The night before the second anniversary of the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Yelyzaveta Drach, VU Ukrainian language lecturer, under her artistic name of ummsbiaus will present an audio-visual electro-noise-folk performance which will immerse spectators into kind of a deep sleep. The event is planned for 23 February, 7 p.m at Filologijos fakultetas, Repšys's Hall (Aisčių menė). 

The places are limited, so if you are planning to come, we kindly ask you to be registered via Google Forms > 
Free entrance by registration only.

Location: Vilnius university, the Repšys's Hall (Aisčių menė).
Date: February 23 2024, 19.00. 
Duration: 1 hour. 

We asked Yelyzaveta a few questions about the performance's idea, her creative process and choice of the technique.

What is your performance „The Night Before“ about?

For many years I’ve been experiencing some kind of a foreboding, a premonition that could give a certain hint about my future choices. Many people believe that in dreams our brain processes not only impressions of what was seen over the day, but also suggests the scenarios for the future. 

„The Night Before“ will be held on the evening before the beginning of the full-scale invasion to recreate the ambience of the last peaceful evening in Kyïv, two years ago, on February 23 2022. Using audio and visual channels I will try to transfer the equivocal sensations that could be felt on that night: fear mixed with hope, anxiety mixed with calm, and daze mixed with rage. This ambiguity is the best way to shortly describe my upcoming electro-noise-folk performance, on which I was working for quite a long time, as it grew from all the musical works I released within these two turbulent years.

During this time I’ve created a lot of things to fight my own anxiety and tell stories about the ongoing war in Ukraine and share them here, in Europe, while I am so far away from home. This performance won’t be an exception. Even though it is more metaphorical and symbolic, it will contain all the emotions I’ve been experiencing since that time. Besides the remixed pieces taken from my debut album Enerhomor, a work totally based on the sounds of electricity (like electricity meters, sounds of power stations and electricity transformers), my latest work Snovyda (Sleepwalker) Suite, where I experiment with sound perception during four stages of the sleep cycle, I also plan to perform some tracks from my upcoming collaborative work created together with Ukrainian experimental musician Difference Machine. 

In your performances you combine audio-visual techniques. Could you tell us more about the creative process behind it? 

The night before the beginning of the full-scale invasion was one of the most anxious nights in my life. The nightmares pictured in my head were totally indescribable to the extent that I cannot even call them “visions”'. It was this thin line between a vision and a sensation. Long after that night, when I moved to Vilnius due to the full-scale war in Ukraine, I restarted sketching in my black&white style, after an almost three-year pause. Those visuals I created were my own way to transform the sensations of the ongoing war into a kind of emotional liberation, put on paper. And, not less important, I always was drawing while listening to my own music, so the visuals were totally inspired by the sounds.

For me, audio and visual components of an artwork always come together. They form a unique time-space continuum and are truly able to generate a totally new world. In this performance called „The Night Before“ I play a lot with kaleidoscopic visuals changing their form, texture and colour according to the mood of the track they accompany, as if they are some kind of cells going through the stages of meiosis to reproduce themselves but in a different way. This is how, as for me, music evolves from any existent sound taken from the real world.

In the description of the performance, you say that it will “… immerse spectators into kind of a deep sleep“. Why did you choose this almost meditative approach? 

This approach is directly connected to my latest work released on all musical platforms, Snovyda (Sleepwalker) Suite No. 1, Op. 4, a very personal story that came from my long-term sleep issues. I chose the suite as a format because it usually consists of four movements which perfectly matches the sleep cycle. I've been experimenting with the perception of sounds while falling asleep for a long time. In fact, many of us have experienced falling asleep to music. But if you want to feel this specific distortion of sounds and remember it, you need to fully tune in. In this state, the sound floats, like on an old film, and the tonality can change. It's as if the brain is doing its own mixing of the track: the vocal parts are loud and soft, the sounds flow from one ear to the other.

In addition to the sounds, as I already mentioned above, an important component will be my drawings, which will accompany the whole performance. All of those are to some extent related to the state of hypnagogia which is a transitional state from wakefulness to sleep. This is also a certain transition between two feelings: anxiety and tranquility. The main visual attribute is the prism effect, which can be heard in the kaleidoscopic glass sounds.

I always choose a meditative approach because creating and performing music for me is some kind of my own therapy. When I am overwhelmed with anger and pain I need to process those feelings into sounds which would be able to make people feel what the war can bring in the minds of ordinary people who experienced it. We all know that people are able to believe something only once they have felt, seen and heard that. So my purpose is to immerse the spectators in this specific state of mind. 

Vasario 9 d., penktadienį, Filologijos fakulteto V. Krėvės auditorijoje vyko Pasaulinės graikų kalbos dienos minėjimas. Renginyje dalyvavo Fakulteto dekanas prof. dr. Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Graikijos ambasadorius J.E. p. Grigoris Karahalios, Klasikinės filologijos katedros lektorė Kristina Svarevičiūtė, profesorė dr. Fatima Eloeva ir kiti. Renginyje buvo aptarta graikų kalbos istorija, skambėjo graikų poetų eilės ir graikiška muzika.

