Starting July 1st, VMU Centre for Asian Studies is partially returning to its usual work environment. However, due to the ongoing state of emergency majority of activities during the summer will be carried out remotely. For this reason, as well as aiming to follow the safety requirements we would like to ask you to contact us before visiting the Center. You can arrange the visit by contacting one of the Centre’s employees or via direct message in our Facebook page.

Staff of the Centre for Asian studies is saying “Thank You” to students, students’ clubs and all our partners for a fruitful study year and unity during the difficult period that touched us all. We hope to return to the usual rhythm starting this autumn.

We would like to invite everyone who is interested in culture and politics of East Asia to listen to the public defense of students’ final thesis.

Master thesis defense of East Asia Region studies will take place on June 12 from 2 PM. And Bachelor thesis defense of East Asian Cultures and Languages will take place on June 18-19 from 9 AM.

All defenses will take place online and require registration in advance. Therefore, those who wish to attend as observers, please send an email to diana.jovaisiene@vdu.lt

The Centre for Asian Studies invites all interested in China, Japan and Korea to apply for the East Asia Region Studies program (EARS), which is the only graduate program in Lithuania and the Baltic States that is taught in English and focused on East Asian contemporary politics and society. VMU also provides scholarships for selected foreign students.

EARS program’s applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree of humanities or social studies. Same as earlier, the best and most motivated students will be encouraged to study at least one semester abroad at one of our partner universities in East Asia. After graduation students acquire the MA degree of political science. All the courses of the program are taught in English. Research paper and master’s thesis are also written in English. (more…)

Due to nationwide preventive measures to fight COVID-19, Center for Asian Studies is closing down its office until further notice. Our staff will be responding to emails and messages sent via Facebook (our page – facebook.com/ASC.VDU).

Thank you for your understanding.

Centre for Asian Studies is inviting everyone interested in China to the first open lecture this semester from the cycle “Time for Asia”. The presentation titled “Contemporary China – invisible behind the visible” will be given by Dr. Vida Mačikėnaitė who is researching and teaching about contemporary China both in Japanese and Lithuanian universities. The event will take place on February 25 (Tuesday) from 13:45 in VMU building at V. Putvinskio str. 23, room 310. The lecture will be in English and is free and open to all. (more…)

Last month the head of Center for Asian Studies dr. Linas Didvalis spent a week at University of Regina (UoR) with Erasmus+ teaching visit. UoR is based in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and is providing a number of courses dedicated to Asian studies, including East Asian languages, history, contemporary politics, etc. UoR is also a host of Confucius Institute.

UoR has been VMU’s parner university for almost a decade and the current visit allowed not only to share the knowledge by giving lectures but also to explore possibilities to intensify student and staff exchanges as well as to make contacts for research cooperation.

After being organized the first time in 2014 in Vilnius, later in Tartu (2016) and Riga (2018) international academic conference of the Baltic Alliance for Asian Studies (BAAS) is returning to Lithuania in 2020, this time to Kaunas, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). The event will take place on March 5-7 mainly at VMU multifunctional building at Putvinskio str. 23. More detailed information can be found at balticasianstudies.wordpress.com (more…)

Baltic Alliance for Asian Studies (BAAS) is calling for submission of proposals for MA and PhD students‘ poster presentations in the fourth BAAS conference that is going to take place at Vytautas Magnus University in March 5-7th, 2020.

Poster presentation is a good opportunity for students to present their research topic, discuss it with other participants of the conference, receive useful comments from other researches and obtain valuable experience of participation in an international conference. The BAAS conference is not limited to one particular approach and encourages submissions of proposals that can be classified under different fields of humanities and social sciences: anthropology, ethnology, history, linguistics, sociology, political science, etc. The working language of the conference is English. (more…)

On 12th-13th of December Senior Coordinator of the Centre for Asian Studies Simona Vasilevskytė has participated in Erasmus+ visit to the University of Bonn.

