Giedrius Subacius

Giedrius Subačius is a Professor and Director of the Endowed Chair in Lithuanian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (US). Subačius’s primary scholarly interests are historical sociolinguistics, development of standard languages, history of linguistic thought, history of orthography, and history of the Lithuanian language and Lithuanian immigration to the US. He has prepared and published several critical editions of the nineteenth century Lithuanian linguistic manuscripts, and his monographs include: “Ideas about Standard Lowland Lithuanian: Beginning of the Nineteenth Century” (1998); “Kalikstas Kasakauskis: Juncture of Standard Lithuanian” (2001); “Upton Sinclair: The Lithuanian Jungle” (2006); “The Experts of Lithuanian in Service of the Russian Empire” (2011); “Simonas Daukantas’s Rīga Orthography (1827–1834)” (2018), and “Simonas Daukantas’s St Petersburg Orthography (1834–1846)” (2021); “Simonas Daukantas’s Lowand Lithuanian Orthography (1846–1864)” (expected publication in Spring 2026). Presently, he works on a monograph “A History of Lithuanian Orthography”.

Subačius is a founder and editor of the annual scholarly journal of Lithuanian historical sociolinguistics “Archivum Lithuanicum” (vols. 1–26, 1999–2024). He has initiated the creation of the database of private Lithuanian (in letters, diaries, notebooks, etc.: at www.musulaiskai.lt ). Subačius was awarded several important awards (prizes) by the governmental institutions of the Republic of Lithuania (Simonas Daukantas prize 1995; Kazimieras Būga prize 1999; National Prize for Scholars Working Abroad both in 2009 and in 2019) and “Lituanus” journal prize (2005).