Lithuania: Country Representatives

Ausra Vinciūnienė - Ph.D. Candidate and Lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy at the Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas.
The topic of her Ph.D. Thesis is: Assessing Conditions of Europeanisation of National Public Sphere: Institutional Aspects of EU Political Communication in the Baltic States (to be defended in Spring 2010). Research interests: political communication, communicating EU politics (institutional aspects), European reporting, management of integrated communications and public relations. Courses taught: "Public Relations", "Communicating Politics" (in English), "Integrated Communication Strategies", "Communication Cultures" (in English), "Creative Online Writing".  Aside from teaching, is one of the organisers of intensive seminars and summer schools for journalism and communication students at VMU; she is the coordinator of the European Summer Academy “Reporting Europe from Home”. She is involved in various studies organisation activities, is one of the founders and coordinators of different online projects, such as BalticMedia.eu, MediaStudies.lt, VDU.lt/ESA, VDU.lt/media/interlinks, etc. At the University she also works as a Chief Public Relations Officer with the responsibilities of coordinating various PR projects and relations with alumni. As a young researcher Ausra Vinciuniene participates in international research projects, such as EU 6 FP "AIM: Adequate Information Management in Europe", 2004-2007, "CINEFOGO: Civil Society and New Forms of Governance in Europe – the Making of European Citizenship", 2005-2009, "InterLinks10.NET: Network of Baltic and Nordic Journalism Schools", 2005–2009, etc. For more information, visit http://www.mediastudies.lt/en/ausra-vinciuniene. 
Inesa Birbilaitė - PhD Candidate and Assistant at the Department of Public Communications, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas.
Her research interests involve political communication, environmental risk communication, science journalism, popular science, and media globalization processes. The topic of her Ph.D. thesis is: Risk Communication on Climate Change and Policy Agenda setting (to be defended in year 2012). As an Assistant Inesa is giving lectures and seminars to master students of “Journalism” and “Integrated Communication”. Courses taught: “Communication Cultures” (in English), “Creative Online Writing”, "Integrated Communication Strategies", "Public Relations". Inesa as a young scholar participates in the international project for Ph.D students BGS: Baltic Graduate School and is BGS Ph.D. representative at VMU. Aside from academic work she is also involved in a number of other activities. Inesa is coordinator of a project for high school students "Young Journalists’ School"; one of the organizers of the European Summer Academy "Reporting Europe from Home". For more information visit    http://www.mediastudies.lt/en/inesa-birbilaite.