Vilija Navickaitė

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Vilija Navickaitė is a PhD candidate at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University (IIRPS VU). She obtained her Bachelor’s degree at IIRPS VU, which included a one-year Erasmus exchange at the University of Bologna (Italy), and holds a Master’s degree from the Institute of Journalism at Vilnius University.

Vilija has extensive strategic and expert experience in the fields of development cooperation and human rights. For many years, she has worked in the development cooperation sector, designing and implementing projects to promote democratization and ensure human rights in the Eastern Partnership region, using arts-based, cultural, and creative thinking methodologies.

Her professional background includes serving on the boards of the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) and the association “Creative Connections” (Kūrybinės jungtys), as well as taking part in international election observation missions. Vilija also has a long-standing history of involvement in the non-governmental sector, notably through her long-term role as a volunteer and mentor at “Child Line” (Vaikų linija).

In her ongoing doctoral dissertation, “Our Hearts Demand Change! Individual Decision-Making Mechanisms of Belarusians Engaging in Mass Protests in the Summer of 2020” (supervised by Prof. Ainė Ramonaitė), she analyzes the processes of political mobilization and civil resistance.

Selected conference presentations:

• 10-12 April 2026, The British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) Annual Conference, Birmingham, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, “Alone but together: Individual mechanisms of protest participation in Belarus 2020”, conference paper at the panel Changing autocratic regime in Belarus: mission (im)possible?.
• 21-25 July 2025, The 11th ICCEES World Congress at UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London, United Kingdom, “Signalling in Belarus in 2020 – protest or just a step towards it?”, conference paper at the panel Bottom-Up Civil Society Mobilisation in an Endangered Belarus.
• 25-27 April 2025, The 16th Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe CBSE 2025, Cambridge, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, “The Black Box of Belarusian Protesters: What Individual Mechanisms Were Triggered in 2020?”, conference paper.