The Family, Women and Children History Network covers interweaving fields of research in which there is growing interest in the academic world in Western Europe and North America, so unsurprisingly, they are being joined in these pursuits by young researchers from both Lithuania and Eastern Europe. Topics from the history of the family, women and childhood, which emerged in the context of the Annales school and feminist movements, have prompted drawing greater attention to groups that have hitherto been marginalised in historiography, now seeing them as important historical figures.

Along with the wave of postcolonial, social history and interdisciplinary humanities research, topics in the history of the family, women and children have been stimulated by specific social, cultural and political changes in the modern Western world, especially with the 20th-century development of human rights theory and the formation of children’s and women’s rights as separate branches of human rights. This entrenched the status of different social groups in society and broadened the understanding that these groups are actually fully-fledged historical subjects, each with their own special needs and qualities, having in impact on the development of history.

These provisions have had a major influence in historiography, while the interdisciplinary approach has determined one of the fundamental characteristics of research in these fields – the goal of hearing the voices of the smaller participants in history and analysing them. As a result, we have seen the formation of separate schools of studies: gender, motherhood, childhood, youth, and so on, which have had a strong cultural and political influence in the contemporary world. 

The researchers network at the Lithuanian Institute of History seeks to consolidate researchers from various disciplines taking a deeper look at family, women’s and childhood studies in Lithuania, while also contributing to the quality education of young researchers, providing experience in methodological, theoretical and practical research and the transfer of authoritative knowledge, and the promotion and dissemination of research on the history of the family, women and childhood. This network of researchers is the first of its kind in the field of children’s and childhood history in the Baltics and seeks to become one of the few centres in the world dedicated to the history of children and childhood spreading this still slowly developing branch of history in the Baltic region, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe.

The planned activities of this researchers network are as follows: local seminars that help to concentrate researchers from the Lithuanian Institute of History and other Lithuanian academic institutions conducting studies on and interested in the history of the family, women and children/childhood; online seminars in conjunction with researchers from other countries that familiarise Lithuania’s researchers with the latest scholastic trends in the field of history of the family, children/childhood and women; the organisation of national and international conferences in cooperation with Lithuanian and foreign partners.

Contacts: Dr Ieva Balčiūnė (astro.ieva@gmail.com), Dr Andrea Griffante (griphusrex@yahoo.it)