CONFERENCEThe research is financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility project "Internal and External Consolidation of the University of Latvia" (No.5.2.1.1.i.0/2/24/I/CFLA/007).
Descriptions of project public events
Closing the project – an event at the museum “Latvians in the World”
On February 13, 2026 – as the project was approaching its conclusion, the public was again invited to the museum “Latvians in the World”, where the project began its public activities a year earlier. Since an exhibition on cookbooks in the diaspora had just opened at the museum, the project researchers also thematically aligned themselves with the exhibition on display at the museum and offered the audience a joint lecture in the key of gastropoetics – “Taste –”, which discussed the functions and semantics of food in diaspora texts in a broad and diverse scope. It was offered by the project researchers Daniels Kevins Berkans, Ojārs Lāms, Madara Stāde, Ildze Škestere, Zigrīda Vinčela. The researchers conclude that bread, bacon and dill are the pillars on which the common sense of taste of Latvians rests.
Video recording from the event:
https://youtu.be/Rf82BqJUxwI?si=tSr5vmO_msIKZTS1
Project researchers at Anna Ziedare Summer High School in Australia
On January 3, 2026, project researchers Ojārs Lāms and Daniels Kevins Berkans, while visiting Anna Ziedare Summer High School, where they conducted field research, offered the school’s students, teachers and staff several public events. Ojārs Lāms gave a public lecture. In the afternoon, as part of the school’s entertainment and cultural program, Daniels Kevins Berkans offered the game “Latvian Nature and Culture”, which became a passionate competition in affirming belonging, and also earned teachers’ recognition and praise as an excellent methodological approach to building both cultural ties and expanding language use.
Summer school opening ceremony. From the flagpole to the left – Ojārs Lāms
Project Collaboration – Public Seminar
On December 5, 2025, the seminar “Building a Bridge Across the Gap” was held in collaboration with the Diaspora Teacher Training Program, which has concluded its work. The project participants presented their reports at the seminar:
- Zigrīda Vinčela
LATDIT Text Corpus – a Repository of Diaspora Identity Transformations - Madara Stāde, Ildze Šķestere
Speaking in the Words of Nature and Life: The Creativity of Diaspora Writer Eva Saulītis - Ojārs Lāms
The Neverending Story: The Importance of Field Research for the Knowledge and Understanding of Diaspora Language and Cultural Processes
Project Researchers at the Summer High Schools “Garezers and “Kursa”
Project researchers Anta Lazareva and Ojārs Lāms visited long-standing diaspora educational institutions that preserve exile traditions and continue Latvian education today, uniting both post-exile and new diaspora representatives. Latvian teachers participate in the school activities. The researchers conducted surveys and interviews, studying the linguistic and cultural research dimensions of Latvian diaspora youth.
Project researchers Anta Lazareva and Ojārs Lāms at the Summer High School “Garezers”
Open-air church service in “Garezer”
Solstice symposium “The Unfading Midsummers”
June 14, 2025, LU HZF, Visvalža Street
The novel “Lost Midsummers” by the English-language diaspora writer Agate Nesaule became a springboard for the symposium to talk about what is unfading and unifying in the diaspora, as well as about the diaspora as an endless field of research. There was an opportunity to get acquainted with the freshly and excellently defended bachelor's theses developed under the auspices of the project by experts Evelīna Barone and Daniel Kevin Berkans. In turn, expert Anta Lazareva spoke about the dynamics of cooperation between the State Education Agency and the diaspora.
Public lecture by leading researcher Ojārs Lāms
On April 29, 2025, a public lecture by leading researcher Ojārs Lāms was held at the LU Science House lecture “A researcher in the diaspora nest”. The lecturer introduced the interested parties to the etymology and semantics of the term diaspora and his own 35-year experience in diaspora research.
Mind game at a diaspora youth camp and lessons
In April 2025, in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, the Latvian language and literature teacher Daniels Kevins Berkans, an expert in the project, held language learning lessons based on his own original methodology for the participants of the Latvian language camp – for diaspora youth, and also offered all the camp participants an entertaining and educational mind game “Latvian nature and culture”. Daniels Kevins also led lessons within the framework of his study practice, using an original methodology developed within the project as part of his bachelor's thesis.
Starting the project – Latvian diaspora research (challenges)
February 2025 – the project was launched after the internal work organization stage and with the first research activities in front of a wider audience, introducing the project team and each participant's research intentions and planned contribution to the museum "Latvians in the World".
From left: Vita Kalnbērziņa, Ojārs Lāms, Elvis Friks, Kristīna Korneliusa, Madara Stāde, Ildz Šķestere, Executive Director of the museum "Latvians in the World", Daniels Kevins Berkans