European Public Sphere: Politics, Communication, Discourse
Research overview
The idea of European Public Sphere – of media-sustained imaginary spaces where all of the diversities and commonalities of multicultural Europe are expressed and celebrated – is an appealing and thought-provoking concept and one that continuously attracts the attention of scholars, policy-makers, writers, and journalists from all over Europe. Therefore, the goal of the research cluster „European Public Sphere – Politics, Communication, Discourse“ at VMU is to find commonalities and intersections among those very diverse fields of Europeanization studies ranging from journalism, communication studies and identity issues, to regional studies, comparative politics and international relations. At the same time, this research perspective seeks to address new questions and includes these into the comparative research agenda.
The cluster unites 41 scholars, researchers and PhD students from two VMU Faculties – Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy and Faculty of Social Sciences. It is one of the biggest and most productive research groups at the university: in the last six years, almost 200 scientific publications were published, more than 40 conferences and seminars organized and 20 PhD dissertations defended.
Main researchers
- Leader of the group Assoc. Prof. Ingrida Unikaitė-Jakuntavičienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Prof. Auksė Balčytienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Prof. Šarūnas Liekis (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Andžej Pukšto (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Sima Rakutienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Prof. Kristina Juraitė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Prof. Ilona Tamutienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Prof. Audronė Nugaraitė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Jūratė Imbrasaitė (VMU Faculty of Social Sciences)
- Assoc. Prof. Linas Venclauskas (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Dr. Rytis Bulota (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Ignas Kalpokas (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Gintarė Žukaitė-Zelenkienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Ligita Šarkutė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Inesa Bunevičienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Dr. Daumantas Stumbrys (VMU Faculty of Social Sciences)
- Dr. Giedrė Pranaitytė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Dr. Ernesta Buckienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Dr. Mindaugas Kaselis (VMU Faculty of Social Sciences)
- Jaq Greenspon (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Assoc. Prof. Mindaugas Norkevičius (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Dr. Birutė Peištarė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
PhD candidates
- Donata Bocullo (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Linas Kontrimas (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Vytautas Kirka (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Austė Aleksandravičiūtė-Šviažienė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Irmina Beneševičiūtė (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)
- Mantas Macikas (VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy)