Aušra Žičkienė is an ethnologist, doctor of humanities, and chief researcher at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. 

In 1987, she obtained the speciality in music history and the qualification of a musicologist and teacher at the State Conservatory (currently the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre). In 1996–2001, Žičkienė studied at the joint doctoral programme of the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore and Vytautas Magnus University and defended her doctoral dissertation in humanities in the field of ethnology in 2001. In 1987–1998, she worked as the artistic director of the folklore ensemble Dijūta at the Scientists’ Palace of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. 

Since 1987, Žičkienė works at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore and is currently the Chief Research Fellow. Her research interests include historical, genre, comparative research of musical folklore, modern forms of musical folklore, singing in human communities, and research of musical behaviour. The musicologist prepares scientific and cultural articles and reviews in Lithuanian and foreign cultural publications. Žičkienė’s monograph Savaiminė Daina: Nežymus Būvis, Tradicinės Struktūros, Vietinės Reikšmės, Globali Raiška (Self-consistent Song: Insignificant State, Traditional Structures, Local Meanings, Global Expression) was published in 2019. 

In 2020, Žičkienė was awarded Vytautas Landsbergis Prize of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union for her search for self-consistency and for revealing a unique field of culture in the monograph Savaiminė Daina: Nežymus Būvis, Tradicinės Struktūros, Vietinės Reikšmės, Globali Raiška (Spontaneous Song: Insignificant State, Traditional Structures, Local Meanings, Global Expression) (2019).