The 30th Anniversary of the Lithuanian Emigration Institute: History, Works, and Perspectives

The Lithuanian Emigration Institute: an Overview of Works and Research in 1994–2024

Abstract

The active participation of Lithuanian émigré professors in the restoration of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas and in teaching various courses there naturally gave rise to the idea of establishing an institution at the university that would be dedicated to researching the history of the emigration. In 1994, the Center for Lithuanian Diaspora Studies was established, and in 2000, the Institute was founded, which in 2012, became known as the Lithuanian Emigration Institute (LEI). The Centre and the Institute have had from two to ten staff members at different times. This research institution collects and manages the archives of the diaspora, of which there are over 90 fonds, researches them and publishes the results of the research. The focus is not only on the history of the Lithuanian diaspora, but also on contemporary migration issues. Since 2006, the scientific journal Oikos has been published (two issues per year), with over 280 scientific and review articles, as well as a large number of reviews and source publications. The staff of the research institution has produced and published about 60 monographs and reference works; organised international and national conferences, seminars, roundtables, and discussions; presented books, exhibitions, and documentaries on a variety of diaspora topics; and participated in projects. These processes are continuing. Dozens of dissertations have been prepared and defended at the Institute. Research by specialists in various disciplines – history, sociology, cultural studies, religion, philosophy, and art – has found a place in the events and the journal Oikos, and has helped to better understand the fate of the diaspora in foreign lands. The variety of topics for research remains: there is a need for syntheses of individual Lithuanian communities, ideological diaspora currents, and major organisations; contemporary research on emigration and immigration; and more attention to the preparation of biographies of prominent diaspora figures. Over the past 30 years, the LEI staff has laid a solid foundation for a new branch of historical field – emigrantology – which has attracted a growing number of scholars from various academic and social institutions, with the aim of covering the history of Lithuanians abroad in the most objective manner possible.