Vilnius University Faculty of Communication invites to the online seminar The communist prison camp Goli Otok as site of memory, legacy of dissent and dark tourism destination. The talk will be led by Tea Sindbæk Andersen – Associate Professor of East European Studies at the Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. Seminal will take place online on 29th September, 4 PM Vilnius time (3PM CET).

The labour camp on Goli Otok (the “Naked Island”) in the Croatian Adriatic Sea has an infamous history as cruel political prisons for real and suspected political opponents during the Stalinist period of Yugoslavia. The camp was later turned into a prison for ‘ordinary’ criminals as well as for politically problematic individuals, and the levels of harassment and torture were lowered. Yet, the island camp remains a core icon of political repression and state-organized violence. It has been vividly described in fictional since the early 1980s, and like Solsjenitsyn’s Gulag writings in the USSR, these works could in themselves be regarded as acts of regime critique and dissidence. During the last decades, debates have unfolded in Croatia about how to preserve and institutionalize this site of memory. Some voices wish to turn the camp into an institutionalized heritage site commemorating a legacy of political repression and dissent, and indeed the island already attract visitors and figure on the internet as a site of so-called “dark tourism”.

This talk explores both the creation of a literary tradition of memory by tracing the writings that have helped to establish the camps as a site of memory of political repression and dissidence in Yugoslavia and Croatia, and the debates and processes involved in the potential re-construction of the physical remnants of the camp as heritage site and tourist attraction, documenting both a dark history and a legacy of repression and dissent. Thus, Goli Otok is regularly invested with new meanings, both as a location of tourism and of organized commemoration. These complex processes of meaning making as well as the troubling history of the camp islands itself may help to explain why it holds a strange and somehow uncertain position within the national memory politics of Croatia.

Tea Sindbæk Andersen is Associate Professor of East European Studies at the Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. Tea’s research focuses on the contemporary history of Southeastern Europe, especially on issues related to cultural memory, uses of history, identity politics and popular culture in the Yugoslav area.

Language of the seminar – English.

Registration to the seminar: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-communist-prison-camp-goli-otok-as-site-of-memory-tickets-177144232167

The seminar is organised in the framework of the project CONNECTIVE: digital memory in borderlands: a mixed-methods study of cultural identity, heritage communication and digital curation on social networks. This project has received funding from European Social Fund (project No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-17-0027) under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT).

We would like to inform you that in order to increase epidemiological safety, in contact meetings and during contact academic sessions, all participants of contact activities must wear protective masks in auditoriums, corridors, offices and other premises in Faculty of Communication.

Masks are not mandatory (but recommended) for the lecturer if the distance between the lecturer and the students is more than 2 meters and for the employee in his / her office if he / she is alone in the office.

Stay healthy and don’t forget your mask!

VU Communication faculty publishing the most important details about the new academic year through pandemic. As only people with National Certificate will be able to return to face-to-face meetings, Dean of VU Faculty of Communication professor Rimvydas Laužikas also encourages for all of us to get our vaccines: “Only people with the National Certificate will be able to participate in contact sessions. Therefore, I am inviting everyone who have not been vaccinated yet to do so. How we will continue our academic year is the result of each and every one of our personal decisions. ”

On 6th July at 11:30 CEST, Arqus organizes the online lecture "Developing intercultural competencies: From structural internationalization to the implementation of an agenda of integration" by Silvia Didier, from the Université de Lyon.

In the latest QS World University Rankings 2022, Vilnius University (VU) took a record high position and for the first time, ranked 400th in this ranking.

This is also the highest rating ever achieved by Lithuanian universities in the global ranking of QS universities; therefore, this position is significant not only for the history of higher education at VU but also for the whole of Lithuanian higher education.

“Being among the 400 best universities in the world is a significant achievement for all Lithuanian higher education, testifying to the fact that our country has all the prerequisites for the highest level of international science and studies.

I am certain that we are strong enough to establish ourselves among the best universities in the world and to adhere to the highest standards as they are understood in the international scientific community. However, this requires constant constructive dialogue with the public authorities so that the funding of science and studies allows for the planning of a long-term perspective.

We prove that we can achieve and exceed the set goals, the state must prove that it considers education a priority,” VU Rector Prof. Rimvydas Petrauskas said.

VU has been ranked in the global QS rankings among more than one and a half thousand other higher education institutions for almost a decade, and this time has risen by more than 200 positions in total. First evaluated in 2014, VU ranked 601-650. Currently, being in the 400th position, VU represents Lithuania by shaping high scientific standards, which increasingly contribute to attracting international researchers and becomes a serious competitor to prestigious European universities.

“We are proud of the academic community of Vilnius University. Its efforts strengthen not only the global image of the university but also the image of the city. This time, by being among the top 400, VU has once again proved that it has the energy to grow and create breakthrough ideas,” Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said.

