Main Research

• Linguistic Anthropology, storytelling, language awareness and revitalization of language minorities
• Digitization and preservation of endangered heritage
• Language documentation: specialized on the analysis and the documentation of endangered oral varieties, language contact, language change and revitalization among minorities in Southeast Europe and Asia Minor

Since 06/2018: Scientific staff in the IRDICH Project, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

Ongoing PhD project: Zwischen sprachlicher, konfessioneller und nationaler Zuordnung: Kulturelle Selbstbehauptung und Identitätskonstruktion bei christlichen und muslimischen Pontiern.

• 04/2017-06/2019

Scientific staff in the DFG research project "Web platform for the long-term preservation of regional ethnographic research data II"

• 06 - 10/2016

Internship at the Phonogram Archives of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

• 03 - 05/2016

Workshop assistant in the Project "LAZAR" (Digital Archive for Ethnographic Field Data)

• 2015 - 2016

Student assistant at the Department of South Slavic Studies of the Institute of Slavic and Caucasus Studies, Jena

Teaching experience

• Fall 2018 - 2019

Seminary "Außerhalb der Trends: Erhalt und Revitalisierung von Sprache, Musik und materieller Kultur bei den Südslawen" (together with Thede Kahl)

• Fall 2017 - 2018

Seminary "Sprachliche und religiöse Vitalität von Minderheiten in Südosteuropa" (together with Evelyn Reuter), Institute of Slavistics and Caucasus Studies, Jena

• 09/2017

Lecturer in the working group "Orale Traditionen der Südslawen in Musik und Literatur" of the Expeditionsakademie Sarajevo, 2017 (Studienstiftung)

• Fall 2014 - 2015

Tutor for "Introduction to South Slavic Literatures", Institute of Slavic and Caucasus Studies, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena

Education

• 2012 - 2016

Master's Degree in "South Eastern European Studies" at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Institute of Slavistics and Caucasus Studies. Master thesis: "Linguistic and Cultural Identity in a Multiethnic Region: The Banat Bulgarians" (language: German)

• 2008 - 2012

Bachelor's Degree at Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg, in European Ethnology and Catholic Theology

Bachelor Thesis: The image of the Hungarian minority in the Romanian press

• "Oh, oh, my Isuf, oh!" Performance and Meaning of Women's Laments from the Pontic Alps. Recordings in Pontic Greek of Karaçam Yaylası, 7th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe, Online Symposium, 22-24 April, 2021.
• Documenting an endangered Greek variety: a profile of Romeyka (Pontic Greek of Turkey), guest speaker at the Commission for Vanishing Languages and Cultural heritage, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, October 10, 2019.
• Singing rumca and dancing horon on the mountains of Karadeniz. Language preservation through music among the Romeyka speakers of Trebizond and Tonya, 12th Congress of South-east European Studies, Bucharest, Romania, September 2019
• "Rumca tragodía exéris?" Die musikalische Renaissance des Pontos-Griechischen (Romeyka): Sprache, Stil und Folklore in der neuen Musik an der türkischen Schwarzmeerküste, Symposium "Von der Wiederholung zum Ritual. Rezente Prozesse in den Sprachen und Kulturen südosteuropäischer Gesellschaften“, Berlin, GErmany, November 1-3, 2018
• Revival and Fall in Adapting Folklore and Poetics: Revitalization and Cultural Turn of the Banat Bulgarian Language, Conference "Perspectives on linguistic diversity", panel: Linguistic endangerment in Southeast Europe, Rijeka, Croatia, June 8-10, 2018
• Multipart Aromanian singing and the sudden rise from rural to urban folklore, 6th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe, Sinj, Croatia, April 15 - 21, 2018
• Vom Sinn der Sprachkodifizierung: Mehrsprachigkeit und Mehrschriftigkeit bei Farscheroten, Pomaken und Pontiern, Colloquium "Preservation of European Linguistic Diversity: Threatened linguistic varieties and minority languages in Italy and the Balkans. sustainability and language policy", Como (Villa Vigoni), Italy, March 7, 2018
• Οι ελληνόφωνοι Θρακιώτες της Δοβρουτσάς. Η περίπτωση του χωριού Ιζβοάρελε (Ρουμανία) [The Greek speaking Thracians in Dobrudja. The case of the village Izvoarele (Romania)], Conference  "Η ιστορική Θράκη υπό το πρίσμα των εθνο-γλωσσολογικών μελετών", Komotini, Greece, October 7, 2017
• Searching for Nasreddin. Story telling in Farsherot Aromanian (rramaneshti), Conference "Intangible Cultural Heritage. Field Studies from Southeast Europe", Jena, Germany, Juni 29-30, June 2017
• Codifying Pomak: Political, cultural and scientific arguments and tendencies, Conference "Οι πομάκοι της Θράκης : πολυεπιστημονικές και διεπιστημονικές προσεγγίσεις" [The Pomaks of Thrace: A Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Approach], Komotini, Greece, March 18, 2017
• Rumänische Dialekte außerhalb Rumäniens: Aktuelle Feldforschungen zu Verbreitung, Zustand und Bedeutung. Guest lecture at the Institute for Romance Studies, Regensburg, Germany, Januar 17, 2017
• Feldforschungen bei den Banater Bulgaren: Identitätsmuster und Kulturbewahrung, Symposium "Bulgarische Sprache, Kultur und Literatur in Europa" [Bulgarian Language, Culture and Literature in Europe],  Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, June 7, 2015

