On April 16–17, the Department of English Philology at Vilnius University hosts the annual student conference “English Studies 2026: Discourse and Society”
Over more than two decades, the conference has grown into an international event. This year, it brings together over 40 student presenters, featuring 4 plenary talks and 4 workshops.
Participants and guests come from Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Spain, France, Austria, Italy, Ukraine, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan.
The topics of the presentations reflect key directions in contemporary English Studies and the concerns of a new generation of scholars. In linguistics, students focus on social media discourse, neologisms, political language, multilingualism, identity construction, and digital communication. In literature and culture, they explore dystopia, trauma, motherhood, queer identity, power, narrative structures, and the fragility of the human condition.
On the eve of the conference, participants are invited to a walk titled “Public Spaces, Body and the Sense of Place” During the walk, Prof. Almantas Samalavičius will introduce and discuss public spaces in Vilnius.
This year, the symbol of the conference is the blue crow, created by Emilija Varnelytė (BA in English Philology, Year 4).
The conference creates a space for emerging scholars to reflect on a rapidly changing world, where language and narrative serve as essential tools for understanding the self and society.
