MAIN
Professor
Address: Universiteto 5, LT-01513 Vilnius
Phone: +370 5 268 7232
Lithuanian Research Council PRETERMOTHER
Horizon 2020 TWINNING MotherNet – co-ordinator
Office hours: contact by email
Fields of research
- 20-21st century Writing in French
- Feminist, gender, and motherhood theory
- Comparative Literature
- Migration and mobility
- Mother Tongue
- Migrant Mothers
PUBLICATIONS
Books
- 2021 with Kate Averis and Catherine Mao (eds.), Transgression(s) in Twenty-First-Century Women’s Writing, Leiden: Brill-Rodopi, Faux Titre, vol. 444.
- 2019 with Marina Cavazza. Portrait of a (Working) Mother, Geneva: Georg, 147p.
- 2012 Savos ir svetimos (Strange and Familiar Selves) (Strange and Familiar Selves), Vilnius: Vilnius University Press, 288p.
Journal issues edited
- 2025 with Rodgers, Julie, Eglė Kačkutė, Rūta Šlapkauskaitė (eds.), Global Narratives of Motherhood, Literatūra, Vilnius: Vilnius University Press.
- 2025 with O’Brien, Anne, Marian Crowly-Henry, (eds.), Motherhood, Subjectivity and Work, Gender, Work, Organization, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- 2024 with Valerie Heffernan (eds.), Motherhood, Mobility, Migration Contemporary Women’s Writing, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- 2019 with Kate Averis and Catherine Mao (eds.), Sexual/Textual Boundaries: Recent Women’s Writing in French, a special issue of L’Esprit Créateur, Vol. 59, No 3.
- 2019 with Kate Averis and Catherine Mao (eds.), Crossings in Women’s Writing in French in the Twenty-First Century, a special issue of Crossways Journal Vol. 3.1. Vol. 3.1.
Peer-reviewed articles
- 2025 Rodgers, Julie, Eglė Kačkutė, Rūta Šlapkauskaitė (red.) 2025, Writing and Voicing Mothers and Motherhood: The Rise of the Maternal Narrative, in Literatūra numeris, Vilnius: Vilnius University Press.
- 2025 with O’Brien, Anne, Marian Crowly-Henry, Editorial: Motherhood, Subjectivity and Work, Gender, Work, Organization, 1649-1653. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13255
- 2025 with Hilbig, Inga ir Vitalija Kazlauskiene, Feelings of maternal guilt among Lithuanian migrant mothers and disharmonious bilingualism: a case study, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-12.
- 2025 ‘Subjectivities of Highly Skilled Lead, Tied, and Equal MigrantMothers.’ Gender, Work & Organization: 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13166.16
- 2024 with Valerie Heffernan, Introduction: Motherhood, Mobility, Migration in Twenty-First-Century Women’s Writing, Contemporary Women's Writing 18(2), 1-19.
- 2024 with Valerie Heffernan, “My Work Is to Show That It’s So Much More Beautiful When You Can Mix”: An Interview with Kim Thúy, Contemporary Women's Writing, 18(2), 1-12.
- 2024 The Migrant Mother’s Silence in Her Mother Tongue as a Mothering Strategy, Contemporary Women's Writing, 18(2), 1-18.
- 2019‘ Relational Aspects of Migrant Mothering in Nathacha Appanah’s La Noce d’Anna and Ying Chen’s La Lenteur des montagnes,‘ Crossways Journal, 3/1.
- 2018 ‘Mothering in the Stepmother Tongue: Maternal Subjectivity and Linguistic Practice in Nancy Huston’s Autobiographical Non-Fiction,’ Nottingham French Studies, 57/3, pp. 274-285. DOI: 10.3366/nfs.2018.0224
- 2018 ‘Mothering Across Languages and Cultures in Chen’s Letters to her Children’ Women: A Cultural Review 29/1 (2018), pp. 59-74. DOI: 10.1080/09574042.2018.1425536
- 2015 “Mothering in a Foreign Language: Silent and/or Multilingual Mothers in Dalia Staponkutė's The Silence of the Mothers”. Women’s Studies International Forum, special issue on Mothering and Migration, ed. Gill Rye, 52, pp. 82-91. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2015.06.004
- 2015 “Migrantės motinos tapatumas Betty Quan dramoje Gimtoji kalba”, Literatūra57(4), pp. 68-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15388/Litera.2015.4.9806
- 2012 ‘Nuo Vilniaus iki Ženevos: Sofijos Čiurlionienės-Kymantaitės dalyvavimas moterų judėjime ir veikla Tautų Sąjungoje’. Lyčių tyrimai ir studijos, 10 (10), pp. 8–15 ISBN: 2424-3310
- 2009 ‘Save peraugantis tapatumas Alison Louise Kennedy kūriniuose Tai aš džiaugiuosi ir Pirminė palaima’. Literatūra, 51 (4), pp. 84–100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15388/Litera.2009.4.7749
- 2007 ‘Identity in A.L. Kennedy’s Novel So I am Glad and Short Story Original Bliss’, Literatūra, 48 (4), pp. 76-82. SSN 0258–0802.
