Lectures of Darius Udrys, a guest of the Dana Gedvila Fund, were held at VMU Faculty of Political Sciences and Diplomacy for students of the special course “Liberalism and its criticism” and at the Faculty of Humanities. Lectures at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) were held on April 17-28.
The course “Liberalism and its criticism” aimed to review the practical and theoretical evolution of liberal politics, its historical and present-day challenges and alternatives. Course participants were invited to discuss the practical application of liberal ideas to current issues.
Dr. Darius Udrys is a political scientist with a PhD in political science from Claremont Graduate University in California. 2011 – 2015 served as vice-rector for development and communication at the European Humanities University; was the founding director of the Vilnius city development and marketing agency “GO Vilnius” and the development director and program manager of the Civic Education Center in California.
In 2019 and 2022 D. Udrys was one of the organizers of the World Lithuanian Symposium on Arts and Sciences and World Lithuanian University Symposium and actively participates in other VMU World University activities.
Darius Udrys born and was raised in a Lithuanian family in the USA, where he contributed to the support of Lithuania: he was the head of the Los Angeles Lithuanian community and the Los Angeles-Kaunas sister cities program, he worked as a journalist in the Lithuanian editorial office of Radio Free Europe in Prague and as a correspondent of Lithuanian Radio, he headed the programs of the US Center for Civic Education in the East Europe and was the development director of this public company.
Currently, D. Udrys advises companies on issues of communication and relations with government organizations, is a member of the VMU Senate representing diaspora scientists and an associate professor of communication partnership at Vilnius University.
Teaching visit at VMU runs under the VMU Vytautas Kavolis interdisciplinary Professorship program. Professorship scholarship has been established by the Dana Gedvila Fund, which is administered by the Lithuanian Foundation. Kavolis Interdisciplinary Professorship is a cooperation program dedicated to the visits of Lithuanian diaspora lecturers at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). It aims to strengthen both the interdisciplinary approach in the study programs and the ties with the Lithuanian diaspora academic community.
