Скачать или смотреть Critical heritage studies at Arqus | Lecture #1 – Dissonant heritage: Baltic Modernism in Lithuania

In this first online guest lecture of the Critical heritage studies at Arqus: concepts, approaches and findings series, Marija Drėmaitė will present the talk about “Dissonant Heritage: Interpreting Baltic modernism in Lithuania”.

In the 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 speaker 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 is moderated by Steffi Marung, director of the Global and European Studies Institute at Leipzig University.

🗣️ About the speaker ✨✨

Marija Drėmaitė is a Professor in Architectural History and Cultural Heritage at the Faculty of History, Vilnius University.

She specializes 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.

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