On October 22nd-25th, the Lithuanian capital city Vilnius temporarily became the world-wide centre of Baltic Studies. The occasion was Vilnius University’s hosting of the 14th International Congress of Balticists, the leading international meeting in the field. Following up on an online edition in 2021, this year’s installment managed to bring together on campus over 170 experts from 16 countries across the globe, underscoring the importance of the Baltic languages from the perspectives of minority language research, philology, onomastics, and many more.
Representing Adam Mickiewicz University together with Prof. Dr. Nicole Nau, PhD student Sander van Hes participated, courtesy of the Excellence Initiative (ID-UB), as presenter, session chair, and organiser of one of the Congress’ eight thematic workshops. This workshop, bearing the title “At the intersection of historical morphology and syntax: The Baltic verb from a diachronic perspective,” was co-organised by Prof. Dr. Daniel Petit, a leading authority on Baltic (historical) linguistics, and fellow PhD student Saverio Dalpedri (Würzburg). It turned out a real success thanks not only to the seven presenters, but also to the high attendance rate and lively discussion sessions after every presentation.
In line with the workshop’s theme, Sander presented on a verbal category found in Baltic and Slavic languages with a contested historical background by taking a comparative, external approach. This research is part of his PhD project on the prehistory of the Balto-Slavic verbal system, which is now yet another step closer to completion. Consolidated by numerous useful comments, the paper presented at the Congress is being prepared for publication in the renowned journal Baltistica. While it will be another five years before the next installment of the Congress in Riga, all the above goes to show that Baltic Studies is an ever-active discipline characterised by profound and meaningful collaboration between scholars on international levels.
