Type: Arqus, Arqus European University Alliance, Arqus Living Labs
Format: Online
Open to: Academics & researchers, External Stakeholders, PhD Students, Students
In this first session of the “Critical heritage studies at Arqus: concepts, approaches and findings” webinar series, Marija Drėmaitė will present the webinar titled “Dissonant heritage: Interpreting Baltic modernism in Lithuania” on 13 November at 18:00 CET.
In this lecture, Marija Drėmaitė (Vilnius University) will explore the evolving legacy of post-war architectural modernism in Lithuania, focusing on the transformation of Soviet-era buildings and urban landscapes since the country’s 1990 declaration of independence. The speakers will examine the changing societal perceptions, challenges of recognition, and the role of collective memory in shaping attitudes toward this dissonant heritage.
Drawing on Marija’s two decades of research, participants will discover how interpretation and preservation practices have shifted, particularly in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, highlighting the conceptual changes in memory policy and the emerging societal responses to Lithuania’s contested architectural past.
The session will be moderated by Steffi Marung, director of the Global and European Studies Institute at Leipzig University.
No registration is required. The webinar will be streamed live on YouTube.
About the speaker
Marija Drėmaitė is a Professor in Architectural History and Cultural Heritage at the Faculty of History, Vilnius University.
She specialises in 20th-century architectural heritage and it is the author of the book “Baltic Modernism: Architecture and Housing in Soviet Lithuania” (Berlin, 2017). She also edited “Architecture of Optimism: The Kaunas Phenomenon, 1918–1940” (Vilnius, 2018), and led the research team behind the successful nomination of “Modernist Kaunas,” inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.
Since 2023, she has been an Advisory Board member of the study centre Inherit at Humboldt University, Berlin, and is the Principal Investigator at the research centre (Post)Authoritarian Landscapes at Vilnius University.