Main areas of research and interest
Historical relations between Lithuania and Western Europe from the Middle Ages to our days.
The largest project related to this topic: www.lugano.lt . The site is dedicated to the artistic and historical relations between Switzerland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since the 16th century.
History, culture, politics and national narratives of Poland, Belarus and Lithuania.
Long-term project related to this topic: www.gudija.lt . The first and the only Lithuanian site dedicated to the history and actualities of Belarus.
The latest scientific publication
Rūstis Kamuntavičius, Whose Grand Duchy? Contesting the Multicultural Past in Lithuania and Belarus, Multicultural Commonwealth: Poland-Lithuania and Its Afterlives (Russian and East European Studies), Edited by Stanley Bill and Simon Lewis, University of Pittsburgh Press (November 15, 2023), p. 205–219.
Department of History at Vytautas Magnus University, PhD, Associate Professor.
Institute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Director. The Institute researches and promotes the legacy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Vytautas Magnus University's Czesław Miłosz Center, Director. The Center focuses on the history, culture and politics of East-Central Europe.
International Congress of Belarusian Studies, One of the two main organizers. The Congress is the only place in the world, where the most representative numbers of Belarusian academic and social elites can, freely and independently from the influences of the Belarusian as well as other States, discuss history, politics, society and culture of Belarus since 2011.
Author of the first history of Belarus in the Lithuanian language Gudijos istorija (2021, the second edition in 2022)
(updated in 2022)
All academic activities as they are listed at the Vytautas Magnus University virtual library
CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS
East European Studies Summer School Club (University of Warsaw), Member of the board of directors. The Club unites over six hundred Central-Eastern European academics and intellectuals.
Lithuanian National Committee of Historians, General secretary (2004-2013). The Committee unites all Lithuanian institutions engaged in historical science.
Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian studies (USA), Member. The Association brings together several thousand Central-East European researchers from all over the world in annual Congresses.
Convent Ludenia, the "Flying University" (Minsk), Member. An academic corporation of an independent Belarusian University.
Santara–Šviesa (USA-Lithuania), Participant. An academic informal hive.
VMU Trade Union co-founder and the first manager (2006), then Committee member (until 2020).
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS
Member of editorial boards of the international scientific publisher BRILL series "Modern Belarusian Studies", and of the journals Belarusian Political Science Review, Yearbook of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Institute, Homo historicus and Annual of the Center for Belarusian Studies.
Member of scientific boards of Przegląd Geopolityczny and Annales Pomorienses. Ius.
Reviewer of the scientific publication of the Polish Academy of Sciences Acta Baltico-Slavica.
PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITIES
Vytautas Magnus University (since 2002). Bachelors are taught courses in the history of Lithuania, Germany, France and other countries at the Faculty of Humanities, as well as European historiography, philosophy of history, economics and everyday history. Political philosophy at the Faculty of Political Sciences and Diplomacy. Masters students are taught courses "Lithuania in Western Europe", dedicated to Lithuanian studies in Western European countries, "History of Diplomacy", "Applied history of Art and Mentality" and others.
University of Warsaw (since 2011). Lectures in various study programs on the topics of Lithuanian history and identity.
In addition, individual lectures (and their courses) were delivered in Lithuanian, English, Russian, Polish, Italian and French at various universities in Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, France, England and Switzerland. At the ISM University in Vilnius and Kaunas taught courses on history and art for many years.
EDUCATION
Bachelor studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Defended final thesis on the topic "French culture at the court of Jan Sobieski".
Master studies at the Central European University (Budapest). Master thesis topic "French travelers in 17th century Lithuania"
Doctoral studies at Vytautas Magnus University (together with the Institute of Lithuanian History). Dissertation topic "Grand Duchy of Lithuania in French and Italian literature of the 16th–17th centuries."
Studies and internships in scientific and research institutions in Italy (University of Parma, F. Datini Institute in Prato), France (Sorbonne, Institute of Human Sciences), Switzerland (University of Fribourg), Hungary (University of Central Europe) and Poland (University of Warsaw).
REWARDS AND ASSESSMENTS
Center for Eastern European Studies, University of Warsaw (Warsaw, December 22, 2016) for long-term cooperation.
Award named after Jerzy Giedroyć (Warsaw, December 1, 2015) to the Institute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for "taking on a difficult mission, the aim of which is to promote the legacy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and especially the tradition of coexistence of different cultures, languages, religions and peoples in today's Lithuania, Poland, in Belarus and Ukraine."