This year, VU ranked especially high - 135 position - in terms of teaching quality. According to the criterion of academic reputation, rising by 27 positions compared to last year, this year VU ranks 400th, and 434th in terms of employee evaluation.

When compiling QS world university rankings, higher education institutions are evaluated according to a total of six criteria: Academic Reputation, rating of the best institutions in terms of research, Employer Reputation, rating of the best professional training institutions, Citations per Faculty, the ratio of the number of students and lecturers in the departments (Faculty Student), the share of foreign lecturers (International Faculty) and the number of foreign students (International Students).

Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania together with the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University, Baltic Audio-visual Archival Council and partners are organizing an international scientific conference on “Displaced Documentary Heritage: Identification, Availability, Research, and Dissemination” on September 21–22, 2021 and invite to submit presentations.

The goals of the conference are to urge both researchers and practicians to discuss and bring up to date the issue of the documentary heritage, related to Lithuania though preserved abroad, the so-called, displaced heritage: its identification, availability, recovery of original documents or their digital versions.The goals also include the discussions on the significance of such heritage for the development of both the Lithuanian nation and the state, also its potential in such areas as historical, cultural or social development research, digital reconstructions or cultural and creative industries. During the conference, the organisers expect to have a conceptual discussion on the search for (identification of) the documentary heritage, taken away from Lithuania, as well as the way it relates to the heritage consisting of books and manuscripts or the heritage preserved in the museums. The discussion will also include such issues as the state of things in the archives, accumulated by the Lithuanian communities abroad, prospective areas of activities of memory institutions, as well as sharing the results of research.

Participants are invited to deliver their presentations on the following sub-topics:

• Reasons, development and the actors involved in the destruction of archival collections.
• Research of the scattered heritage with the view of the state development, national identity and expression of historical memory.
• Legal aspects of preservation, retrieval and use of the scattered documentary heritage.
• Accumulation and management of the information on the Lithuania-related documentary heritage in Lithuania.
• Documentary heritage, preserved in the institutions of the Lithuanian communities abroad, the research of this heritage and the problems related to its retrieval.
• Lithuania-related documentary heritage, preserved in foreign institutions, the research of this heritage, its digitisation and dissemination.
• Interinstitutional and international cooperation in the area of identification and preservation of the displaced heritage related to Lithuania.
• Problem of origin and typology of the displaced heritage. Documents of the working and personal nature, ego-document collections.
• Representations of the documentary heritage on social networking sites, reconstruction of the collections and their dissemination in virtual environment.
• Information and communication of the audio-visual heritage, digitisation and research of the displaced heritage.

Date of the conference: September 21, 2021– September 22, 2021.

Venue: Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania; Mindaugo St. 8, Vilnius.

Working languages: English, Lithuanian.

Specifications: both physical and online participation.

Deadline for submitting the summaries of presentations: summaries of presentations (250–300 words), including the topic, name of the author(s), scientific degree or teaching title, institution and contact details (address, phone number and e-mail), are to be submitted by 15 June 2021 on the e-mail address:

Information on the acceptance of presentations: speakers will be informed on the acceptance of their summaries by 30 June 2021.

Duration of presentation: 20 minutes. It is planned to publicize the presentation based articles in a special edition of 2022 of the journal “Knygotyra”, which is referred to in the ElsevierScopus database since 2018. Planned date for submitting: by 12 December 2021.

Contact persons:

• dr. (HP) Arvydas Pacevičius – Professor at the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University.
• Daiva Lukšaitė – Head of the Unit of Document and Archives Management and Use of the Office of Chief Archivist of Lithuania.

Organizational Committee:

• Asta Petraitytė-Briedienė, Researcher at the Lithuanian Emigration Institute of Vytautas Magnus University.
• Juozapas Blažiūnas, Director of Lithuanian Archives of Literature and Art.
• GiedrėMilerytė-Japertienė, Head of the Division of Historical Collections of the National Museum of Lithuania.
• Daiva Lukšaitė, Head of the Unit of Document and Archives Management and Use of the Office of Chief Archivist of Lithuania,
• Kristina Ramonienė, Chief Archivist of Lithuania,
• Juozas Markauskas, President of the Baltic Audio-visual Archival Council, Member of the Council for Digitisation of Lithuanian Cultural Heritage.
• dr. (HP) Arvydas Pacevičius, Professor at the Faculty of Communication ofVilnius University,
• dr. Juozas Skirius, Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Chief Researcher at the Lithuanian Emigration Institute of Vytautas Magnus University,
• Vitalija Stravinskienė, Researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History,
• Inga Zakšauskienė, Assistant at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University.