Plenary speakers

Arūnas Gelūnas served as the Minister of Culture of Lithuania (from 2010 till 2012), an academic at institutions of higher education in Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden (from 1997 till 2010), and a Vice-Rector for Studies at Vilnius Academy of Arts (from 2004 till 2010). Arūnas Gelūnas was educated as a painter in Lithuania and Japan but received his doctoral degree in philosophy (at Vytautas Magnus University). He has also published scientific articles on philosophy, culturology and education in English and Lithuanian in Lithuania and abroad. During the period of 1990-2008 he held personal exhibitions of graphics and participated in exhibitions of graphics and paintings all over the world. In Lithuania, France and Japan he has been awarded for his works of graphics and graphic design. In 2013, he obtained an honorary doctorate from Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland). The Ambassador is fluent in English, Russian, French and can also communicate in Polish and Japanese.

Gunta Roziņa runs the Chair of Linguistics, the Department of English Language, University of Latvia. Her professional career builds on the research of the English language usage applied for professional purposes in such areas as intercultural and cross-cultural communication, banking and finance, law and medicine. Throughout her career in applied linguistics, she has been focusing on non-native users of the English language and has been developing her thinking and writings around analysing the linguistic and pragmatic principles that underlie spoken and written modes of their communication. Besides, her long-standing relationships with those who apply the English language for instrumental purposes have provided her with an awareness of the present time demand for the English language use considering the massive importance of global information in communication.

Emma Dafouz Milne, Ph.D., is associate professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, where she teaches courses in applied linguistics, discourse analysis and bilingual education. Since 2001 she has focused on English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education and currently coordinates an interdisciplinary research group, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, on the Internationalization of Higher Education and EMI. The results of such research have given way to numerous conferences, courses and publications in national and international journals (International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, Language and Education, Modern Language Journal or Applied Linguistics). At present, Emma works as Advisor of the Language Plan for Internationalization at the Complutense University.