyzed telegrams, business cards, programs, etc. that usually remain on the margins of research, whereas a VMU doctoral student and researcher of the National Library of Lithuania, Laura Charbakaitė, delved into the younger generation of the Lithuanian diaspora and the creation of visions of the future of Lithuania in the DP press. Prof. Danutė Petrauskaitė of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater concluded the first part of the seminar. This time, she walked along the paths of WWII refugees and Lithuanian opera soloists who toured Great Britain in 1948–1949.
The seminar continued with a presentation by Dr. Regina Laukaitytė of the Lithuanian Institute of History, in which she spoke about the correspondence of Lithuanians with their relatives who found themselves behind the Iron Curtain in the West. Dr. Daiva Dapkutė, senior researcher at the VMU Lithuanian Emigration Institute, shared her thoughts on the topics that still await researchers’ attention. VU doctoral student Ignas Stanevičius further delved into the topic of Lithuanian Catholic priests in diaspora, this time focusing on the reflections on everyday life in the diaries of Lithuanian priests of the late twentieth century. Silvija Stankevičiūtė, a researcher of the National Library of Lithuania, presented a new study on literary prizes in the Lithuanian diaspora in the United States after World War II.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Loreta Vilkienė of the Department of Lithuanian Studies at VU shared her research on an expedition to Kazakhstan several years ago. In her presentation “Lithuanian Language as an (Un)necessary Component of Identity: The Case of Kazakhstan,” she discussed the attitudes of Lithuanians or people of Lithuanian origin living in Kazakhstan towards the Lithuanian language. The last presenter, a VMU doctoral student Gintarė Navakauskaitė, looked for (e)migrant experiences in Dalia Staponkutė’s latest work, the parallel story novel Vivat regina! (Apostrofa, 2024).
The presentation of Dr. Asta Petraitytė-Briedienė’s new book Mylėti Lietuvą iš tolo: Lietuvos generaliniai konsulai Čikagoje Juzefa ir Petras Povilas Daužvardžiai (To Love Lithuania from Afar: Lithuanian Consuls General in Chicago, Juzefa and Petras Povilas Daužvardis; VMU, 2024) concluded the seminar. The book, based on documents housed in Lithuania and the USA and the memories of living witnesses, tells the extraordinary life story of the two long-time Lithuanian consuls in the United States, undeservedly forgotten and little known to the Lithuanian public.
Dalia Cidzikaitė