In the EUROPAST Podcast, we explore Europe's most pressing challenges of public history. We investigate the complex and contested spaces of public memory, memory activism and best practices for engaging the public in a dialogue about the past.
You may listen to the EUROPAST podcast on YouTube or Spreaker.
Svečias: Saulius Grybkauskas
Epizodo vedėja: prof. Violeta Davoliūtė
Kuo sovietų nomenklatūros gyvenimas skyrėsi nuo eilinių Lietuvos gyventojų kasdienybės? Kokia šios temos tyrimų reikšmė šiandien, kai sovietmetis jau tampa kultūrinės vaizduotės objektu? Ar jau gebame kalbėti apie jį be supaprastinimų ar nostalgijos?
Šiame EUROPAST tinklalaidės epizode projekto vadovė prof. Violeta Davoliūtė kalbasi su Lietuvos istorijos instituto istoriku dr. Sauliumi Grybkausku, tyrinėjančiu sovietinės sistemos veikimą, sovietmečio Lietuvos ūkio plėtrą, tautinę politiką, nomenklatūrą, taip pat KGB ir kitų režimo institucijų vykdytą visuomenės kontrolę bei represijas.
Guest: Dora Komnenovic
Hosts: Violeta Davoliūtė, Rūta Vyšniauskaitė
What does it mean to do history? And what does it mean to do it not just for the public, but with the public? How can historical knowledge become accessible, engaging, and relevant beyond academia?
In the latest EUROPAST podcast episode, Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė and doctoral researcher Rūta Vyšniauskaitė speak with Dr. Dora Komnenovic (University of Luxembourg) about public history in practice and the creation of Luxembourg’s first-ever history festival, Histofest.
Svečiuose: dr. Akvilė Kabašinskaitė
Epizodo vedėja: prof. Violeta Davoliūtė
Šiame EUROPAST tinklalaidės epizode prof. Violeta Davoliūtė kalbasi su neseniai Sorbonne Nouvelle universitete daktaro disertaciją apgynusia mokslininke dr. Akvile Kabašinskaite apie Lietuvos vaizdinį Prancūzijoje nuo Antrojo pasaulinio karo pabaigos iki šių dienų. Mokslininkės aptaria naratyvinės diplomatijos bei diasporos svarbą valstybės įvaizdžio užsienyje palaikymui ir valstybingumo atkūrimo procesams, o taip pat brėžia įdomią paralelę tarp mažų valstybių padėties pasaulio politikoje praeityje ir šiandien.
Svečiuose: Stanislovas Stasiulis
Epizodo vedėja: Violeta Davoliūtė
Šiame epizode EUROPAST projekto komandos vadovė Violeta Davoliūtė su istoriku Stanislovu Stasiuliu kalbasi apie propagandą, visuomenėse gajų sentimentų pasitelkimą politiniams tikslams ir atsparumą dezinformacijai šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje.
Guests: Stefanie Eisenhuth, Franziska Davies, and Iuliia Skubytska
Production: Tim Schleinitz
Host: Janine Funke
In the final episode of the mini-series "Fights for Freedom", the EUROPAST podcast turns to Ukraine to understand how memories of the past shape the present in times of war. In conversation with Stefanie Eisenhuth, Franziska Davies, and Iuliia Skubytska, the episode explores long traditions of Ukrainian resistance, the evolution of Ukrainian memory politics, and how history and memory have been mobilised in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Guests: Corinna Kuhr-Korolev, Daria Ganzenko
Production: Tim Schleinitz
Host: Janine Funke
In the 4th episode of the mini-series "Fights for Freedom", the EUROPAST podcast turns to the imperial center to ask what happened when the Soviet system unravelled. The late 1980s and 1990s were years of transformation marked by reform and hope, but also crisis, social decline, and contested memory. While often described as a “collapse,” many Soviet structures and ways of thinking endured, shaping the new Russian state in ways still visible today
Guests: Abigail Scripka, David Jishkariani,
Production: Tim Schleinitz
Host: Janine Funke
In the 3rd episode of the mini-series, we turn to Central Asia and the South Caucasus to explore how the legacies of empire, resistance, and identity continue to shape the region today. Abigail Scripka guides us through key moments of protest in Kazakhstan — from the 1986 student uprising in Almaty to Bloody January 2022 – revealing enduring resistance to authoritarian rule and ongoing struggles over how the past is remembered.
