Key Speakers for the 2025 Conference
Dr. Betül Özcan Dost is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Translation and Interpreting (English) at Ondokuz Mayıs University. She received her BA in Translation and Interpreting (English–Turkish) from Yeditepe University as a full scholarship student, graduating top of her class in 2009. She completed her MA in Translation Studies at Istanbul University in 2013, and earned her PhD in Translation and Cultural Studies (English) from Gazi University in 2018.
Her research interests include translation competence, audiovisual translation, AI and translation technologies, and the translation of cultural elements. She also has practical experience as a sworn translator and interpreter in English–Turkish and Spanish–Turkish language pairs.
Darius Petrulis is a member of the Kaunas Department of Lithuanian Artists’ Association. He works in the fields of photography, media, and theatre. For over two decades, together with Auksė Petrulienė, he has been developing the transdisciplinary Psilikonas Theatre.
Since 2016, Darius Petrulis has been photographing Žemieji Šančiai, a vibrant community life yet vulnerable urban development neighbourhood in Kaunas. His work is both an artistic documentary and an active participation in the community’s fight for its environment.
During his residency in Vienna in 2022, Darius Petrulis explored the architecture project “Gleis 21”, which had just won the main prize of the New European Bauhaus (NEB). This is a multi-apartment building created and built by residents and architects based on solidarity principles.
In the photo exhibition “Sulieti pasaulius//Merging Worlds”, the artist compares life in Žemieji Šančiai in Kaunas and the “Gleis 21” residence in Vienna, asking whether it is possible to preserve community and connection with the environment in a rapidly growing city.
Prof. dr. Pavels Jurs, Professor and Senior Researcher at Riga Technical University Liepaja Academy and Expert at the Latvian Council of Science, Latvia.
My work and daily life are linked to education – in the belief and conviction that education is a value in thought, word and deed!
I am a scientist whose research interests are youth civic engagement and its role in shaping our future society, the professional development of teachers, discovering the various interrelationships between teaching and learning processes and the evaluation of historical processes and their impact on the present.
In addition to my scientific work, I teach students of pedagogy, social work and entrepreneurship at bachelor, master and doctoral levels.
Alongside my academic work, I am a secondary school principal and a history teacher, which allows me to combine theoretical knowledge, research processes and practical realities of life.