Užfiksuotų renginio akimirkų autorius: Arvidas Balvočius.

We cordially invite you to the second Literature Seminar, which will be held in English, and will take place on Tuesday, 20th of February, at 5 pm in Kazimieras Būga auditorium.

This time the guest speaker will be Dr Patrycja Bąkowska from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The topic of her presentation: Anthropological Projects of the Enlightenment – Searching for the Ways of Emergence of the Polish Modern Subjectivity.

Annotation. In the "long" 18th century, the fall of the Republic and the attempt to regain independence with Napoleon are the events of the greatest importance for the formation of modern subjectivity in the Polish variant. The members of the community, who found themselves without their country, must have had experienced uprooting which was painful for those who preserved the memory of the former splendour of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The devaluation of the strategies of "self-rooting" (a citizen as a free person maintaining control over his own life) created in the Old Polish period and interpreted in the Enlightenment) forced the community to apply compensatory mechanisms. One of them was the attempt to create substitute communities: Legion soldiers fighting for freedom and brotherhood, "feeling" friends (implementing the ideas of sentimentalism), and enlightened people becoming citizens of the world. Due to the abundance of literature dealing with these issues, the presentation will focus on the works of three authors: Cyprian Godebski, Józef Wybicki, and Kazimierz Brodziński. The works of the above-mentioned actors of political and cultural life, especially autobiographical ones, are interesting traces of the emerging paths of Polish modernity.

About the speaker. Patrycja Bąkowska – graduate of Interdisciplinary Ph.D. studies in the field of translatology and comparative Slavic literature and language at Adam Mickiewicz University (2019), assistant professor in the Department of Old Polish and Enlightenment Literature (2020 – present). Her area of interest is the literature and culture of the Enlightenment, with particular emphasis on transformations of anthropology, identity, and aesthetics. Her Ph.D. thesis was awarded by the Polish Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. She is also a laureate of the Foundation for Polish Science Monographs Programme: Formy ekspresji podmiotowości nowoczesnej. Tożsamość indywidualna i zbiorowa w poezji polskiej schyłku XVIII i początku XIX wieku (Toruń 2021) [The Modes of Modern Self-expression. The Individual and Collective Identity in Polish Poetry From the Late 18th to the Beginning of the 19th Century]. In 2022, she took part in the International Seminar for Early Career Eighteenth-Century Scholars organized by ISECS. She has published a number of papers in journals and chapters in books.

Šiandien, vasario 14 d., ministrų kabinetas pritarė Kultūros ir meno premijų komisijos siūlymui vyriausybines premijas skirti 12 menininkų, tarp jų – poetui ir VU Filologijos fakulteto partnerystės docentui dr. Rimantui Kmitai. Sveikiname!

Premijos taip pat atiteko dailėtyrininkei Aleksandrai Aleksandravičiūtei, menininkui Žygimantui Augustinui, renginių režisierei, choreografei Leokadijai Dabužinskaitei, teatro ir kino aktoriui, režisieriui Arvydui Dapšiui, prozininkui, dramaturgui, prozininkui, dramaturgui, eseistui Herkui Kunčiui, styginių kvartetui „Chordos“, vargonininkei Renatai Marcinkutei-Lesieur, aktorei Eglei Eutropijai Mikulionytei, muziejininkei Aldonai Snitkuvienei, menininkui Julijonui Urbonui ir kompozitoriui Antanui Laimučiui Vilkončiui.

Nuo 1997 metų šios premijos skiriamos Lietuvos, taip pat pasaulio lietuvių kultūros ir meno kūrėjams ir veikėjams už svarų indėlį į kultūrą ir meną ir ypatingus šios srities nuopelnus.

Paskelbus Europos Sąjungos bendrosios mokslinių tyrimų ir inovacijų programos „Europos horizontas“ Marie Skłodowskos-Curie podoktorantūros stažuočių 2023 m. kvietimo teikti paraiškas rezultatus, paaiškėjo, kad dvi MSCA PF dotacijas gavo Vilniaus universiteto (VU) pareiškėjai. Dar dviem su VU paraiškas teikusiems tyrėjams sėkmė nusišypsojo ERA Fellowships konkurse. 

Vienas iš MSCA PF dotaciją gavusių mokslininkų – VU Filologijos fakultete podoktorantūros stažuotę vykdysiantis dr. Patrykas Michałas Ryczkowskis. Jo novatoriško projekto pavadinimas – „Catholic inculturation of the Uniate Church: Basilian hagiography of the 17th and 18th centuries (BasInCult)“. Stažuotei vadovauja Klasikinės filologijos katedros docentas dr. Mintautas Čiurinskas. Sveikiname!