- 2006 “Women's Literary Tradition in France and the UK?”, Acta litteraria comparativa : Kultūros intertekstai, Culture Intertexts 2, pp. 7-16.
- 2005 “Ar tebeaktualus ir ar tebemoteriškas‚ moterų rašymas”, Literatūra, 47 (4) pp.79-82.
- 2004 “Tapatumo problema Marie NDiaye romanuose”. Literatūra, 46 (4), pp. 95-103.
- 2002 “The World According to Woman”, Feminizmas, Visuomenė, Kultūra, (4) pp. 35-40.
Peer-reviewed chapters
- 2023 “Orality/Aurality and Voice of the Voiceless Mother in Abla Farhoud’s Happiness Has a Slippery Tail.” In Wahlström Henriksson, H., Williams, A., Fahlgren, M. (eds.) Narratives of Motherhood and Mothering in Fiction and Life Writing. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life Series. Palgrave Macmillan. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17211-3_5.
- 2021 'Mothering Across Languages and Cultures in Chen’s Letters to her Children', in Valerie Heffernan and Gay Wilgus (eds.) Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First-Century Women’s Writing, London: Routledge.
- ‘Migrant Maternal Subjectivities in Catherine Cusset’s Un brilliant avenir’. In Geneviève Guetemme (ed.) Écrire la mobilité. Représentations littéraires et artistiques, Editions Paradigmes, pp.231-248.
- 2016 ‘Mother Tongue as the Language of Mothering and a Homing Practice in Betty Quan’s Mother Tongue and Hiromi Goto’s Chorus of Mushrooms’ In: Anna Kuroczycka Schultes and Helen Vallianatos (eds.), The Migrant Maternal: Birthing New Lives Abroad, Demeter Press, pp. 56-74.
- 2008 ‘Subjectivity in A.L. Kennedy's Writing’. In Regina Rudaitytė (ed.) Postmodernism and After, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle, pp. 79-89.
- 2008 ‘La Métaphore de la famille chez Marie Ndiaye’. In M. L. Clément et S. van Wesemael (eds.) Relations familiales dans les littératures française et francophone des XXe et XXIe siècles. La figure de la mère, L'Harmattan: Paris, pp. 273-283.
- 2007 ‘The Self as Other in French and British Contemporary Women’s Writing’. In: Adalgisa Giorgio and Julia Waters (eds.) Women's Writing in Western Europe: Gender, Generation, Legacy, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle, pp. 375-389.
Review articles
- 2022 Review of ‘Robert Payne, Reimagining the Family. Lesbian Mothering in Contemporary French Literature’(Oxford: Peter Lang, Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing 11, 2021) 255 pp., Irish Journal of French Studies 22, pp. 156-157.
- 2022 Review of ‘Pauline Eaton, Mothers Voicing Mothering? The Representation of Motherhood in the Novels and Short Stories of Marie NDiaye’ (Oxford: Peter Lang, Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing 10, 2021) 255 pp., Irish Journal of French Studies 22, pp. 156-157.
- 2015 ‘Steponavičiūtė, Ieva. Texts at Play. The Ludic Aspects of Karen Blixen’s Writing, Scandinavistica Vilnensis 3, Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2011’. Literatūra, 57 (4), pp. 119-121.
- 2014 Review of 'Davoliūtė, V. and Balkelis, T., Maps of Memory. Trauma, Identity, and Exile in Deportation Memoirs from the Baltic States, Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, 2012'. Lituanus, 60:1, pp. 97-101.
