Call for Applications: Conference Dedicated to Centenary of VMU

VMU Centre of Kaunas History invites everyone to participate in the 26th annual scientific and interdisciplinary conference dedicated to research on Kaunas titled Centenary of Vytautas Magnus University: Its Significance to the City and the State. The conference will take place on February 24-25, 2022 at Vytautas Magnus University, marking the centenary of its inception. VMU was founded in 1922 and named after Vytautas the Great in 1930.

The political events of the history of Lithuania in the 20th century have determined the emergence of the university in Kaunas. The university, established in 1922, eventually became a distinctive feature of the city and a part of its urban identity. As the only Lithuanian higher education institution at the time, it not only brought together the country’s scientific and social elite, the most prominent personalities with the highest merits for Lithuania, but also prepared many prominent scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, writers and public figures. It transformed Lithuanian into a language of science, higher culture and artistic expression and helped Lithuania’s creative potential spread in the European intellectual space.

In just two decades, the university became Lithuania’s centre of culture, science as well as free intellectual thought. In 1950, after the university had been closed, it was replaced by several higher education institutions in Kaunas. However, Vytautas Magnus University, restored in 1989, continues the traditions cherished during the interwar period and develops creative, free and critically-thinking personalities.

At the conference dedicated to the anniversary of the University, we are inviting you to share your latest research on VMU, its significance to Kaunas, Lithuania and even the world. In addition, we are awaiting topics from the faculties which operated at Vytautas Magnus University during the interwar period and gave rise to the current universities: Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas University of Medicine, etc. We would like to invite you to share the history of the faculties, departments and publications that operated or still operate at the university. The conference invites not only historians, but also philosophers, anthropologists, literary critics, art critics, sociologists, political scientists and representatives of other disciplines.

Traditionally, we will also be waiting for reports on other topics of the history of Kaunas city and region, which will be presented in a separate section. Therefore, we invite everyone to share their new research on any period relevant to the history of the city and the region.

Please send the applications for participation in the conference to Inga Puidokienė (inga.puidokiene@vdu.lt) by January 7, 2022.

Please indicate your name, academic degree, institution represented, contact details (e-mail address and telephone number), the title of the proposed report and its summary of approximately 1,000 characters.