• Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology

• Anthropology of Displacement, Migration, and Belonging

• Memory, Heritage, and Everyday Cultural Practices

• Multilingualism, Minority Communities, and Language Politics

• Ethnographic Fieldwork and Qualitative Research Methods

Since 2014: Ongoing ethnographic documentation of cultural and linguistic material within several Slavic, Romance and Greek language communities in South-Eastern Europe and the Caucasus (Greece, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia).

Since 2016 I am doing intense research among the Pontic Greek speakers living in Greece, Turkey and the Caucasus (Georgia) while also working on the documentation of several other Greek varieties in Europe and Minor Asia. All ethnographic and linguistic data (Video, Audio and Photo) is being annotated and documented within the VLACH Commission and long term stored at LaZAR.

Memberships

Organized scientific events

Language documentation as part of various reasearch projects that I was part of:

• Turkey (Istanbul and Central Anatolia): Vallahades and Meglen Vlachs; interviews and recordings

• Northern Greece: Pontic Greek as a heritage language; interviews and recordings of local speakers

• Turkey (Pontos region) and Georgia: Pontic Greek language and culture; interviews and recordings

• Romania (Banat, Târgoviște, Temeswar region): Bulgarian and other minority communities; interviews and recordings

• Greece (Athens, West Macedonia, Northern Greece): Aromanians (Rrameni and Perivoli communities); interviews and recordings

• Turkey (Southeast, Mardin region): Kurdish and Aramaic; language interviews and musical recordings

• Black Sea (Turkey) region: Romeyka speakers; interviews and recordings

• Greece (Macedonia and Rhodopes): Meglenitic Vlach and Slavic-speaking Muslim communities; interviews and recordings

• Bulgaria (Rila Mountains and Rhodopes): Muslim minority communities; interviews and recordings

• Croatia (Istria): Istro-Romanian language; interviews and recordings of the last speakers

Invited talks

• Διατήρηση της γλώσσας και πολιτιστική κληρονομιά: ευρήματα από μια κοινωνιογλωσσολογική μελέτη των Ελλήνων του Πόντου και των Ρουμέικων Ομιλητών (Language Preservation­ ­and Cultural Legacy: Findings from a Sociolinguistic Study among Pontian Greeks in  Greece and Romeyka Speakers in Turkey), Tagung Modern Greek dialects as a living tradition, Stiftung Griechisches Haus, Frankfurt, October 12, 2024

• Endangered Minority Languages in Europe and Minor Asia, University of Buffalo, Department of Linguistics, Buffalo, September 9, 2024 - online event

• Mapping language stories on site and at home: The many seasons of ethnolinguistic fieldwork, University of Buffalo, Department of Linguistics, Buffalo (online presentation), April 2023

• Panelist, Bulgarische Minderheiten im Ausland im Vergleich: Geschichte, Kultur, Identitäten. 7. Deutsch-Bulgarischer Geschichtstag, Jena. November 12, 2022

• Escuchando su historia: lingüística cultural y el enfoque holístico hacia las lenguas en extinción y la herencia cultural de Turquía (Listening to Their Story: Cultural Linguistics and a Holistic Approach to Endangered Languages and Cultural Heritage in Turkey), 2nd Coloquio de Lingüística en Bolivia (LSSB), Cochabamba, Bolivia, July 2021 - online event

• Documenting an endangered Greek variety: a profile of  Romeyka (Pontic Greek of Turkey), Annual Meeting of the Commission for Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, October 2019

• Rumänische Dialekte außerhalb Rumäniens: Aktuelle Feldforschungen zu Verbreitung, Zustand und Bedeutung (Romanian dialects outside of Romania: current field research on distribution, condition and meaning), Institute for Romance Studies, Regensburg, Germany, January 2017 (with Th. Kahl)

Presentations

• (upcoming) Planning without a plan: language practices and the emergence of linguistic futures among Pontic Greek and Romeyka speakers. 12th Cambridge Conference on Language Endangerment, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge, July 2026

• Resilience and Change: Preliminary Findings on the Sociolinguistic Dynamics of the Vallahades. Fifth European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, September 2025

• Fieldwork Reflections on Language Endangerment: Pontic Greek Interviewees' Insights into Language Attrition, Conference "The Greek Heritage of Pontus: interdisciplinary perspectives", Jena, May 2025

• Verborgene Schätze: Sprachvielfalt in der aramäischen, christlich-orthodoxen und jüdischen Gemeinde Wiens (Juhuri, Makedonisch, Boyash, Turoyo), ACDH-CH Research Day 5: Multilingualism in society and science, ACDH-CH, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, November 8, 2024 (with Th. Kahl)

• The tongue that travelled: unveiling and safeguarding the lesser known repertoire of the Vallahades, 9th Symposium of the ICTMD Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeast Europe, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, October 24, 2024

• Elevating Voices: Sociolinguistic Insights on Language Prestige Among Language Communities. The Case of Pontic Greek, Inauguration of the Research Centre Bessarion, Jena, Germany, November 8 2023.