Guests: Florian Peters, Epp Annus
Production: Tim Schleinitz
Host: Janine Funke
In the second episode of the mini series "Fights for Freedom", EUROPAST podcast turns to Poland and the Baltic states in the 1980s to explore how grassroots movements challenged Soviet rule during the final decade of the USSR. Florian Peters, historian of Central and Eastern Europe at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, joins our host, Janine Funke, to discuss the Polish uprising of 1980 and examines how workers, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens mobilised to demand social and political change.
Guests: Violeta Davoliūtė, Juliane Fürst, Jens Schöne
Production: Tim Schleinitz
Host: Janine Funke
In this episode, the first of the mini series "Fights for Freedom", EUROPAST team heads Violeta Davoliūtė and Juliane Fürst join the podcast to introduce a new thematic mini-series on the contested memories of uprisings against Soviet rule in Eastern Europe. They discuss how memory, already a sensitive and contested terrain, has become an increasingly politicised battleground in light of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Guest: Jan Kubik
Hosts: Violeta Davoliūtė, Dovilė Budrytė
In this episode, the podcast host are joined by renowned political scientist Professor Jan Kubik (Rutgers University) to explore the critical intersection of political populism and the misuse of history.
Guest: Odeta Rudling
Host: Violeta Davoliūtė
In this episode of the EUROPAST podcast, Violeta Davoliūtė speaks with historian Odeta Rudling (Lund University) about her research on folklore, tourism, and nation-building in Soviet Lithuania. The conversation ranges from grassroots folklore movements to KGB surveillance, from the revival of pagan traditions to the ideological instrumentalization of "authenticity," revealing how everyday practices became powerful tools of cultural control and resistance.
Guest: Rita Gabis
Host: Violeta Davoliūtė
What is the role of family narratives in shaping historical consciousness? How are second and third generation descendants implicated in traumatic events of the past? Tune in and join us in this reflection on public history, intergenerational responsibility, and the ongoing search for truth and justice.
Svečiuose: prof. Dovilė Budrytė, Džiugas Siaurusaitis
Epizodo vedėja: prof. Violeta Davoliūtė
Pirmajame lietuviškame EUROPAST tinklalaidės epizode projekto vadovė prof. Violeta Davoliūtė kalbina du žinomus Lietuvos žmones – Džiugą Siaurusaitį, aktorių, laidų vedėją, filmų įgarsintoją, ir prof. Dovilę Budrytę, Džordžijos Gvineto koledžo politologę, EUROPAST komandos narę. Dovilę ir Džiugą sieja buvimas bendraklasiais Salomėjos Nėries vidurinėje mokykloje besibaigiant sovietmečiui, tačiau skiria pačios Salomėjos Nėries, garsios lietuvių poetės, kolaboravusios su sovietiniu režimu, asmenybės vertinimas, požiūris į jos atminimo įamžinimą.
Guest: Prof. Thomas Cauvin
Hosts: Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė, Rūta Vyšniauskaitė, Giorgio Ruggeri
What happens when historians step outside the archive and into the world? In this EUROPAST Podcast episode, Professor Thomas Cauvin invites us into the evolving world of public history—a way of doing history that is participatory, collaborative, and rooted in the present. We talk about the challenges of teaching public history and the powerful potential of working beyond institutional walls.
Guest: Prof. Machteld Venken
Host: Rūta Vyšniauskaitė
This episode delves into the importance and complexity of collecting and disclosing testimonies amidst war, the ethical challenges that researchers and witnesses encounter in this process and the political meaning of this participatory practice in the context of Ukrainian efforts to reinvent the country's cultural and mnemonical identity.
