Academic CentreThe aim of the study and research centre is to promote research and studies on Lithuanistics and Baltistics, and to extend and deepen cooperation between Latvian and Lithuanian balticists.
The idea of establishing the Centre for Lithuanian Studies came in 1998, when conference “Latvia and Lithuania in the 20th century” was held at Vytautas Magnus University. The Centre was established in the following year – 1999. It was originally a joint unit of the University of Latvia and the Latvian Academy of Culture. Since 2008, the Centre is included in the University of Latvia Faculty of Philology and Arts. The Centre has a number of operational directions: organizing conferences, work of joint editorial board for the Baltic region, organising expeditions, gathering and arranging materials from expeditions, coordinating Lithuanian studies in Latvian universities, organising Lithuania-related presentation event, organising tours. The Centre aims to collect data on the language used by the Lithuanians living in Latvia, ethnic culture, history, to gather information on scientific works in the field of comparative research on Latvian and Lithuanian studies, to promote the discipline of Lithuanian studies – teaching Latvian students language, literature, folklore, ethnography, mythology, ethnomusicology, history.