A. Grišinas |  D. Brandišauskas |  D. Daukšas  |  I. Šidiškienė  |  R. Paukštytė-Šaknienė  |  V. Savoniakaitė  |  V. Tumėnas  |  Ž. Šaknys |  N. Klumbytė  |  Z.B. Simon  |  A. Kitovas

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    Neringa Klumbytė

    Anthropology and East European and Russian studies professor

    Senior Researcher

 

 

Research interests and specialisations: The Baltic States in the 20th and 21st centuries; Eastern Europe and Russia; Ukraine; totalitarian and authoritarian regimes; sovereignty; geopolitics of (in)security; Holocaust and genocide; human rights
and historical justice; post-conflict societies; (post)colonialism, nationalism, and ethnicity; memory
studies; electoral politics; political participation; propaganda and censorship; political satire and
humor; food, consumption, and marketing.

 

Key publications

Books

2012 Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964–85. Co-editor with Gulnaz Sharafutdinova. Lexington Books.

2018 Social and Historical Justice in Multiethnic Lithuania: Ideas, Experiences, and Contexts. Coauthored with Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Andrius Marcinkevičius, and Kristina Šliavaitė. Vilnius: Socialinių tyrimų centras. 320 p. In Lithuanian.

2022 Authoritarian Laughter: Political Humor and Soviet Dystopia Lithuania. Cornell UP. Winner of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies Women’s Forum Award. Reviews in: Slavic Review; The Russian Review; The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review; Ab Imperio; Ethnologia Polona; Lituanus; Lietuvos Etnologija; Lietuvos Žurnalistų Sąjunga.

2024 Autoritarinis juokas: Politinis humoras ir sovietinė distopija Lietuvoje. (Translation and new edition of Authoritarian Laughter: Political Humor and Soviet Dystopia Lithuania (Cornell UP). Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras.

Publications in peer-reviewed academic journals

1999 The Low Lithuanian Language in Kazimieras Prialgauskis’ Spasabai (1845) and Naujas altorius (1847). Archivum Lithuanicum 1: 106–114. In Lithuanian.

2000 Deconstructing the Scientific Paradigm of Traditional Ethnography in Postmodern Anthropology. Sociologija 1: 88–99. In Lithuanian.

2000 Narrative and Symbolic Construction of “Nation” in Lithuania in 1988–1991. Sociologija 4: 51–62.

2001 Mapping Problems in Ethnography: a Critique of Traditional Methods of Analysis. Lietuvos Etnologija: Etnologija ir Socialinė Antropologija 1: 261–274. In Lithuanian.

2003 Ethnographic Note on Nation: Narratives and Symbols of the Early Post-Socialist Nationalism in Lithuania. Dialectical Anthropology 27 (3–4): 279–295.

2004 People at the Margins of History: Memories of Soviet Times and Experiences of the Present in Village Communities. Politologija 3 (35): 63–83. In Lithuanian.

2009 Post-Socialist Sensations: Nostalgia, the Self, and Alterity in Lithuania. Lietuvos Etnologija: Etnologija ir Socialinė Antropologija 9 (18): 93–116.

2010 The Soviet Sausage Renaissance. American Anthropologist 112 (1): 22–37.

2010 Memory, Identity, and Citizenship in Lithuania. Journal of Baltic Studies 41 (3): 295–313.

2011 Political Intimacy: Power, Laughter, and Coexistence in Late Soviet Lithuania. East European Politics and Societies 25 (4): 658–677.

2011 Europe and Its Fragments: Europeanization, Nationalism, and the Geopolitics of Provinciality in Lithuania. Slavic Review 70 (4): 844–872.

2013 Nation and Liberation: Remembering the National Movement for Independence (1987–1991) in Post-Soviet Lithuania. Ab Imperio. 2: 253–277.

2014 Communist Propaganda, Artistic Opposition, and Laughter in the Lithuanian Satire and Humor Journal Šluota, 1964–1985. Lituanus 63: 5–30.

2014 Of Power and Laughter: Carnivalesque Politics, Political Opposition, and Moral Citizenship in Lithuania. American Ethnologist 3: 473–490.

2017 Laiškų institucija ir kritinis pilietiškumas satyros ir humoro žurnale “Šluota” (Letters to The Broom: Laughter and Politics in Soviet Everyday Life). In: “Social Change and Everyday Life in Eastern Europe.” Lietuvos Etnologija: Etnologija ir Socialinė Antropologija 17: 43–76. In Lithuanian.

