Simona Kumpė

Simona Kumpė is a Lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University, specifically affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities and the Department of Cultural Studies. She has been actively involved in academic work since at least 2017, contributing to the Centre for Asian Studies and the Department of Cultural Studies. Her work primarily focuses on East Asian cultures, with special attention to Japanese and Korean studies.

Dr. Kumpė's research interests span across several areas of East Asian cultural studies. Her primary focus appears to be on Japanese culture, particularly examining social structures, media representations, and historical contexts. She has supervised numerous bachelor's theses exploring topics such as Japanese anime, manga, visual novels, and societal issues in Japan and Korea. Her work demonstrates a strong interdisciplinary approach, bridging cultural studies, media analysis, and social sciences.

Her recent publications show a consistent focus on Japanese cultural phenomena, particularly examining how social hierarchies, power dynamics, and cultural norms are represented in various media forms. There's a clear pattern of analyzing contemporary Japanese society through popular culture, with special attention to how these representations travel across cultural boundaries to Lithuania and Europe. Many of her supervised theses employ comparative and cross-cultural methodologies.

Dr. Kumpė has supervised a significant number of bachelor's students, guiding them through research on diverse aspects of East Asian cultures. Her students have produced work examining Japanese social structures, Korean literature reception in Lithuania, historical connections between Lithuania and Japan, and representations of various social issues in Japanese media. Her supervision appears to encourage both theoretical analysis and empirical research methods.