Ilona Jurkonytė
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Ilona Jurkonytė
is a film and moving image researcher and curator, currently a Marie
Skłodowska-Curie Actions / UKRI Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Modern
Languages, University of St Andrews. Her work explores the intersections
of film, media, and environmental justice.
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Ilona Jurkonytė —
Bio
I am a film and moving image researcher and curator, a Marie
Skłodowska-Curie Actions / UKRI Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Modern
Languages at the University of St Andrews, and a member of St Andrews Centre
for Exoplanet Science. Previously, I was an Arts & Science Postdoctoral
Fellow at the Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto (Canada), Vilnius
University Foundation Fellow (Lithuania), and a Vanier Scholar at the Mel
Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University (Canada).
My research interests span film and media studies and
science and technology studies. I examine tensions between notions of the
national and transnational in moving image production and circulation, as well
as their geo- and hydro- political implications. I specialize in environmental
media studies. I am particularly invested in analysis of how film and media
production and technology engage with the questions of social and environmental
justice. My projects focus on relationships between nuclear media archives,
outer space research, and the environment.
My
practice in film is in film exhibition (curation and programming), and story
editing. Prior to my academic work, I maintained an active film curatorial
practice which continues to inform my research. I am interested in the
potentials of artists’ moving image and its participation in audiovisual
cultures. I was the co-founder (2007), managing director (2007–2012), and
artistic director (2007–2019) of the Kaunas International Film Festival
(Lithuania), which played a key role in rescuing Romuva Cinema (Lithuania). In
2012, I was invited to enhance the presence of moving image at the Contemporary
Art Centre (Lithuania), where from 2012 to 2014 I oversaw the establishment of
the CAC Cinema space and curated its film program.
Areas of expertise:
Film and moving image studies
Science and media technology studies
Film industry analysis
Environmental film and media research
Decolonial
and anticolonial approaches in film studies
Media and social justice research
Nuclear cultures research
Outer space cultures and media research
Film and moving image curation
Selected Grants & Fellowships
2025 Marie Skłodowska
Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship at the School of Modern Languages and the
St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science at St Andrews University, UK
2024 Arts & Science
Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Cinema Studies Institute of University of
Toronto, Canada
2023 Vilnius
University Foundation Fellowship, Lithuania
2020 Art Production Grant –
Lithuanian Cultural Council, Lithuania: moving image work Arabidopsis
Thaliana
2015 Vanier
Canada Graduate Scholarship, Canada
2014 Residency
for Film Industry Professionals: Nipkow Program, Germany
EducationPhD in
Film and Moving Image Studies at Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia
University, Montreal, Canada
MA in Art
History and Theory at Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Faculty of Humanities,
Department of Art History and Theory, Vilnius, Lithuania
MA in Communication
at Vytautas Magnus University, Institute of Political Science and Diplomacy,
Department of Journalism, Kaunas, Lithuania
BA
in Philosophy at Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Humanities, Department
of Philosophy, Kaunas, Lithuania
ij32@st-andrews.ac.uk