Social Anthropology
Description
Anthropology offers a unique lens that transforms how we see the world—revealing hidden dimensions in the unfamiliar and making the ordinary strange. VMU's MA in Social Anthropology is the only graduate program in social anthropology in Lithuania, training you to decode how culture shapes human behavior, meaning-making, and social life across diverse contexts.
Our curriculum combines rigorous ethnographic fieldwork with contemporary theoretical frameworks. You'll work alongside international faculty from Lithuania, Denmark, Poland, and visiting scholars from around the world conducting ongoing research—from war and resilience in Ukraine to postcolonial transformations in Southeast Asia. The program is actively evolving in partnership with Anthropos, Lithuania's leading applied anthropology organization, strengthening pathways between academic research and real-world impact. Students also have the opportunity to earn Southern Illinois University's (USA) Intercultural Understanding certificate alongside their VMU degree.
Graduates don't just analyze culture—they shape it. Our alumni work as diplomats, museum curators, intercultural consultants, founders of applied anthropology organizations, and researchers in doctoral programs worldwide. You'll learn to see what others miss, and use that insight to make changes.
The program has been running since 2004 and has graduated over 100 alumni (148). Fourteen graduates have completed doctoral degrees, and another thirteen are currently pursuing doctoral studies.
Keywords
#InterculturalUnderstanding #Identity #Regions #MulticulturalSociety #Culture
Anthropologists defend the right to difference and otherness and seek to understand human social interactions and cultures according to their internal logic and morality. Through face-to-face ethnographic fieldwork and comparison of the ways of life of communities around the world, they are considered experts in intercultural understanding. Taking the side of 'voiceless' communities, they defend their rights to natural resources, cultural heritage, recognition of collective identity and dignity.
Prof. dr. Vytis Čubrinskas Founder and Head of the Centre for Social Anthropology
For me, anthropology is about stepping outside my comfort zone and truly listening to people's lived experiences. It challenges me to question my own assumptions and see beyond stereotypes – to understand not just what people do, but why it matters to them.
Dr. Ida Harboe Knudsen Faculty Member
Ethnography allows us to see the world from the inside – to understand what doesn't make it into statistics or surveys. Anthropology teaches us to listen and reflect. It transforms the researcher – expanding sensitivity and the ability to understand social phenomena in their true context.
Dr. Anna Pilarczyk-Palaitis Faculty Member
Medical anthropology is a path into the deepest layers of human experience. I believe meaningful change is born where different perspectives and experiences meet. Such encounters aren't easy, but that's what anthropology teaches: to remain sensitive to human experience and respectful of different ways of thinking.
Dr. Daiva Bartušienė Faculty Member
Theories aren't abstract formulas – they're different ways of seeing the world's diversity. Classical, postmodern, posthumanist, and beyond – all arise from the effort to understand others so that we might better understand ourselves.
Dr. Eugenijus Liutkevičius Faculty Member
Personally, this science helps me understand the world around me - why we live the way we do; why we have certain customs or traditions; where all of this comes from... It's a science that encourages questioning everything.
Šarūnė Baltramonaitytė Graduate, Researcher at Kilo Health
Partners
Student internships, research, projects, conferences, and other events, participation in the process of improving and implementing studies.
Curriculum
| Course | Lecturer | ECTS Credits |
| Contemporary Theories in Sociocultural Anthropology | Vytis Čubrinskas | 6 |
| Engaging with Ethnography | Kristina Jonutytė | 6 |
| Research Methods in Social Anthropology | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Optional courses I | ||
| Special Course 1 | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Sociology and Anthropology of Gender | Artūras Tereškinas | 6 |
| Visual Anthropology | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Economic Anthropology | Kristina Jonutytė | 6 |
| Special Course 2 | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Special Course 3 | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Anthropology of Food | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Applied Anthropology | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Body, health, culture and society | 6 | |
| Course | Lecturer | ECTS Credits |
| Ethnicity, Migration and Politics of Identity | Vytis Čubrinskas | 6 |
| Research Project Design | Vytis Čubrinskas | 6 |
| Applied Anthropology | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Optional courses I | ||
| Religion, Culture and the State | Jolanta Kuznecovienė | 6 |
| Area Studies in Anthropology | Vytis Čubrinskas | 6 |
| Special Course 2 | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Anthropology of Food | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Anthropology of Law and Crime | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Body, health, culture and society | 6 | |
| Course | Lecturer | ECTS Credits |
| Anthropological Fieldwork | Vytis Čubrinskas | 6 |
| Ethnographic Practice | Vytis Čubrinskas | 6 |
| Political Anthropology | 6 |
| Optional courses I | ||
| Sociology and Anthropology of Gender | Artūras Tereškinas | 6 |
| Sociology of Civil Society | Jurga Bučaitė-Vilkė | 6 |
| Urban Anthropology | Kristina Jonutytė | 6 |
| Cognitive Anthropology | Kristina Šliavaitė | 6 |
| Course | Lecturer | ECTS Credits |
| Master Graduation Thesis | Vytis Čubrinskas | 30 |
