II Baltic Student Conference “Bridges in the Baltics” was held at the University of Latvia
The Second Baltic Student Conference “Bridges in the Baltics” was held at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Latvia on 3–4 October 2014. The conference was dedicated to the European Day of Languages.
The student conference hosted 50 students who came from 17 universities and research institutions of eight European countries. Altogether, more than 100 people visited the conference in two days. Student presentations about the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian languages, literatures, cultures and histories were held in English as well as the three official languages of the Baltic countries. Among others, the authors of the upcoming Estonian-Latvian, Latvian-Estonian and Estonian-Lithuanian dictionaries discussed their work at the conference. In addition to student presentations, three plenary lectures were held by well-known professors: Andres Kasekamp, professor of Baltic politics at the University of Tartu, Zenonas Norkus, professor of sociology at the University of Vilnius, and Viktors Freibergs, the associate professor of communication at the University of Latvia.
During the conference, the Latvian language textbook for Estonian students was presented. The textbook is written by Ilze Zagorska, the teacher of the Latvian language and culture at the University of Tartu and published by the Latvian Language Agency (2014). At the end of the student conference, a farewell reception was held at the folk club Ala.
A big thanks to everyone who organised and supported the conference: Latvian Language Agency of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Centre of Finnougristics and the Centre of Lithuanistics of the University of Latvia, the Estonian national programme “Academic Studies of Estonian Language and Culture Abroad”, Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science, the University of Tartu and the Vilnius University.
The Third Baltic Student Conference “Bridges in the Baltics” will be held at the Vilnius University in autumn 2015.
Kerttu Kibbermann
University of Latvia / Latvian Language Agency of the Ministry of Education and Science
kerttu.kibbermann@lu.lv, kertu.kibermane@valoda.lv