She has met with the representatives of the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies and the professors of the Japanese language, observed the Japanese language classes, and talked about the possibilities for the exchange programs for students and researches.

The University of Bonn last year celebrated 200 years anniversary. Its Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies offers studies of Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, Tibet and Islam. Institute’s library houses a collection of more than 200 000 items dedicated to those studies.

VMU Centre for Asian Studies together with Fukuyama Transporting. Co and its Komaru Kotsu Foundation invites all to the official ceremony of donation of books that will mark the opening of Komaru Bunko – a special collection of books dedicated to Japanese studies and curated by the Foundation. The event will be taking place on December 10, 11:30 AM at Asian Books Space (Vaclovas Biržiška Reading Room, K. Donelaičio st. 52, Kaunas).

CAS is cooperating with Komaru Kotsu Foundation for several years – together we organized Japanese Speech Contests in 2018 and 2019. The winners of these contests participated in special programs in Japan. With the aim to promote the interest in Japanology studies in Vytautas Magnus University and Kaunas city CAS partner Komaru Kotsu Foundation decided to donate books more than 300 publications to the Asian Books Space. In addition to the academic literature, readers will also find manga – Japanese comic books that are very popular in the world as well as publications adapted to the reading levels of Japanese language students. These publications will  contribute to the activities of Japanese reading club in VMU.  (more…)

We are happy to announce a call for papers for the 5th annual international students’ conference on Asia. The conference will take place on April 9 at Vytautas Magnus University (V. Putvinskio 23, Kaunas).

If you are interested in East Asian cultures, languages, arts, economics or other areas, this event is just for you. The conference, organized by VMU East Asian Languages ​​and Cultures students, together with the Centre for Asian Studies and the Department of Cultural Studies, is a great opportunity to share your accumulated knowledge, work or research with colleagues in this field and not only, to gain experience and improve your public speaking skills, or even get some inspirations. (more…)

We are sharing the invitation to submit abstracts for the 4th annual Student academic Conference, focusing on Asia. The conference will be held on April 24, 11:00-14:00, V. Putvinskio 23-310 in Kaunas, Lithuania.

This event, which has become an integral part of VMU Asian Week, is organized by VMU Regional Studies Asian specialization students and VMU Center for Asian Studies together with the Department of Cultural Studies. As every year, students from various fields whose work and research touch on the topic of Asia are welcome, both from the humanities, social sciences, arts and other disciplines. (more…)

The National Taiwan Library announced “Guidelines to the National Taiwan Library Fellowship for International Visiting Scholars and Students”.
The library provides Fellowship for experts and scholars to pursue their academic goals in Taiwan studies or Southeast Asia studies. Please click here to read more.

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It is time for all who are interested in East Asian cultures, languages, economics, politics and more to come together for what has become an annual student research conference, organised by the VMU East Asia Cultures and Languages students.
This conference is a great opportunity to share your knowledge, work and research with colleagues in the field, to try and improve your public speaking skills, to gain experience and to listen to presentations by like-minded people. (more…)

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Are you interested in politics of Japan? Maybe you are interested in economy of China? Maybe you are fascinated in Korean art and traditions? It does not matter in which field you are interested in, as long as it is related to East Asia we have a very interesting proposition to you. (more…)

VMU Department of International Relations informs about ongoing studies exchange and internship contests as well as “Erasmus Days’21” which are going to take place on February 17th, 18th, and 19th, during which students will be able to learn more about exchange opportunities. (more…)

Beijing Normal University entrusts the European Federation of Overseas Chinese and Chinese Associations to recruit 100 candidates for MBA and MPA studies (conducted fully in English) from all over the world. Appropriate students are welcome to sign up. (more…)

Applications for scholarships for studies in China in 2021-2022 are open. Persons who are nationals of Lithuania, EU or persons from the third countries having the right to live in Lithuania are welcome to apply.

Applications may be submitted by representatives of various fields of Lithuanian science and studies institutions/ representatives of science fields – Bachelor, Masters and PhD students. (more…)