A pilot educational project “Conversations about Emigration,” last year implemented by National Library of Lithuania Lithuanian Research Department in Ukmergė town, this year has expanded its geography and came to the Utena County. Utena was not chosen accidentally. It is one of the leading Lithuanian counties in emigration. The first event of the “Conversations about Emigration-2” took place in Utena A. and M. Miškiniai Public Library on September 27.
This year, our project includes five high schools of the Utena County. Project’s participants will attend lectures by the VMU Lithuanian Emigration Institute researchers about the history of Lithuanian diaspora. They will also attend a workshop where they will learn how to use oral history method and compile a questionnaire. The students will be taught how to conduct an interview, to prepare the material, transcribe and summarize it. Each participant will have to record an interview with two immigrants. At the end of the project, the gathered oral history material will be deposited in public libraries in Molėtai, Anykščiai, Zarasai, Ignalina and Utena.
In the middle of the project, the students will come to Vilnius. Here they will participate in a discussion-meeting with emigres, who returned to Lithuania, hear about the dark side of immigration – modern slavery. The final event, debates, will be carried out by project’s partner, Global Lithuanian Leaders.
Lithuanian Studies Research Department of National Library of Lithuania