*The full conference schedule will become available in early April.

3:00 pm – Conference Registration Opens

3:30 – 4:15 pm – Meet & Greet for Graduate Students 

4:30 pm – Welcome & Opening Remarks

5:00 pm – Keynote Address: Dr. Inta Mieriņa (Professor, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences and Director, Centre for Diaspora and Migration Research, University of Latvia), “Together Across Borders: The Many Ways the Diaspora Shapes Latvia’s Future“

6:30 pm – “The Baltics: Books & Culture for the World” Exhibition Opening & Reception 

Conference Registration Continues

8:30 – 10:00 am – Session 1

10:00 – 11:00 am – Coffee Break with the Journal of Baltic Studies, Slavic Review, and Slavic and East European Journal

11:00 am – 12:30 pm – Session 2

11:00 am – 12:30 pm – Book Talk w Laima Sruoginis “Heritage, Connection, Writing: Conversations with North American Lithuanian Diaspora Writers”

1:00 – 2:30 pm – Lunch and Roundtable Discussion – A Changed Landscape: Perspectives on Foreign Policy, Migration, and Global Security (Speakers: Agnia Grigas, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Andres Kasekamp, Sigita Struberga, and Olevs Nikers)

3:00 – 4:30 pm – Session 3

3:00 – 5:00 pm – Movie Screening and Discussion with Parker Watt: “Resilient Expression: Ukrainian Artists in Estonia”

6:00 pm – Chorale Performance – Dainava

8:30 – 10:00 am – Session 4

10:00 – 10:30 am – Coffee Break

10:30 am – 12:00 pm – Session 5

12:00 – 1:30 pm – Graduate Luncheon (with Josh Hodil, Technical Coordinator at JBS; Indra Ekmanis, Director of Institutional Giving & Development Communications at PRX | Baltic Sea Fellow & Editor at FPRI; and Ben Gardner-Gill, Assistant Director of Outreach and Engagement at AABS)

12:00 – 1:30 pm – Diaspora Institutions Meeting: Diaspora Organizations in the US: Mission, Identity, and Challenges in the 21st Century with Janis Chakars (Philadelphia Society of Free Letts), Karl Altau (The Joint Baltic American National Committee), Indra Kalasauskas (Lithuanian Society in Philadelphia), Mārtiņš Andersons (American Latvian Association) and featuring Peter Dajevskis’s “The Early Latvians of Philadelphia: Seeking New Beginnings, 1890 -1940”

1:30 – 3:00 pm – Session 6

3:00 – 3:30 pm – Coffee Break

3:30 – 5:00 pm – AABS Member Meeting [Meeting Agenda]

5:15 – 6:15 pm – Plenary Session w Baltic Ambassadors to the United States

6:30 pm – Closing Ceremony & Dinner