ENUsing the testimonies and interviews with the long-term head of the Endowed Chair in Lithuanian Studies at UIC, prof. Violeta Kelertienė, and visiting scholars, the article examines the role of the Chair which was established in the fall of 1984 at the University of Illinois in Chicago (USA). In addition to the main goal of serving the Lithuanians living in diaspora, the founders of the Chair entrusted it with another task - to spread the message about Lithuanian studies and to promote them in the Western academic world. [From the publication]