The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to recognize Ramunė Bleizgienė for the successful completion of her AABS Academic Events and Projects Grant, awarded in 2025, to support the conference “Local Feminisms in the Baltic Region (Late 19th-Early 20th Century): Parallels, Differences, and Influences.”
The AABS Grant for Academic Events and Projects of up to $5,000 is available for any academic event or scholarly project that promotes Baltic Studies.
The “Local Feminisms” conference took place in Vilnius in October 2025 and was a thorough success. Bleizgienė provided a report after the event, which we publish below with light editing.
Ramunė Bleizgienė is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore (Vilnius, Lithuania). She has published the monograph “Private Silence, Public Voices: Women’s Identity Dynamics in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century” (2012), and chapters of the books: “Voices of Maironis: His Oeuvre, Activities, Memor” (2019),“The Lithuanian’s Literary Canon Workshop (the Late 19th–the Early 20th Century)” (2022). Her academic interests are the history of women’s writing, the literary history of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, and the history of emotions. Bleizgienė, in collaboration with Dr. Birutė Avižinienė, compiled and published a collection of multi-authored articles entitled “Sketches in Women’s History: The Second Half of the 19th Century – the First Half of the 20th Century” (2024).
Local Feminisms
Academic Events and Projects Grant Report from Ramunė Bleizgienė
Project Objectives
The project successfully achieved its main objective: the organization of the international conference “Local Feminisms in the Baltic Region (Late 19th–Early 20th Century): Parallels, Differences, and Influences,” which was a great success. The event took place on October 24–25, 2025, at the Lithuanian Institute of Literature and Folklore in Vilnius and marked the 180th anniversary of the birth of Žemaitė, one of the most prominent Lithuanian women writers of this period. The specific objectives were:
- to outline recent research on women’s history in the Baltic region;
- to foster academic dialogue among scholars from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland;
- to establish networks for future collaborative research and publications;
- to engage young scholars in the field; and
- to connect academic research with relevant cultural events.
Participants
The conference brought together scholars from various fields, including literary studies, history, art history, and gender studies. We would also like to emphasize the broad geographical scope of the event: not only was the Baltic region well represented (the Baltic states, Finland, and Poland), but researchers from Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom also participated.
- Plenary presentations: 4
- 20-minute papers: 29
- Moderation: Discussions were led by distinguished Lithuanian scholars well known in this field, ensuring a high level of academic exchange.
Plenary speakers included:
- Dr. Evelina Gužauskytė, “Eglė’s Web: Material (Inter)Textualities and Women’s Agency in Narratives about Spinning and Weaving, from Myth to Modernity”
- Dr. Eva Eglāja-Kristsone, “The Personal as Historical: Women’s Writing and (Auto)biography”
- Dr. Solveiga Daugirdaitė, “From the 16th of February to the 17th of February: The Centenary of Lithuanian Women”
- Janet Laidla, “A Young Nation on the World Stage: Estonia and the International Council of Women”
Conference participants
Program and Activities
In addition to academic sessions, participants were offered the opportunity to engage with related cultural events. On the evening of October 25, 2025, attendees visited the international exhibition “Queens, Realms, and Emotions” with a guided tour, which enhanced the thematic connections of the conference.
Outcomes
The conference provided a comprehensive overview of recent research on women’s history in the Baltic States and Poland. Scholars collectively discussed trends and processes of women’s emancipation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, highlighting regional specificities, influences, and motivations. The discussions revealed how Western feminist movements were adapted in the Baltic region, showing that women’s emancipation developed as a distinctive phenomenon shaped by local contexts. Young scholars actively participated, fostering intergenerational dialogue. The conference also resulted in two concrete, collaborative outcomes:
- Networks for future collaborations were established, leading to preparatory work for an English-language collection of scholarly articles with an international academic publisher. This publication will enhance the international visibility of Baltic women’s history research and strengthen cooperation among regional scholars.
- This conference represents an important starting point for further initiatives in the field. Plans are already underway for the 2nd Local Feminisms conference in Riga in 2027, continuing the exploration of women’s history in the Baltic region.
– Ramunė Bleizgienė, 2025
Ramunė Bleizgienė