- 2013 Review of 'Kvietkauskas, M., ed., Transitions of Lithuanian Postmodernism. Lithuanian Literature in the Post-Soviet Period, Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2011'. Lituanus, 59:2, pp. 70-75
RESEARCH AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
Research grants, fellowships and scholarships
- Lithuanian Research Council Awarded for (PreterMother) [195 981,00 EUR] Lead
- 2025- European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Awarded for Dr. Orlagh Woods Fellowship “Repro-Fiction: Synthesising Literature and Reproductive Healthcare“
- 2021-2023 European Commission, ERASMUS+. Awarded for “Need to Connect – NTC”. 2021-1-IS01-KA220-YOU-000028985 investigator [296 777,00 EUR]
- 2021-2022 Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK). Awarded for Salt Babies: Narrating Maternity in Russian and Comparative Literature, Co-Investigator [£42 162.93]
- 2020-2021 Lithuanian Council for Culture (together with Lithuanian Librarian Association). Awarded for Migration, Motherhood, Career (exhibition “Portrait of a (Working) Mother“ and accompanying public events) [€2 300,00]
- 2021-2024 H2020-WIDESPREAD-05-2020 – Twinning. Awarded for MotherNet, Developing a New Network of Researchers on Contemporary European Motherhood, Co-ordinator [€898,178.75]
- 2020-2024 COST Network Action CA19103 – LGBTI+ Social and Economic (in)equalities (LGBTI+) – first substitute in the action management committee.
- 2018 Maynooth University Publication Fund Award. Awarded for the book Portrait of a (Working) Mother [€1800]
- 2017 Maynooth University Conference and Workshop Fund. Awarded for the Motherhood, Mobility, Migration Symposium [€1500]
- 2016-2018 Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. Awarded for post-doctoral research project “Motherhood and Migration: Between Languages, Cultures and Identities” [€87,140.00]
- 2013-2015 Lithuanian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. Awarded for post-doctoral research project “Motherhood in Migration” [€39,605.75]
- 2015 Lithuanian Research Council. Awarded for travel to the international conference Motherhood and Culture [€450]
- 2014 University of London, UK. Non-stipendiary Visiting Fellowship
- 2006 Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation. Awarded for doctoral research
- 2005 School of Advanced Study UNESCO Fellowship. Awarded for doctoral research at Cambridge University [€5,000]
- 2003-2004 French Government Scholarship. Awarded for M.A. studies at Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle [€8,437]
- 2000-2001 Open Society Institute and Chevening Scholarship Awarded for MPhil studies at Cambridge University [£5,672 maintenance + fees]
Supervision
- Matteo Silvestri PhD Fetishism of the dead female body in the 19th- and 20th-century French literature and culture
- Jonės Šulcaitės-Brollo PhD Reflection of Sexual Violence in Contemporary Lithuanian, French and British Women's Writing
- Jolanta Malažinskienė PhD Motherhood in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence. Consultant. Supervisor Eglė Šumskienė
- I am interested in supervising projects on any aspects of migration, gender, motherhood and French studies.
Postdoctoral Supervision
- Dr. Orlagh Woods Postdoctoral Fellowship “Repro-Fiction: Synthesising Literature and Reproductive Healthcare.”
- Vera Gajiu « Nouveaux enjeux de la maternité dans la littérature française, roumaine et italienne du XXIe siècle » Passau universitete (Vokietija), member of supervisory committee, supervisor prof. dr. Marina Ortrud Hertrampf.
