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Lea Garcia

Lea Garcia holds a BA degree in Intercultural Management and Communication from Karlshochschule International University (Karlsruhe) and an MA degree in Transcultural Studies/Cultural Anthropology from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University (Bonn). Furthermore, she studied Linguistics and Eastern European Studies at the University of Hamburg and visited courses at Vilnius University, Lomonosov Moscow State University and Xi’an Eurasia University through various exchange programs. Since April 2024 she is a PhD candidate in the International Research Training Group “Baltic Peripeties”, studying (post-)colonial narratives in memory practices of the Baltics. She is a co-organizer of the seminar series Decolonize Eastern Europe in Hamburg. Her research interests include the construction and negotiation of cultural identities, collective memory and memory culture, museum and heritage studies, discourse linguistics as well as postcolonial studies.

University of Greifswald

IRTG Baltic Peripeties
Anklamer Str. 20
17489 Greifswald
Germany

Room: 0.01
+49 3834 420 3595
lea.garcia@uni-greifswald.de

Chair of Ukrainian Cultural Studies

Negotiating a New Take on History. Narrations of the Soviet Past in Lithuanian Museums

The project examines the ongoing process of change in memory culture and its manifestations in Lithuanian museums. The focus of the project are narrative representations of the Soviet past and their actualizations in light of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Soviet memory culture in Lithuania appears to be in motion; this momentum of re-consideration and change is manifested for instance by interventions in public space, such as the renewed wave of dismantling of statues, removing of plaques or changing names of public institutions.

What is noteworthy is the tendency to refer to Russia’s war against Ukraine as the central argument to stress why the respective historical remnant and its handling needs to be re-considered. A parallel dynamic can be observed in the museum space, where there are similar calls for a shift in memory practices, referring, again, to the geopolitical events of the present.

The research project examines how this process of re-consideration and change is unfolding in the museum sphere; its epistemic interest are therefore the narratives of the Soviet past that result out of this actualization process. To approach this interest through the analysis of the empirical data collected during fieldwork, the research questions are: Which narratives constitute the representation of the Soviet past in the Lithuanian museum sphere? Where do narratives align and where do they oppose each other? The methodology comprises of exhibition analysis and semi-structured interviews with museum staff.

  • “Aushandlung einer neuen Sicht auf die Geschichte. Wie das Erinnern an die sowjetische Vergangenheit in Vilnius’ historischen Museen aktualisiert wird,” Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte des östlichen Europa, Oldenburg, October 2, 2024.
  • Participation in the CBEES Summer School The Return of History: Memory, War and the End of the “Post”, organised by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) at Södertörn University, Sigtuna, August 12-17, 2024.
  • “(Post-)colonial Narratives in Institutional Memory Practices of Lithuania,” 29th Biennial AABS Conference The Baltic Way: Unity and Giving Aid, organised by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), Yale University and University of New Haven, CT, June 13-16, 2024.
  • “(Post-)colonial Narratives in Institutional Memory Practices of the Baltics – A Comparative Museum Analysis,” international workshop Resonant Conflicts. Turning Points in the Baltic Sea Region, organised by the IRTG Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes, Department for Language and Literature, NTNU Trondheim, May 22-24, 2024.
  • Participation in the Winter School Lithuanian Language and Culture, Vilnius University, January 4 – February 2, 2024.
  • “Negotiating Cultural Identity in the Lithuanian Diaspora,” New Year Symposium of the Claussen-Simon-Foundation, Hamburg, January 18, 2024.
  • “Die Corona-Krise im digitalen musealen Raum,” poster presentation at Analysen des Alltags: Komplexität, Konjunktur, Krise, 44. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft e.V. (DGEKW), Dortmund, October 4-7, 2023.
  • “Negotiating Cultural Identity in the Lithuanian Diaspora,” poster presentation at the Ethnological Summer Symposium, organised by the Frobenius Institute, Frankfurt am Main, June 22-23, 2023.
  • Participation in the Summer School Lithuanian Language and Culture, Vilnius University, July 4-29, 2022.
  • “Moralisierte Stadt: Sexarbeit zwischen Verrichtungsboxen und Sexsteuerautomat,” 33. dgv-Studierendentagung Sex.Sex.Sex. Kulturwissenschaftliche Höhepunkte & Abgründe, online, May 13-16, 2021.
  • “Das immaterielle Kulturerbe der baltischen Tanz- und Liederfeste,” Symposium der Forschungsklasse ‘Welterbe’, University of Cologne [online], February 2, 2021.
  • Participation in the Summer School Diplomacy and Leadership, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, summer 2019.
  • Participation in the Summer School Intercultural Creativity, Eurasia University, Xi’an, China, summer 2017.

University studies and degrees

  • Since April 2024
  • Doctoral Researcher at the International Research Training Group “Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes” at the University of Greifswald.
  • 09/2023 – 04/2024
  • Doctoral Researcher at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn.
  • 2019 – 2023
  • MA Transcultural Studies / Cultural Anthropology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn. Thesis: “‘Your Home Away From The Homeland’. Negotiating Cultural Identity in the Lithuanian Diaspora. Case Study of the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture” (Fieldwork in Chicago).
  • 2018 – 2019
  • Semester abroad, Philology at Vilnius University.
  • 2016 – 2019
  • BA Intercultural Management and Communication, Karlshochschule International University, Karlsruhe. Thesis: “Narrative Reconstruction of the Soviet Past in Lithuanian Cultural Institutions. Case Study of the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights” (Fieldwork in Vilnius).


Secondary Studies

  • 2022 – 2024
  • Bachelor studies in Linguistics and Eastern European Studies, University of Hamburg
  • 2020 – 2022
  • Bachelor studies in Linguistics and Phonetics, Ethnology, University of Cologne (transfer to University of Hamburg autumn 2023/24).

Professional background

  • 09/2023 – 03/2024
  • Assistant researcher at the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.
  • 09/2023 – 12/2023
  • Research student at the Academy of World Religions, University of Hamburg.
  • 01/2023 – 03/2023
  • Intern at the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA.
  • 09/2021 – 10/2021
  • Intern at the Museum of Cultures, Basel, Switzerland.
  • 03/2021 – 04/2021
  • Intern at the Museum of European Cultures, Berlin.
  • 02/2019 – 05/2019
  • Intern at the Institute for Migration Studies and Intercultural Learning, Bonn.