• Schwindende Worte und bedrohtes Wissen im Zeichen nationaler Homogenisierungsprozesse: die Angstkultur innerhalb der pontosgriechischen Gemeinschaft In Nordgriechenland (Vanishing words and threatened knowledge during national homogenization processes: the culture of fear among the Pontic Greek community in Northern Greece). Balkanologenverband, Berlin, November 2023

• Legitimating authentic Pontic Greek: performative competences of young speakers and intergenerational language transmission. XIX International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML), Wales Trinity Saint David University, Carmarthen, Wales, June 2023

• Προκλήσεις στη διατήρηση των γλωσσών πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς: Ποντιακά Ελληνικά στη Βόρεια Ελλάδα. Μια μελέτη περίπτωσης (Challenges in the preservation of heritage languages: Pontic Greek in Northern Greece. A case study), at the International Scientific Congress for Pontic Greek Ποντι-α-κή: Όψεις του σήμερα, προοπτικές του αύριο. Σκιαγραφώντας δρόμους και διαδρομές, Florina, Greece, October 2022

• "Oh, oh, my Yousuf, 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 event) April 2021

• Linguistic field methods: background, insights and examples, International Virtual Student Colloquium Perspectives on Romania and Moldova, Institute for Slavic Studies and Caucasus Studies, Jena, Germany, February 2021

• Documenting an endangered language: attempting an ethnolinguistic profile of Pontic Greek from Northern Turkey, Workshop Documenting Vanishing Languages, VLACH Commission, ÖAW, Vienna, October, 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 (The Musical Renaissance of Pontic Greek/Romeyka: Language, Style and Folklore in New Music on the Turkish Black Sea Coast), Symposium "Von der Wiederholung zum Ritual. Prezente Prozesse in den Sprachen und Kulturen südosteuropäischer Gesellschaften", Berlin, November 2018

• Assessing vitality of minority languages: Ethnolinguistic and anthropological fieldwork in Southeast Europe and the Caucasus, Kutaisi University, Kutaisi, September 2018

• Revival and Fall in Adapting Folklore and Poetics: Revitalization and Cultural Turn of the Banat Bulgarian Language, Conference "Perspectives on linguistic diversity", Rijeka, June 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, April 2018

• Vom Sinn der Sprachkodifizierung: Mehrsprachigkeit und Mehrschriftigkeit bei Farscheroten, Pomaken und Pontiern (On the Meaning of Language Codification: Multilingualism and Multispelling among Farsherots, Pomaks, and Pontians), Symposium "Preservation of European Linguistic Diversity: Threatened linguistic varieties and minority languages in Italy and the Balkans. Sustainability and language policy", Como (Villa Vigoni), March 2018

• Introduction to Daco-Romanian­. Framing the History of the Language and its Dialects, Romanian Cultural Days, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany, February 2018.

• Οι ελληνόφωνοι Θρακιώτες της Δοβρουτσάς. Η περίπτωση του χωριού Ιζβοάρελε, Ρουμανία) (The Greek speaking Thracians in Dobrudja (Romania). The case of the village Izvoarele, Romania), Conference  "Η ιστορική Θράκη υπό το πρίσμα των εθνο-γλωσσολογικών μελετών", Komotini, October 2017 (with Th. Kahl)

• Searching for Nasreddin. Storytelling in Farsherot Aromanian (rramaneshti). Conference "Intangible Cultural Heritage. Field Studies from Southeast Europe", Jena, June 2017

• Codifying the Pomak language: 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

• Ethnolinguistische Feldforschung bei den Banater Bulgaren: Identitätsmuster und Kulturbewahrung einer schwindenden Minderheit (Ethnolinguistic fieldwork among the Banat Bulgarians: Identity patterns and cultural preservation of a dwindling minority). Symposium "Bulgarische Sprache, Kultur und Literatur in Europa", Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, June 7, 2015

Science Communication/Public Outreach

• 7000 Worldviews: When Languages Disappear and What We Lose with Them. Workshop for secondary school students, 7th Zukunftsdialog, Bundesgymnasium Vöcklabruck, Austria, 4 March 2026.

Interviews

• 19.05.2021:Wie junge Menschen aussterbende Sprachen retten können (How can young people save endangered languages?), https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/news/wie-junge-menschen-aussterbende-sprachen-retten-koennen.

Phonetic transcriptions accompanying audio-visual material of several recorded languages:

• the Meglen Vlach language. See recordings and PDFs under https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vlach/collections/meglen-vlach/

• the Banat Bulgarian language. See recordings and PDFs under https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vlach/collections/bulgarian-varieties/banat-bulgarian/

• the Timok Vlach variety. See recordings and PDFs under https://www.oeaw.ac.at/de/vlach/collections/romanian-varieties/timok-romanian/vlach/

• Krashovan. See recordings and PDFs under https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vlach/collections/bosniancroatianmontenegrinserbian/krashovan/video-collection/oral-history 

Teaching

2025-2026: Project Management Course (Certificate Program)
University of Graz,
Certified training in research project planning, coordination, and implementation.

15–16 Oct 2025: Automatic Transcription and Data Preparation for NLP in Linguistic Fieldwork
University of Graz
Training on automatic transcription and NLP-oriented data preparation for low-resource linguistic fieldwork (ELAN, Praat, FLEx).