Research projects
- 2021- Head of Research Group "Apmąstant Motinystę/Thinking Motherhood"
- 2016-2018 “Motherhood and Migration: Between Languages, Cultures and Identities”
- 2013-2015 “Mothergood in Migration”
- 2013-2018 Portrait of a (Working Mother) with Marina Cavazza
Visiting research positions
- 2024 Visiting Fellow, Arts and Humanities Institute, Maynooth University
- 2014 Visiting Fellow, Advanced School of Study, University of London
- 2014 Visiting Fellow, Gender Studies Institute, Geneva University
- 2005 UNESCO Fellow, French Department, University of Cambridge
Honours
- 2018 Prix de la délégation générale du Québec à Londres Awarded for the course Quebec Migrant Women’s Writing
- 2011 Finalist of the Best PhD Awards, Lithuania
Conferences and workshops organised
- 2024 International Conference “Thinking Through Motherhood: Images, Experiences and Narratives Across Time” 23-25.01.2024, VU (member of organising committee)
- 2022 International conference Perspectives de langue(s) dans les littératures d’expression française (head of organising commitee)
- 2022 International conference White Ink, Red Flag: Expressing Maternity in Eastern European Culture, with prof. Muireann Maguire, Exeter University (member of organising committee)
- 2022 International Online Conference Radiant Maternity su prof. Muireann Maguire, Vilniaus universitetas with Exeter University (member of organising committee
- 2021 National Conference Stages of Women‘s Emancipation (Lithuanian Institute of Literature and Folklore) (member of organising committee)
- 2021 International conferenceRomain Gary et André Malraux: dans leur Temps et dans le nôtre, Vilnius University (member of organising committee)
- 2020 International conference La carte dans la littérature of the conference cycle INSPIRATIONS, Bialystok University (member of organising committee)
- 2018 International two-day Symposium “Motherhood, Mobility, Migration”, Maynooth University
- 2016 with Dr Kate Averis (University of London Institute in Paris) International Contemporary Women’s Writing in French (CWWF) network conference ‘Overstepping the Boundaries / Transgresser les limites: 21st-Century Women’s Writing in French’, University of London.
Panels convened
- 2025 Motherhood and Migration/Mobility of the Highly Skilled (Eglė Kačkutė ir Aya Kitamura (Tsuda University, Japonija), International Conference Decentering migration studies, Campus Condorcet, France.
- 2023 Subjectivities of Working Mothers, Gender. International Conference Work & Organization of Gender, Work & Organization Journal, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. 28-29.06.2023.
- 2022 Mothers & Work. With Valerie Heffernan, International Congress Ganarse La Vida. Género Y Trabajo A Través De Los Siglos, Pampaneira, Grana, Spain 12-16.09.2022
- 2022 Voices of Migrant Mothers in French. 10th International conference of Women in French, Iowa State University, USA. 12-14.05.2022
- 2019 Narratives of Forced Migration from Lithuania (1940–1958), International Conference Narratives of Forced Migration in the 20th and 21st Centuries, University of Stirling, UK. 16-18.9.2019
Evaluation/expertise
- 2021- State Examinations Commission, Republic of Ireland
- 2021 - Literature Ireland
- 2019 – 2024 European Commission
- 2018- Member of the Board & Programme Co-director. International Literature Festival “Vilnius Pages” http://www.vilniauslapai.lt/en/
- 2018-2024 Literature Lithuanian Council for Culture
- 2019 Member of the Foreign Languages Development Group. National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (Ireland)
Research based exhibition Portrait of a (Working) Mother (with Marina Cavazza)
- 2022 Exeter University and Devon and Exeter Institution, Exeter
- 2021 Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library and the library network of Lithuanian Library Association
- 2020 ETH, Zurich
- 2019 Colonnades, World Labour Organization, Geneva
- 2019Galleria Xenia, Italian Culture Institute, Budapest
- 2018 UNECE Regional Conference on ICPD+25 « Enabling Choices: Population Dynamics and Sustainable Development“, Palais des Nations, United Nations, Geneva
- 2018 Passerelle, Palais des Nations, United Nations, Geneva
- 2018 Illuminations Gallery, Maynooth University, Maynooth
- 2017 World Trade Organisation, Geneva
Evaluation/expertise
- 2021 – State Examinations Commission, Republic of Ireland
- 2021 – Literature Ireland
- 2019 – 2024 European Commission
- 2018 – Member of the Board & Programme Co-director. International Literature Festival “Vilnius Pages”
- 2018 – 2024 Literature Lithuanian Council for Culture
- 2019 – Member of the Foreign Languages Development Group. National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (Ireland)
INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS
Modules
- Contemporary French and Francophone Literature (in French)
- Bachelor’s Final Thesis Seminar
- Gender and Culture (in Lithuanian) BUS IND BA
- Contemporary Motherhood and Fatherhood (in English and in Lithuanian) BUS BA
- Contemporary Women’s Writing: Diversity of Identity and Form (in French)
- Literature and Migration (in French) BA
I am interested in supervising projects on any aspects of motherhood, particularly in the areas of literary and cultural studies. and any other aspect of gender studies.