Cultural Expression of the Diaspora of the Baltic States in 1944-2018: Documentary Heritage

March 25, 2019

International Research Conference dedicated to World Lithuanian Year

Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library

Respublikos Str. 14, Panevėžys

14 May 2019

Diaspora’s activities in emigration, movable cultural heritage, concentrations of documentary heritage, their identification, storage, physical and digital recovery are in the focus of constant attention of memory and science institutions and independent researchers. The work of Baltic documentary heritage creators and preservers, inheriting the documentary legacy of diaspora communities, systematic research are an object of interest to both the emigrants and cultural communities of all the Baltic States. A lot of attention is paid to the cultural expression of the diaspora in the international network BaltHerNet, conferences, projects, publications. The problems of preservation and dissemination of documentary heritage of diaspora in Lithuania are solved and researched by universities (Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University, Lithuanian Emigration Institute in Kaunas etc.), archives (Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania, Lithuanian Archives of Literature and Art, Lithuanian Central State Archives), museums (National Museum in Vilnius, Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum in Kaunas etc.), libraries (Panevėžys County GabrielėPetkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, libraries of Vilnius and Klaipėda Universities etc.) and others. In the last 10–15 years, a certain breakthrough can be observed in recovering valuables to Lithuania, getting a better knowledge of the collections of documentary heritage and their authors. However, there is a lack of coordination in disseminatiing of information about the great work done, lack of consistency in the systematic research of various activities and initiatives, presenting to the public the life of diaspora communities through social networks, contemplating the fate of diffused world diaspora, the use of heritage in creating and modeling public discourse, shaping and reforming identities, disseminating new content media, creating digital products.

At the conference, we invite you to discuss the issues stressed above and focus on the following topics:

the methodological problems, typology, development and composition of the diaspora documentary heritage research;
informative, activist and literary publications of displaced persons’ camps;
diaspora publicists, authors literature and of scholarly works, and their heritage;
diaspora libraries, publishing and printing houses, bookstores, repertoire of publications, their dissemination;
archival heritage of diaspora organizations, of political, cultural and press personalities; problems of its tracing, preservation and awareness;
documentary heritage of diaspora abroad and in the country of origin, pecularities of their research;
heritage of the book culture of diaspora (bibliophile collections, personal libraries, archives);
activities of the radio stations which were broadcasting in the languages of the Baltic states abroad and their audio archives;
actualization of the Baltic documentary heritage in the countries of residence;
the importance of patronage in preserving the national identity of the exile communities and in fostering cultural heritage;
today’s diaspora media, its continuity and documentation: tools, organization, content;
diaspora and new media: blogs, social networks, discussion forums, video sharing sites;
ideas and initiatives for digitization, strategies, achievements; the role of audiovisual archives in gathering and protecting dispersed documentary heritage of the diaspora;
using diaspora documentary heritage in cultural communication, cinema, performances, art installations, creative industries.

Conference languages: Lithuanian, English.

Candidates are expected to provide summaries of the proposed papers (100-150 words, up to 1500 characters) and entry forms by 31 March 2019 by e-mail to audrone.palioniene[at]pavb.lt.

The candidates will be notified by conference organizers by 15 April 2019. The duration of presentation – 20 minutes, 5 minutes from which will be left for questions and discussion.

Articles based on the papers will be published in the special volume of Vilnius University peer-reviewed, open access and in Elsevier Scopus database reviewed scholarly journal „Knygotyra“ of the year 2020. We kindly draw your attention to the requirements for scholarly publications and bibliographic description, which can be found here: http://www.zurnalai.vu.lt/knygotyra/about/submissions .

Deadline for submission of articles – October 2019.

Organizers: Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library; Vilnius University, Faculty of Communication.

Partners: Documentary Heritage Research Department of Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania; Institute of Lithuanian Emigration of Vytautas Magnus University; Lithuanian Literature and Art Archive.

Sponsor: Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Conference Organizing Committee

Prof. dr. Arvydas Pacevičius, Vilnius University, Faculty of Communication (Chairperson)

Jurgita Bugailiškienė, Director of Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library (Vice-Chairperson)

Doc. dr. Juozapas Blažiūnas, Lithuanian Archive of Literature and Art

Jolanta Budriūnienė, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Dr. Daiva Dapkutė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuanian Emigration Institute

Acad. prof. Domas Kaunas, Vilnius University, Faculty of Communication

Juozas Markauskas, Vice President of Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council

Prof. dr. Remigijus Misiūnas, Vilnius University, Faculty of Communication

Prof. dr. Aušra Navickienė, Vilnius University, Faculty of Communication

Vahur Puik, Estonian Photographic Heritage Society

Prof. dr. ViestursZanders, NationalLibrary of Latvia

Contact person:

Audronė Palionienė, phone +370 45 464 861, e-mail audrone.palioniene[at]pavb.lt

Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė PublicLibrary