Ilona Jurkonytė is a film and moving image researcher and curator, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions / UKRI Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews, and a member of the St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science. Previously, she was an Arts & Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto (Canada), a Vilnius University Foundation Fellow (Lithuania), and a Vanier Scholar at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University (Canada).

Ilona’s research interests span film and media studies and science and technology studies. She examines tensions between notions of the national and transnational in moving image production and circulation, as well as their geo- and hydro- political implications. Ilona specializes in environmental media studies. She is particularly invested in analysis of how film and media production and technology engage with the questions of social and environmental justice. Her projects focus on relationship between nuclear media archives, outer space research, and the environment.

At the University of St Andrews, Ilona, from the environmental media perspective research the early history of growing plants in outer space. The goal of this project is to recover marginalized narratives of space botany from Lithuania and other former Soviet Union member states. This interdisciplinary research offers an innovative intersection of environmental media studies, the history of science, and film studies. The project revisits the history of space botany from a decentralized perspective, primarily focusing on research centers, science communication, and treatment of the topic across academic and art institutional contexts. By tracing the production and circulation of creative and science-educational films, the project explores concepts of environment, nature, and ecosystem in relation to local specificities where such knowledge was produced.

Prior to her academic work, Ilona held an active film curatorial practice which continues to inform her research. She is interested in the potentials of artists’ moving image and its participation in audiovisual cultures. Ilona was the co-founder (2007), managing director (2007–2012), and artistic director (2007–2019) of the Kaunas International Film Festival (Lithuania), which was instrumental in rescuing Romuva Cinema (Lithuania). In 2012, she was invited to enhance the presence of moving image at the Contemporary Art Centre (Lithuania), where from 2012 to 2014 she oversaw the establishment of the CAC Cinema space and curated the film program in it.

Areas of expertise

Film and moving image studies

Science and media technology studies

Film industry analysis

Environmental film and media research

Media and social justice research

Nuclear cultures research

Outer space cultures and media research

Film and moving image curation