Workshops

2019

• VLACH Training Workshop Documenting Vanishing Languages, 30^th September - 5^th October 2019 (together with Ioana Aminian and Thede Kahl)

2018

• Multiethnische Slavia/Romania: Sehen, Hören und Aufnehmen in Südosteuropa [Multi-ethnic Slavia/Romania: Observing, hearing and recording in Southeast Europe]
  within the Tag der Jenaer Slawistik [Days of the Slavic Studies], Institute for Slavic and Caucasian Studies, Jena, 16/6/2018

2018

• Einführung in die rumänische Sprache: Sprachgeschichte und rumänische Mundarten [An Introduction to the Romanian Language. History of the Language and the Romanian Dialects] at the Days of the Romanian Culture, 01. February 2018, Jena, Germany

Conferences

2017

• "Intangible Cultural Heritage. Field Studies from Southeast Europe" at the Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, 29.-30. Juni 2017 (together with Thede Kahl)

Conducted student field trips

2018

• Fieldwork trip to the istro-romanian speakers of the villages Žejane and Šušnjevica, (6 participants from the Institute for Slavic and Caucasus Studies of Jena), June 7-12, 2018

2017

• Fieldwork trip to the Iron Gates (Serbia/Romania, 15 participants from the Institute for Slavic and Caucasus Studies of Jena), 1.-8. June, 2017

Articles

• 2018: Rrāmānj und Armānj. Wie einheitlich sind Kultur, Sprache und Identität der Aromunen? In: Quo vadis Romania 50, S. 51-77 (together with Kahl, Thede).
• 2017: Das Banater Bulgarisch im Dialog mit der Vergangenheit: Zur sprachlichen und kulturellen Identität einer slawischen Minderheit. In: Bulgarica Bd. 1, Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft München, S. 101-131 (together with Kahl, Thede).

Translation

• "Wie Rumänien rumänisch wurde". Berlin: Frank & Timme (Translation of the book Cum s-a românizat România written by Lucian Boia).

2016

• Masterthesis: Sprachliche und kulturelle Identität in einer multiethnischen Region: Die Banater Bulgaren. (Cultural and Linguistic Identity in a Multiethnic Region: the Banat Bulgarians). Jena, Friedrich Schiller University.

I am a linguistic anthropologist based at the Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage Commission in Vienna, Austria. Since 2014 I have conducted field research among the catholic Bulgarian minority in Western Romania and the Bulgarian speakers in Western Thrace (Greece) as well as among the Romance speaking population in Northern Greece (Meglen Vlach and Aromanian), in South Albania and Athens (among the Farsherot Aromanian community). Since 2016 I am doing intense research among the Greek speaking minorities in Asia Minor and the Caucasus and among descendants of Pontic Greek refugees in Northern Greece.

All field research data (Video, Audio and Photo) is being annotated and documented within the VLACH Commission and long term stored at LaZAR.