|
Vignette from the lecture brochure of the Lithuanian High School (Vilnius University) for the 1786–1787 academic year Prospectus lectionum in Alma Academia et Universitate Vilnensi, Vilnae: Typis Sacrae Regiae. Majestatis, 1786. Vilniaus universiteto biblioteka. |
The aim of the Eighteenth-Century Researchers Network, which has been in formation among Lithuanian Institute of History researchers since 2002, is to initiate and encourage interdisciplinary research into the eighteenth-century history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, its culture and heritage, presenting the latest research results at themed international scientific conferences organised each year. In 2002–2016, eighteenth-century researchers conferences have been arranged on an alternating basis at the Lithuanian Institute of History and at Vytautas Magnus University. From 2017 annual scholars’ gatherings have been held in Vilnius at the Lithuanian Institute of History and at the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. |
The organising committee for these conferences, represented by the Lithuanian Institute of History, Vytautas Magnus University, Vilnius University and the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, has over more than 20 years of activity pooled together an international core group of researchers uniting scholars from the states carrying the legacy of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Latvia – as well as specialists from other countries analysing Lithuania’s past: historians, specialists in law and the history of war, literature researchers, art researchers, art historians, philosophers, demographers, education scientists and researchers in other fields. When formulating the issues to be covered in our annual conferences, the latest developments in historical research are always taken into account, dedicating particular attention to less-analysed sociopolitical and demographic processes, parliamentarism, the history of ideas, urban expansion issues, questions dealing with the development of culture and education, writing, and the analysis of eminent figures’ lives and activities. We seek to analyse historical and cultural processes in the broader context of the region’s and Europe’s development.
The results from events organised by the researchers network are summarised and presented to the academic community and society at large in publications: a special issue of the journal Darbai ir dienos was released in 2004 at the initiative of Vytautas Magnus University (vol. 37: Lietuvos istorija: XVIII amžius [Lithuania’s history: the eighteenth century]); a collection of articles was published in 2007 titled Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė XVIII amžiuje: miesto erdvė [The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: the Urban Space] (Kaunas: VDU leidykla, 2007); a collection of scientific articles was released in 2008 titled Viešosios ir privačiosios erdvės XVIII a. Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje [Public and Private Spaces in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century] (Vilnius: LII leidykla, 2008).
A periodical interdisciplinary publication has been published by the Lithuanian Institute of History from 2014 – the peer-reviewed academic journal XVIII amžiaus studijos [Eighteenth-Century Studies].
The Eighteenth-Century Researchers Network, which does not have the legal status of a society or association, functions in Lithuania by adhering to the activity principles of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies / Société internationale d’étude du dix-hutième siècle. Some of the network’s members are active participants in the Polish Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies / Polskie Towarzystwo Badań nad Wiekiem Osiemnastym. Information about Lithuania’s Eighteenth-Century Researchers Network events appears in the Society’s annual bulletin (https://wiekosiemnasty.pl/biuletyn).
Contacts: Dr Ramunė Šmigelskytė-Stukienė (smigelskyte.stukiene@gmail.com), Dr Adam Stankevič (stankevic.adam@gmail.com)
