Prof. Sužiedėlis Received Honorary Doctorate at VMU

On Friday 21 June, the regalia of VMU Honorary Doctorate was awarded to Prof. Saulius Sužiedėlis, a prominent scientist, historian and professor emeritus of history at Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

Saulius Sužiedėlis completed bachelor studies of modern European history at the Catholic University of America in Washington in 1967. After graduating, he spent several years working as a teacher in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia. Later he studied Polish language and literature at Adam Mickiewicz University (1973), did internship at the Warsaw University Institute of History (1974–1975) and received his PhD in Russian and East European history from the University of Kansas (1977).

Between 1982 and 1987, Professor Sužiedėlis worked as a research historian for the U.S. Department of Justice. From 1989 until 1990, he was a radio journalist and commentator for the Voice of America. Sužiedėlis has been a member of various scientific associations, including the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), which he led as its president from 2002 until 2004. Between 1994 and 1998, Sužiedėlis worked as the editor-in-chief of the scholarly quarterly The Journal of Baltic Studies. Since 1998 Sužiedėlis has been a member of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. Between 2007 and 2010, he served as director of Millersville University’s Annual Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide.

In 2011, the Ministry of Education and Science awarded Prof. Sužiedėlis the prize for international achievements in science and collaboration with Lithuania by members of Lithuanian Diaspora.

Research priorities of Prof. Saulius Sužiedėlis include the history of Russia, Eastern Europe, Lithuania, the Holocaust and genocide. The professor has prepared and published 5 books, including Historical Dictionary of Lithuania (Scarecrow Press, 1997) which won the Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award in 1998. In 2006, Sužiedėlis and historian Christoph Dieckmann published historical study titled The Persecution and Mass Murder of Lithuanian Jews during Summer and Fall of 1941. Prof. Sužiedėlis is the author of over 60 scientific articles, papers and reviews.

Prof. Saulius Sužiedėlis has read a series of lectures at Vytautas Magnus University which focused on the persecution of Jews and the Holocaust, the development of the historical consciousness of the citizens of Lithuania and the emigrants, the genocide in the context of global history and politics, etc.

You are also welcome to view the photo report by Jonas Petronis (j.petronis@vkt.vdu.lt).

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