The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Anne Sauka has been awarded the 2023-2024 Mudīte I. Zīlīte Saltups Fellowship.
The fellowship provides for up to eight weeks of study in the United States with a maximum stipend of $10,000, and is funded from a bequest in memory of Dr. Mudīte I. Zīlīte Saltups. Dr. Saltups’ will provides that recipients of a fellowship must be citizens of the Republic of Latvia, speak Latvian, have their permanent residence in Latvia, and come to the United States to study or conduct research.
The 2023 applications were evaluated by the AABS 2023-2024 Grants and Awards Committee consisting of AABS VP for Professional Development Dr. Kaarel Piirimäe, AABS President Dr. Dovilė Budrytė, and AABS Director-at-Large Dr. Daunis Auers. You can find a full list of 2023 awardees here.
Anne Sauka is a researcher at the Department of Philosophy and Ethics, University of Latvia. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy in 2015 and focused her research on critical genealogy and phenomenology. In recent years, Sauka’s interests have expanded to include new materialism, biophilosophy, and environmental humanities. In her postdoctoral project, “Ontogenealogies: The Body and Environmental Ethics in Latvia,” Sauka investigated place-based environmental genealogies and explored the situated knowledges of Latvia and the Baltics as a potential source for an ontological shift in how we think and live our embodied environments. Sauka is particularly interested in researching the potential of Baltic mythologies for environmental philosophy. Her recent articles are available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anne-Sauka.
“Ontogenealogies in Process: Baltic Mythologies as Knowledge Sources in Environmental Contexts”
Project Overview
The Mudīte I. Zīlīte Saltups Fellowship has given me the opportunity to spend 8 weeks on a research visit at Syracuse University in the spring of 2024. While there, I will be working on an article dedicated to Baltic studies as well as continuing to make progress on my monograph, which is tentatively titled “Ontogenealogies in Process: Baltic Mythologies as Knowledge Sources in Environmental Contexts.” This monograph project builds on my recent work on environmental philosophy in a situated context and examines the potential role of Baltic mythologies in present-day lifeworlds. During my visit, I will also be participating in the “Genealogy in the Humanities” working group, which will provide me with a platform to further advance the methodology of ontogenealogy and collaborate with researchers in my field. Additionally, I will attend the Fifth Critical Genealogies Workshop, an annual meeting for genealogists in the humanities that has hitherto been a crucial community for the development of my research.