The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Helēna Šania Volbeta has been awarded the 2023-2024 Jānis Grundmanis Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship for Study in the U.S.
The Jānis Grundmanis Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship, established in the memory of Dr. Jānis Grundmanis, is an annual fellowship of $20,000 for graduate or postgraduate study in the United States. Recipients of the fellowship must be citizens of the Republic of Latvia, speak Latvian, and have their permanent residence in Latvia. Preference will be given to applicants studying in the field of humanities or social sciences.
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.
Helēna Šania Volbeta is a filmmaker. She holds a BSc Management Honors degree from the University of Warwick, UK, and is currently a candidate of an MFA Creative Producing degree at Columbia University. Through this intense hands-on 3-year film program, Volbeta is developing diverse filmmaking skills and projects in NYC. In her own creative works, Volbeta aims to relay Latvia’s rich culture and identity to the world by reflecting on complex historic events and cultural shifts that impact today’s world. Being a producer, her global outlook and industry relationships will help to ensure international co-productions and enable more ground-breaking projects from Latvian artists to flourish and reach wider audiences.
Project Overview
With the support of the AABS Janis Grundmanis Fellowship, Helēna Šania Volbeta will continue to research and develop her upcoming MFA Summer Film Project – a satire, focused on artificial fertility complexities. Next year, the fellowship will allow Volbeta to further develop her screenwriting, directing and producing skills, as well as enhance her film theory and history knowledge whilst studying with the world-leading film historians and critics. As a part of the academic curriculum, she will produce multiple film projects throughout the academic year.