Marija Aušrinė Pavilionienė (born 6 April 1944 in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

) is a Lithuanian philologist, professor, human rights activist,

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

writer and politician. She had been a member of

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas ( ; ), is the unicameralism, unicameral legislative body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of Government of Lithuania, govern ...

from 2004 to 2008 as a member of Liberal Democratic Party of Lithuania and since 2009 as a member of

Social Democratic Party of Lithuania The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (, LSDP) is a centre-left and social democratic political party in Lithuania. Founded as an underground Marxist organisation in 1896, it is the oldest extant party in Lithuania. During the time of the ...

. Marija Aušrinė was born in the family of actors Vladas Fedotas-Sipavičius and Jadvyga Ramanauskaitė and finished the 23rd Vilnius School. In 1967 she graduated from Vilnius State University, continuing her studies in American literature problems. In 1977 she maintained a thesis for a PhD degree in philology in

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

. Her husband

Rolandas Pavilionis Rolandas Pavilionis (July 3, 1944 in Šiauliai – May 10, 2006) was a Lithuanian philosopher, politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Liberal Democratic Party; part of the Union for a Europe of Nations. Biography In 1962 P ...

was a Member of the European Parliament and had been a dean of Vilnius University from 1990 to 2000. The two had two sons, one of whom is an ambassador to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Political activism and scientific work

Marija Aušrinė Pavilionienė is one of the most well-known LGBT rights activists in Lithuania, the chairman of ''Ad Hoc'' Group of Seimas Members for Equality. She is also a prominent feminist thinker and occasionally publishes articles about gender issues. Pavilionienė was a member of the Groups of Seimas concerning human rights in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

and

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

while in her first term in Seimas.

Bibliography

* The Universal Literature of the 20th century. (XX amžiaus visuotinė literatūra).

: Šviesa, 1992; * Western Literature of the 20th century. (XX a. Vakarų literatūra) Vilnius: Vilnius University, 1994–1995; * Feminism and Literature (Feminizmas ir literatūra). Vilnius: Vilnius University, 1996; * The Drama of Genders (Lyčių drama). Vilnius: Vilnius University, 1998; * Romanticism in Western Literature (Romantizmas Vakarų literatūroje). Vilnius: Vilnius University, 2000; * The Performances of Life and Theatre: Western Drama of the 20th Century (Gyvenimo ir teatro vaidinimai: XX amžiaus Vakarų drama). Vilnius: Charibdė, 2004; * Expectancies and Disappointment (Viltys ir nusivylimai). 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavilioniene, Marija Ausrine 1944 births Living people Lithuanian philologists Women philologists Lithuanian LGBTQ rights activists Lithuanian women activists Politicians from Kaunas Women members of the Seimas Lithuanian feminists 21st-century Lithuanian politicians 21st-century Lithuanian women politicians Writers from Kaunas Lithuanian people of Russian descent Members of the Seimas