2017 Bipolinės istorinio teisingumo struktūros ir politinė atskirtis. Lietuvos rusakalbių prisiminimai apie Antrąjį pasaulinį karą Lietuvos ir Rusijos istorijos politikos kontekste (Political Exclusion and Bipolar Structures of Historical Justice. Lithuanian Russian Memories of WWII in the Context of the Politics of History in Lithuania and Russia). Sociologija. Mintis ir veiksmas 2 (41): 136–167. In Lithuanian.

2019 Sovereign Uncertainty and the Dangers to Liberalism at the Baltic Frontier. Slavic Review 78 (2): 336–347. Part of the Critical Discussion Forum “New War Frontiers and the End of Post-Socialism.”

2021 Sovereignty and political belonging in post-Soviet Lithuania: ethnicity, migration, and historical justice. With Kristina Šliavaitė. Journal of Baltic Studies 3.

2022 Goddess in Disguise: Transsociality, Idiosyncracy, and the Art of Living. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 12 (2): 544–564.

2022 Lithuania at the Frontier of the War in Ukraine. Current History 121 (837): 264–270.

2023 Rožytė—Vilniaus legenda: laisvė, mados estetika ir mistika Vidutės Gumbytės Vilniaus istorijoje. (Rosie as a Vilnius Legend: Freedom, Fashion Aesthetics, and Secrecy in Vidutė Gumbytė’s Vilnius Story). Lietuvos etnologija: socialinės antropologijos ir etnologijos studijos 23 (32): 47–79. In Lithuanian.

2024 Ukrainian War Humor and Civic Activism in 2022. Nationalities Papers. With Kateryna Yeremieieva. 31 October 2024. Pp. 1–38.

Monographs, book chapters

2008 The Post-Soviet Publics and Nostalgia for Soviet Times. In: Changing Economies and Changing Identities in Postsocialist Eastern Europe. Ingo Schroeder and Asta Vonderau, eds. Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia. Max Planck Institute. LIT Verlag.

2009 The Geopolitics of Taste: “Euro” and “Soviet” Sausage Industry in Lithuania. In: Food and Everyday Life in Postsocialist World. Melissa L. Caldwell, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

2011 Memory, Identity, and Citizenship in Lithuania. In: Memory and Pluralism in the Baltic States. Routledge. Pp. 19–37.

2012 Soviet Ethical Citizenship: Morality, the State, and Laughter in Lithuania. In: Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964–85. Neringa Klumbytė and Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, eds. Lexington Books. Pp. 91–116.

2012 Introduction. In: Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964–85. Neringa Klumbytė and Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, eds. Lexington Books. Pp. 1–14.

2018 Tautybių atskirties ir bendrystės ideologijos istorinio teisingumo politikoje, viešoje ir kasdieninėje erdvėje (Ideologies of Ethnic Exclusion and Coexistence in the Politics of Historical Justice, Public and Everyday Space). In: Socialinis ir istorinis teisingumas daugiaetninėje Lietuvos visuomenėje: sampratos, patirtys ir kontekstai (Social and Historical Justice in Multiethnic Lithuania: Ideas, Experiences, and Contexts). Vilnius: Lithuanian Social Research Center. Pp. 101–139. In Lithuanian.

2018 Socialinio teisingumo sampratos ir patirtys: saugumas, lygybė, pasitikėjimas. (Ideas and Experiences of Social Justice: Security, Equality, and Trust). In: Socialinis ir istorinis teisingumas daugiaetninėje Lietuvos visuomenėje: sampratos, patirtys ir kontekstai (Social and Historical Justice in Multiethnic Lithuania: Ideas, Experiences, and Contexts). Vilnius: Lithuanian Social Research Center. Pp. 237–273. (co-authored with Kristina Sliavaite and Monika Frejute-Rakauskiene). In Lithuanian.

2019 “Joke” Elections: Satirical Activism and Political Opposition in Lithuania’s Electoral Politics. In: The Politics of Joking: Anthropological Engagements by Jana Kopelent-Rehak and Susanna Trnka, eds. New York: Routledge. Pp. 37–51.

2020 Sovereign Pain: Liberation and Suffering in the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Lithuania. In: Norris, Stephen, ed. Museums of Communism: New Memory Sites in Central and Eastern Europe. Indiana University Press. Pp. 23–45.

2022 “Soviet Dystopia: Public Spaces and Modern Materialities in Late Soviet Lithuania.” In: Soviet and Post-Soviet Lithuania: Generational Experiences. Laima Žilinskiene and Melanie Ilic, eds. Routledge.

2025 Defending memory at the frontiers of war in Europe. In Defending Memory in Global Politics: Mnemonical In/Security and Crisis. Erica Resende, Dovile Budryte, and Douglas Becker, eds. Routledge. 2025.

 

Contacts:

Email: neringa.klumbyte@istorija.lt