The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Rūta Matimaitytė has been awarded a 2024-2025 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 2024 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. Learn about the other 2024-2025 recipients here.
Rūta Matimaitytė is a historian and a PhD candidate at the Lithuanian Institute of History. Her doctoral dissertation is entitled “Migration of Children to Soviet Lithuania: History, Memory and Trauma.” Matimaitytė’s research on the German children of East Prussia earned her the Prize of the Department of National Minorities, as well as the Vytenis Andriukaitis Award and the Antanas Smetona Scholarship from the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. She has completed fellowships at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, the Herder Institute, and the Nord–Ost Institute in Lüneburg. Matimaitytė holds a BA summa cum laude and MA magna cum laude from the Department of History of Vilnius University.
Project Overview
Rūta Matimaitytė will use the Dissertation Grant to to broaden the scope of her project and deepen her understanding of the fate of East Prussian children in the Baltic and Nordic regions at the end of the Second World War and during the post–war period. She will visit archives in Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark, as well as conduct interviews with survivors. Matimaitytė strongly believes that this work will open new opportunities and perspectives for further research development.