Guest: Dr. Corinna Kuhr-Korolev
Host: Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė
The episode explores the role of cemeteries as sites of memory and education, focusing on the German War Cemetery in Kaunas. The participants discuss the challenges and ethical dilemmas of curating exhibitions on such sensitive locations, given their complex and controversial legacies. The talk also delves into the difficulties of representing the socialist past in Germany and the Soviet era in Lithuania, questioning whether current exhibitions and other public history initiatives are able to get to the core of those historical experiences.
Guest: Prof. Saulius Sužiedelis
Host: Dr. Indra Ekmanis
EUROPAST podcast brings you a bonus episode from our colleagues at Baltic Ways, a podcast by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, produced in collaboration with the Baltic Initiative at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
Guest: Prof. Michael Bernhard
Host: Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė
Is the past really alive in the present? How have different European countries dealt with their past, and what implications have these approaches had on the state of their societies in the present? How can the recent U.S. elections affect memory regimes and the state of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe?
Guest: Agnieška Avin.
Hosts: Rūta Vyšniauskaitė, Ignė Rasickaitė.
In the 6th episode of the EUROPAST Podcast, project researchers Rūta Vyšniauskaitė and Ignė Rasickaitė sat down with Agnieška Avin, a PhD candidate at the Institute Of Sociology At The Lithuanian Centre For Social Sciences. She is also an activist for Roma integration, working as an educator at the integrative children’s day-care centre “Padėk Pritapti”. The episode focuses on the Roma community in Lithuania, their linguistic diversity and cultural history.
Guests: Dr. Rasa Antanavičiūtė, Živilė Miežytė.
Hosts: Rūta Vyšniauskaitė, Ignė Rasickaitė.
In the fifth episode of the EUROPAST Podcast, project researchers Rūta Vyšniauskaitė and Ignė Rasickaitė sat down with Rasa Antanavičiūtė and Živilė Miežytė, the curators of Vilnius Musem, where an exhibition "Inconvenient Vilnius" takes place. How does one curate an exhibition on the unspoken stories of marginalized people, and why is it important to highlight the beliefs that make life in the city inconvenient?
Guest: Prof. Emilia Koustova.
Host: Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė.
In the fourth episode of the EUROPAST Podcast, Professor Violeta Davoliūtė talks with Emilia Koustova from the University of Strasbourg about the European Gulag Memories project and her experience learning about and researching Soviet repressions in Eastern Europe. What is the state of oral history research into Soviet repressions and the Gulag system? How can oral history help change our understanding about Central and Eastern Europe? What is the state of the relations between Russian scholars and scholars in the West?
Guest: Prof. Maria Mälksoo.
Host: Dr. Viktorija Rimaitė-Beržiūnienė.
In the third episode of EUROPAST Podcast, Viktorija Rimaitė-Beržiūnienė talks with Professor Maria Mälksoo from the University of Copenhagen about the intersection of war and memory. Why is memory so important for politics today? What is the autobiography of a state? How does it relate to practices of public history? These are the questions that will be answered in the podcast.
Guest: Prof. Jonathan Brent.
Host: Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė.
In the second episode of the EUROPAST Podcast, Violeta Davoliūtė talks with Jonathan Brent, CEO and executive director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. They cover the relevance of the past to the present, ideologies of hate and hope in public history, and the critical role of archives in the historiography of the Cold War.
Guests: Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė, Prof. Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, Dr. Thomas Cauvin, Dr. Juliane Fürst.
Host: Dr. Dora Komnenovic.
In the pilot episode of the EUROPAST Podcast, hosted by Dr. Dora Komnenovic, the EUROPAST project team introduces itself and the project. Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė, Prof. Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, Dr. Thomas Cauvin, and Dr. Juliane Fürst discuss the creation of the research consortium, the preparation of the project proposal, the main goals of EUROPAST, and its plans for the future. Tune in and listen to a lively virtual coffee talk!
