Book “The Colours of Parallel World” presentation

At May 4th, President Valdas Adamkus library holds the presentation of a book, written by former political prisoner and VMU student, Mikalai Dziadok.

 “The Colours of the Parallel World” is a collection of stories, describing Belarusian prison system in a genre, which author calls “a prison analytics”. Systems of control, used to break a will prisoners in Belarusian prison, insanity and sexual violence, deliberate pressing on political prisoners, orchestrated by KGB, systematic humiliations – all these realias find their description and scrutiny in 16 novellas, along with advices on how to behave yourself to save your mind from decrepitude, how to remain faithful to your ideas, how to revolt against unjust and opposing system while isolated.

During the presentation author will describe his criminal case, which made him spent around 5 years in prison, tell about an anarchist movement in Belarus and informal prison hierarchies in post-soviet prisons and answer the questions of an audience.

“Prison is the most concentrated reflection of what we see outside it, like is being complementary to what is happening here. We all first go to school, then to army, then to work, there we are influenced by certain oppressive and exploitive institutions, after this if you step outside of the systematically designated frame for you and pose yourself against the system, then you are being oppressed again by risking to be jailed. People who come to work in prison and behave sometimes worse then criminals already inside it, they were educated in our society and absorbed its norms and values. When we speak of reforming the prison, we must think about radical reforming of whole society.”

 Language of a presentation: English

 Place: President Valdas Adamkus library (S. Daukanto str. 25)

Time: 11.00 a.m. 04 05 2018.

Public lecture on Israel politics by visiting professor

Celebrating the 70-th anniversary of modern Israel, Department of Political science has a pleasure to invite everyone for two public lectures on Israeli state and society, on 30-th of April. University will host PhD Sarin Ben Shabat from Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

She will give a  lecture titled  Israeli geopolitical situation  in the context of the European Union, USA and Middle East, on 30-th of April, 11.15 am, Putvinskio 23 – 311; and the second lecture  Israeli political system and political tradition will take place, on 30-th of April, 4.30 pm, Putvinskio 23 – 103.

Discussion with World Bank Representative

23rd April World Bank expert, former Deputy Minister of Economy of Lithuania and Advisor to the President of the Republic of Lithuania Giedrius Kadziauskas took part at the lecture-discussion with the students of Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy. Participants were introduced with the priorities of the World Bank, the effectiveness of project implementation, they also discussed challenges while working at African and Asian continents. Lecture discussion took place in Vilnius, at the Civic Education Centre, under the framework of the MA Diplomacy course, subject of Economic Diplomacy.

prof. of Tartu University H. Paabo Public Lecture

Heiko Paabo, professor of Tartu University (Estonia) will give a public lecture “Great Powers and Imperial Legacies – Memory Conflict Between Russia and its Neighbouring Countries”. Lecture discussion will take place at VMU Small Hall (S. Daukanto str. 28, Kaunas) on April 27,  start at 16h.  We invite you to join and participate!

dr. Renáta Bzdilová lecture about Slovakia

During “Faculty days 2018” it was a great pleasure to have foreign guest lecture “Slovakia as an International Actor” Dr. Renáta Bzdilová from Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košiciach (Slovakia).
R. Bzdilová has visited university in the frame of Erasmus teaching mobility program.

Public lecture about the Parliamentary elections in Italy

On Wednesday, March 21st, at 1.15 p.m. Putvinskio street 23, auditorium 311, Prof. Angela Di Gregorio from the University of Milan will give public lecture „The political and constitutional situation of Italy in the context of Parliamentary elections of March 4, 2018“.
She will review the last political and constitutional changes in Italy (failed 2016 constitutional referendum, creating crisis, new election law) and discuss the recent Parliamentary elections which were held on March 4, 2018 (participants, results and difficulties of government formation).
We invite all the students interested in elections and Italian politics.

