Identity and Belonging after Lithuanian Minority Schooling: Alumni Trajectories and Ties to Lithuania (Puńsk March 11th Lyceum) (PUNSKAS), No. P-LISp-26-2

Project No.: P-LISp-26-2

Project value: 70,523 EUR

Project duration: September 1, 2026 – March 31, 2028

Project coordinator: Vytautas Magnus University (VDU)

Project partners: Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania); Punsk March 11 High School (Poland).

Project Leader at MRU: Dr. Daiva Kristina Kuzmickaitė

Project summary: The project investigates changes in the identity and sense of belonging among the Lithuanian minority in Poland (in the Punsk–Seinai–Suvalkai border region) following Lithuanian-language education, with a focus on graduates of the March 11 Lyceum in Punsk. Although there are historical and sociological studies, as well as some sociolinguistic research, on this community, there is a lack of more recent data on how turning points in the graduates’ life courses (studies, work, mobility/migration, returns, mixed families, parenthood, digital communication) affect the continuity of Lithuanian identity, language practices, and ties to Lithuania. The project will employ a sequential mixed-methods design: (1) an online survey of graduates (target n ≥ 250), (2) in-depth interviews with purposefully selected graduates (n=35–40), (3) an integrated synthesis allowing for the development of a typology of trajectories and the substantiation of mechanisms of continuity and change.

This project addresses the problem of the limited contemporary (especially post-2010) sociological and anthropological knowledge regarding how the Lithuanian minority in Poland maintains its identity, sense of belonging, and ties to Lithuania after completing Lithuanian-language education, particularly in the context of life course.

The research will draw on approaches from the study of diaspora as a practice/category, transnational social fields, belonging, and border studies, while migration will be analyzed as a turning point in the life course that alters one’s sense of belonging to “home” and “old” places. The relevance of this research is heightened by the increased sensitivity toward border issues in public discourse since 2022: the project will analyze security policies and examine how these changes affect returns, perceptions of the border, mobility decisions, and narratives of belonging. A particularly favorable circumstance for the project is the 70th anniversary of the lyceum in 2026, which provides a favorable window for recruitment and outreach.

Project objective: to investigate how graduates of the Punsk March 11 Lyceum construct and maintain their Lithuanian identity and sense of belonging throughout their lives, and how their ties to Lithuania are formed.

The project is funded from the state budget and is being carried out under the Lithuanian Science Council’s Program for the Implementation of the Lithuanian Studies Priority for 2025–2030.