Vita Petrušauskaitė
Junior researcher, PhD student
Research interests:
- reproduction of social structure in education;
- Roma studies, social focus;
- theories of sociology, social anthropology;
- social housing, connection of social sciences and architecture.
Education:
since 2009 – PhD student in sociology at Vilnius University and Lithuanian Social Research Centre (Vilnius, Lithuania).
2007-2008 – sociology studies (MA) at the New School for Social Research (New York, USA; studies financed by the Fulbright Graduate Student Program).
2006-2009 – social anthropology (sociology) MA degree at Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania).
2000-2004 – political science BA degree at Vytautas Magnus University (in 2002, a semester at Freie Universität in Berlin (Germany); studies financed by the Erasmus Socrates student exchange program).
Qualification courses:
2010 – Lund University (Sweden), PhD course “Inclusion and Exclusion in European Social and Labour Market Policies”.
2009 – Central European University (Budapest, Hungary), summer school “Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-National Approaches to Romany Studies – a Model for Europe”.
Publications:
Articles:
Petrušauskaitė. V. 2011. Anthropology in the city or anthropology of the city? Construction of field-site in urban environment. //Lithuanian ethnology: studies in social anthropology and ethnology. 2011, Nr. 11 (20), p 159-178. ISSN 1392-4028 [in Lithuanian].
Petrušauskaitė V. 2010. Dropping out of school – an issue of disaffection, non-participation or social Exclusion? Analysing school policies towards Roma schoochildren in Lithuania.// Ethnicity Studies 2010/1-2. LSTC/Eugrimas, p. 105-120. ISSN 1822-1041 [in English].
Reports:
Petrušauskaitė V. and Vildaitė D. 2011. Lithuania, In Wilmes, Sabine, Prestin, Maike (eds.) Second Language Teaching – An Appraisal of 8 European Countries and Regions, EURAC research, Bozen.
Conference papers and public lectures:
2012 – presentation “Volunteers as supermen? Analysing the role of NGOs in education of Roma” at the public discussion Education of Roma children: can volunteering fill in systemic gaps? in Vilnius University, March 26. Event organised by the project Help Me to Fit in: First Steps in School.
2011 – paper “Starting with failure: first steps of Roma children in school” presented at the conference Schooling in Anthropology: Learning the ‘Modern Way’ at Brunel University, Londone, December 5-6.
2011 – presentation “Children of ethnic minorities in Lithuanian language schools: aspects of lingual integration” at the public consultation Perspectives: education and ethnic minorities at the Ministry of Education and Science, Vilnius, November 10.
2011 – paper “Early drop-out of Roma children from schools: social or cultural problem? The case of a school in Vilnius” at the conference Multicultural tendencies in Lithuania and Panevėžys, College of Panevėžys, October 27.
2010 – presentation “Ideas in social housing: modernism, postmodernism and the present” at the architecture workshop Designing social housing: challenges and possibilities in architecture and urban planning, Vilnius, November 18.
2009 – presentation at the discussion Should, and why, Gypsies be called Roma?, organisers Human Rights Monitoring Institute, Action Week Against Racism 2009, March 26.
2009 – presentation at the discussion Racism in Lithuania – non-existing or a hidden problem?, organisers Human Rights Monitoring Institute, Vilnius University Students’ Corporation “RePublica” and Student’s Scientific Society, Action Week Against Racism 2009, March 20.
