Šarūnas Liekis

Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy Profile

• E-mail sarunas.liekis@vdu.lt

Born on 15 May 1969 in Vilnius. Graduated from Vilnius University in 1993 and continued degree studies at the University of Oxford from 1991 until 1992. In 1995–1996 he worked as visiting researcher at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. He pursued doctoral studies and earned a PhD in social sciences at Brandeis University (USA) in 1997. In 2005, Prof. Liekis earned the Habilitation at Vilnius University in 2005.

He worked as attaché the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania in 1992–1993, as a research and teaching assistant at Brandeis University in 1993–1998, as Director of Programs at the Open Society Fund Lithuania in 1997–2001, and as Chief Assistant at the Faculty of History in Vilnius University in 1998–2000. In Mykolas Romeris University, he started working as Assoc. Prof. in 2001 and has been working as Professor since 2006. In 2002, the Senate of Mykolas Romeris University granted him the pedagogical title of associated professor. The title of professor was awarded to him in 2008. Since 2009, Prof. Liekis has been working at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius as visiting professor.

Prof. Šarūnas Liekis has been working at Vytautas Magnus University since 2010: he is the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, member of the faculty Council, Professor at the Dept. of Political Science, and member of VMU Senate.

Research priorities: history, political science, minorities, religion politics, ego-documentation. His courses at VMU include Comparative Public Politics, Ethnicity and International Relations, Political Ideologies, etc. Prof. Liekis holds lectures, consults students, participates in the defence of theses and dissertations at universities of Lithuania and abroad (in Lund, Uppsala, Paris, Constanța, Warsaw, etc.).

Prof. Šarūnas Liekis has served inter alia as an expert for the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) at the Council of Europe (since 2002) in Strasburg, France. He is also member of various workgroups of research and consulting in Lithuania and abroad. Prof. Liekis has experience in preparation, coordination and management of scientific research. In addition to conducting research, he also takes part in exchange programmes, vocational training and qualification raising courses. He was awarded research scholarships in the USA, Great Britain and Israel. The professor has published 2 monographs, 3 studies and over 40 scientific articles.

Since 2010 Prof. Liekis is Chairman of executive group of national project Tauta Ir Valstybė (The Nation and the State) under the Research Council of Lithuania.