The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Andrius Janionis has been awarded the 2022-2023 Dissertation Grant for Graduate Students.
AABS awards grants of up to $4,000 to support doctoral dissertation research and write-up in any field of Baltic Studies. Funds may be used for travel to research site, equipment, duplication or other needs as specified.
Proposals are evaluated according to the scholarly potential of the applicant, and the quality and scholarly importance of the proposed work, especially to the development of Baltic Studies. Applicants must currently be enrolled in a PhD or MA program and have completed all requirements for a PhD/MA except the dissertation. Applicants must be members of the AABS at the time of submitting their application.
The 2022 applications were evaluated by the AABS 2021-2022 Grants and Awards Committee consisting of AABS VP for Professional Development Dr. Ineta Dabašinskienė, AABS President Dr. Daunis Auers, and AABS Director-at-Large Dr. Andres Kasekamp. You can find a full list of 2022 awardees here.
Andrius Janionis is a PhD Candidate at the Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius University. His thesis is entitled “The Development of Swords From 5th To 15th Century in the Context of Archaeometallurgical Research.”
“Studying swords has been my passion for many years. In my academic studies I try to use novice approaches and methods. In my Master thesis (Swords with inscriptions in the Balt lands of the 9th-11th century) I have used roentgenographic survey to back my assumptions that corrosion material and deterioration are covering much valuable information. In my PhD studies I stepped another step further and am employing as many physical and chemical methods as available to provide much more insight in my studies. This brings my interests to a wide scale where my archaeological studies steps into the fields of physics and chemistry to the benefit of all. To sum up my obsession with swords, I am studying the use of swords as of Historical Martial Arts and am the director of the School of Sword Mastery in Vilnius.”