Dr. Jurgita Staniškytė is a theatre scholar and professor of Theatre Studies Department at Vytautas Magnus University. She has published four monographs and numerous scholarly articles as well as reviews on contemporary Lithuanian and Baltic states, performative aspects of Post-Soviet culture, creative communication, and audience research. She is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Vytautas Magnus University. She is a representative of Lithuania in the Board of HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) and is the Governing Board member of EU Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change. Since 2019 she has chaired the Board of Kaunas the European Capital of Culture 2022.