Studentės įspūdžiai atliekant Lozoraičių fondo remiamą stažuotę Romoje

PMDF Diplomatijos ir tarptautinių santykių magistrantė Emilija Giedraitytė dalinasi savo įspūdžiais:

“Esu labai dėkinga Politikos mokslų ir diplomatijos fakultetui ir visiems, kurių dėka man teko garbė atstovauti Vytauto Didžiojo universitetą Italijoje, LR ambasadoje. Antrą savaitę esu ambasados kolektyvo dalimi, atlieku man pavestas įvairias tiek administracines, tiek analitines, politines užduotis. Artėjant svarbiausiai 2018-ųjų metų sukakčiai Lietuvoje – Valstybės atkūrimo šimtmečiui – turėjau galimybę prisidėti prie kultūrinių renginių viešinimo, organizavimo Italijoje. Man didelė garbė, kad ambasadorius ir kiti diplomatai pasitiki manimi ir leidžia padėti. Ambasada yra puiki vieta praktiškai pritaikyti tiek paskaitose, tiek kitų stažuočių metu įgytas žinias ir įgūdžius. Mokytis iš savo srities profesionalų taip pat yra geriausias būdas pažinti darbo specifiką, diplomatinio bendravimo niuansus.

Nuo vaikystės, Lozoraičių vardas man siejosi su garbingu valstybės atstovavimu, diplomatija aukščiausiame lygmenyje, nepriklausomybės dvasia, elitu, kilnumu. Nuo šiol ir aš esu nedidelė šios sąsajos dalis. Man tai reiškia ne tik garbę, bet ir atsakomybę toliau oriai reprezentuoti valstybę ir universitetą, kad ir kur bebūčiau, skleisti „vilties prezidento“ keltas idėjas ir viešinti šią pavardę Lietuvoje ir užsienio šalyse”.

 

 

4th Annual Conference: ‘Contemporary Political Processes: Challenges and Opportunities’

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
4th Annual Conference: ‘Contemporary Political Processes: Challenges and Opportunities’

The conference is organized by the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy and hosted by Vytautas Magnus University. It aims to provide young scholars with an opportunity to share their research with a wide audience of scholars engaged in diverse study fields within the discipline of political science.

Due to the emphasis on young scholars, master and doctoral students are especially encouraged to submit their presentation proposals within these broad thematic fields:

– Lithuania in the Global World;
– Changes in Global Security, Contemporary Military Conflicts and their Resolution;
– Regional Studies;
– Governance and Public Administration;
– News Outlets, Social Media and Information warfare;
– Ideologies and their Relevance in Contemporary Politics;
– Political Participation;
– #Metoo and other Movements;
– Other thematic fields are welcome.

The conference will take place in small hall of VMU’s central venue (Daukanto 28, Kaunas), 20th April, 2018. Working languages are Lithuanian and English.

Abstracts should be submitted to dr. Gerda Jakštaitė via e-mail (gerda.jakstaite@vdu.lt). They should not exceed 200 words and are expected to be submitted until 28th March, 2018. Best presentations will be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed journal Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review.

Organizing Committee:

Dr. Gerda Jakštaitė
Dr. Giedrius Česnakas
Justinas Juozaitis
Aistė Žemaitytė
For further inquiry: dr. Gerda Jakštaitė (gerda.jakstaite@vdu.lt)

Public A. Bininachvili’s lecture: Global energy geopolitics

February 23, 2018 (on Friday) VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy will be visited by Albert Bininachvili, expert of Persian Gulf and energy geopolitics. He will deliver a public lecture on current developments in the area of energy geopolitics in the Persian Gulf region. After the lecture there will be a discussion moderated by VMU FPSD prof. Arunas Molis.

The lecture is obligatory for students of the VMU FPSD Bachelor’s program II course “Great powers in international relations”, but is open to all interested in Persian Gulf region and the developments in energy geopolitics.

Read more about the guest here:
https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/albert.bininachvili/cv-en

February 23, 16h, Small Hall of Vytautas Magnus University, Daukanto str. 28

Public Lecture About Propaganda and Misinformation

Department of Political Science would like to announce a public lecture Living on the information front line: Lithuanian experience with hostile propaganda and Misinformation

Lecture will be held by Tomas Čeponis, Senior Specialist of  Department of Strategic Communication in Lithuanian Armed Forces.

All students are welcome to public lecture, which will take place on 19th of February, at 4.15 pm., in 311 room, Putvinskio 23, at Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy.