Andreja Siliunas is a qualitative researcher who uses archival, interview-based and ethnographic methods to study inequality, memory politics and nationalism in a globalizing world. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Lithuania and the United States. In one line of inquiry, she examines the relationship between art and nationalist politics, particularly in the context of decolonial movements in post-Soviet Eastern Europe.  In another, she considers how relational dynamics between employees of public and non-profit agencies reproduce and mitigate inequalities in the delivery of public services in the U.S. 

Prior to coming to UVA, Siliunas earned a Ph.D. in sociology and social policy from Harvard University in 2023. Her research has been funded by the Minda de Gunsburg Center for European Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, both based at Harvard. Her work has been published in Cultural Sociology and the Journal of Organizational Ethnography. 

As a faculty member in the Global Studies and the Engagements programs, Siliunas will teach courses such as “Global Systems of Inequality” and “The Politics of Public Art.”  She is currently working on a book project about public art and how it has been used as a tool for adjudicating decolonial and democratic aspirations in post-Soviet Lithuania. In collaboration with scholars working in other post-imperial contexts, she will also continue to expand her research on the relationships between liberatory politics, democracy and material culture.