9 March 2023

Call for Papers: The National Library of Lithuania Annual Conference Europe. Capital. Transformations: Vilnius in the 19th-21st Centuries

As part of the celebration of the 700th anniversary of Vilnius, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites researchers and practitioners to the international conference, “EUROPE. CAPITAL. TRANSFORMATIONS: Vilnius in the 19th-21st Centuries,” which will take place on October 19-20, 2023 at the National Library of Lithuania, Vilnius.

Over the last 200 years, Vilnius has undergone major changes in its political status, social and demographic transformations: from a provincial city of the Russian Empire, to an administrative center under German occupation and provincial center of Poland, to the capital of independent and Soviet-occupied Lithuania and finally, to the capital of a EU member state. During this period, the composition of the Vilnius’ population and its identities went through many changes, as did the social and cultural picture of the city.

The conference welcomes an interdisciplinary dialogue in order to explain the various transformations associated with Vilnius, their origins, current situation and future perspectives. To reveal the city’s vitality, it proposes to look at Vilnius in the context of a dynamic and transformative process.

The conference is open to anthropologists, architects, demographers, dendrologists, ecological economists, philosophers, historians, language and communication studies researchers, literary scholars, art historians, heritage preservationists, political scientists, semioticians, sociologists, urbanists, and other researchers and scientists.

Proposals for individual presentations and sessions on the following topics are invited:

- Vilnius in the context of Western, Northern, Central and Eastern Europe

- Vilnius during the historical upheavals

- Vilnius and other cities

- The urban and architectural development of Vilnius

- Multicultural Vilnius

- The names of the city: the people who have been creating Vilnius

- Sacred Vilnius

- Vilnius in art

- Vilnius as an administrative, economic, political, cultural and scientific center

- Places of memory and oblivion in Vilnius

- Historiography and bibliography of Vilnius

- Visions of the future of Vilnius

- Vilnius and nature.

The length of presentations—up to 20 minutes.

Please send your topics and abstracts in English (up to 500 words), along with biographies by June 2, 2023 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Applicants will be notified by June 16, 2023.

Conference is co-financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Partners: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Lithuanian Union of Architects, Lithuanian Institute of History, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius Museum, Vilnius 700 and Vytautas Magnus University.  

Scientific Committee:

Renaldas Gudauskas (chairman, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Ramunė Balevičiūtė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater)

Tomas Balkelis (Lithuanian Institute of History)

Marius Iršėnas (Vilnius Academy of Arts)

Vaida Kamuntavičienė (Vytautas Magnus University)

Rūta Leitanaitė (Lithuanian Union of Architects)

Donata Mitaitė (Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore)

Povilas Andrius Stepavičius (Vilnius Museum)

Ilona Strumickienė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Ingrida Veliutė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Organizing Committee:

Matas Baltrukevičius (chairman, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Dalia Cidzikaitė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Dovydas Matrosovas (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Rima Mažeikienė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Milda Savickaitė (Vilnius 700)

Silvija Stankevičiūtė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

Ieva Šimanauskaitė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

If you have any questions, please call +370 623 15766 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.