Finansavimas skirtas ir VU Gyvybės mokslų centre projektą „Genomic Exploration—Mapping the Spread, Evolution, and Adaptation of an Emerging bacterial pathogen—Achromobacter (GEM-SEE-Achro)“ įgyvendinsiančiai dr. Miglei Gabrielaitei. Stažuotės vadovas – dr. Gytis Dudas. 

Dar dviejų su VU paraiškas teikusių tyrėjų podoktorantūros stažuotėms finansuoti skirtos ERA Fellowships dotacijos. Šiame konkurse automatiškai dalyvauja su institucijomis iš vadinamųjų plėtros šalių (angl. widening countries) teikti ir bendro MSCA PF konkurso metu puikiai įvertinti, tačiau dėl kvietimo biudžeto apribojimų nefinansuoti projektai. 

VU Tarptautinių santykių ir politikos mokslų institute projektą „Understanding FinTech Regulatory Sandbox Development in Europe (FIRSA)“ įgyvendins dr. Alfredo Hernandezas Sanchezas. Vadovas – doc. dr. Vytautas Kuokštis. 

Dr. Giulia Lausi kompetencijas gilins VU Teisės fakultete vykdydama projektą „Investigating Gender-Based Discrimination: Unveiling the Underlying Mechanisms (UnveilGBD)“. Stažuotės vadovė – doc. dr. Ilona Michailovič. 

Iš viso Europos Komisija finansuos 1249 talentingiausių jaunųjų tyrėjų MSCA PF projektus ir 50 ERA Fellowships projektų. 

Kviečiame mokytojus ar dėstytojus, dirbančius lituanistinio švietimo įstaigose užsienyje, teikti paraiškas intensyviems neformaliems dviejų savaičių kursams.

Kursai vyks gyvai 2024 m. birželio 16–30 d., dalyviams bus mokama 412,50 Eur stipendija. Kursus organizuoja Lituanistinių studijų katedra, laimėjusi Švietimo mainų paramos fondo projektą.

Kursuose dalyviai ne tik praplės žinias, kaip mokyti lietuvių kalbos kaip paveldėtosios, susipažins su naujai išleistomis mokymo priemonėmis, bet ir dalinsis savo patirtimi ir lankys parodas, edukacijas.

Paraiškos teikiamos iki 2024 m. kovo 6 d.

Daugiau informacijos rasite čia >

Vasario 9 d., penktadienį, Italijos Respublikos ambasadorius Lietuvoje Emanuele de Maigret susitiko su Filologijos fakulteto dekanu prof. dr. Mindaugu Kvietkausku. Susitikime taip pat dalyvavo ambasadoriaus pavaduotoja Alice Barberis, ambasadoriaus padėjėja Lina Limantaitė, Filologijos fakulteto studijų prodekanė doc. dr. Gintarė Judžentytė, Italų kalbotyros ir literatūros katedros nariai, prie italistikos sklaidos Filologijos fakultete prisidedantys kolegos.

Susitikimo metu Dekanas džiaugėsi galėdamas pradėti naują bendradarbiavimo etapą su ką tik į Lietuvą atvykusiu Ambasadoriumi ir taip toliau tęsti pradėtas Fakulteto italistų veiklas. Italų kalbotyros ir literatūros katedros vedėjas doc. dr. Diego Ardoino kartu su kolegomis pristatė džiugią italistikos studijų padėtį, įgyvendintus ir būsimus projektus, toliau besivystančius studentų bei dėstytojų mainus su Italijos universitetais, organizacijomis ir įmonėmis. Ambasadorius pasidalino ateities planais ir nuoširdžiai kvietė bendradarbiauti su Italijos Respubliko ambasada ir Italų kultūros institutu Vilniuje.

Po susitikimo Italų kalbotyros ir literatūros katedros nariai aprodė Ambasados atstovams Simono Stanevičiaus kiemą ir jame įsikūrusią italistų katedrą.

Ambasadorius Emanuele de Maigret, dekanas prof. Mindaugas Kvietkauskas ir
ambasadoriaus pavaduotoja Alice Barberis

The Vilnius University Stylistics Reading Group was founded in October 2023. Its members, both VU academic staff and students, meet monthly in hybrid mode to discuss published papers in stylistics and related disciplines (for example, discourse analysis, rhetoric, narratology, media linguistics) and to apply their frameworks and methods to poems, short stories, and other pieces of creative writing. The group is run on a Teams page where files are uploaded, and internal communication managed.

The overall aim of the group is to promote language- and text-based (intrinsic) approaches to literature and discourse, as well as to enhance critical thinking by evaluating published research. A related but more specific aim is that of putting to test the replicability and retrievability of stylistics, that is, to see if its methods are rigorous enough as it is usually claimed to enable different researchers to reach similar analytical and interpretive conclusions. It is hoped that new collaborations will ensue from the reading group, including the co-authoring of papers and the organisation of conferences and symposia.

If you are interested in joining the group, or in getting additional information, please contact Davide Castiglione at . Do not worry if you are a newcomer in the field of stylistics: some working knowledge in linguistics/grammar and a passion for literary works is all is required!