Bio

Education

  • Ph.D.: University of Chicago, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. September 2002. Ph.D. Thesis: "Syntactic Structure and Grammatical Function: The Participles in the Kievan Chronicle" (defense passed "with distinction").
  • M. A.: University of Chicago, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
  • M. A./B.A.: Comparative Studies of Slavic Languages. University of Sofia, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 1987. Major: Serbo-Croatian; Minor: Slovenian. Thesis: "The Expression of the Qualitative Relations in the Nominal Phrase in Serbo-Croatian."
  • Exchange Scholar, Harvard University, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 1999-2000.
  • Aspirantura, Charles University, Prague: Department of Slavic Philology, 1990-1993.

  • Certificate, Polish Language and Culture Summer Institute, Krakow, Poland, July-August 2003.
  • Certificate, Slavic and East European Languages: Acquisition, Techniques, and Technologies, Duke/UNC SEELRC, Summer 2000.
  • Certificate, Upper Sorbian Language School and Cultural Center "Dr. Jan Cyž, Milkel, Germany, 1992.
  • Certificate, University of Sofia, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 1988. Post-M.A. study and research.

 

Intensive Programs in Language, Culture, and Technology

  • Polish Language and Culture Summer Institute, Krakow, Poland, July-August 2003.
  • Internship in Education and Technology, The University of Chicago, September 2001 – June 2002.
  • Workshop on Teaching in the College, The University of Chicago, September 2001.
  • Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and Eastern Europe, UIUC, June 2001.
  • Slavic and East European Languages: Acquisition, Techniques, and Technologies, Duke/UNC SEELRC, July 2000.
  • Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute, Summer 1999.
  • Summer Research Laboratory on Russian and Eastern Europe, Annual Ukrainian Symposium, June 1999.
  • Upper Sorbian, Bautzen, Germany, Spring 1992.

 

Employment

  • University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
    • Assistant Professor Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the College, 2002 - present.
  • Southwest Universtiy "Neofit Rilski," Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.
    • Instructor of Comparative Slavic, 1988-1990.

 

Related Work Experience

  • Director, Bulgarian-American Cultural Society "Aleko:" Non-profit organization that promotes American writers and artists in Bulgaria and Bulgarian writers and artists in the United States, 2005 - present.
  • Founder and co-director, "Aleko," 1998 - 2005.
  • E-coach, University of Chicago, September 2001- June 2002.

 

Awards

  • Norwegian Research Council (FRIHUM 2005-2008) four-year grant to study interrelations between linguistic liberalization and literary development in Russia in two periods of historical transition: the post-Revolutionary years of the 1920s and the post-Soviet period of the 1990s. 2004-2008.
  • Faculty Research Assignment, University of Chicago: Quarter leave, Winter 2005 quarter.
  • University of Chicago Provost's Grant for Academic Technology Innovation to create a searchable database of Medieval Slavic Manuscripts, 2004-2006.
  • Grant from the Slavic Department at the University of Chicago to parse and create an electronic version of the Medieval Bulgarian novel "Stefanit and Ixnilat" (directed by Andrew Dombrowkski).
  • Cook County's Treasure Award for Contributing to the affirmation of the Bulgarian community and language in Chicago, October 2003.
  • Grant from the CEERES at the University of Chicago to support screening of the documentary "The Optimists" and discussion, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust, 2002.
  • Associateship, Illinois Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and East Europe, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Summer 1999, 2000.
  • Fellowship, The Slavic and East European Language Resource Center, Duke/UNC, July 2000.
  • Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute special grant for research on Ukrainian, 1999-2000.
  • Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute Senkowsky Award, Summer 1999.
  • University of Chicago Fellowships and Scholarship, 1995-1999.
  • Bulgarian Ministry of Science and Education Fellowship, 1990-1993.
  • German Ministry of Culture and Education Scholarship (to study Upper Sorbian in Milkel, Germany), 1992.
  • University of Sofia Centennial Jubilee Gold Medal, 1987.

 

Teaching and Research Interests

Primary

  • Russian Language and Culture
  • History and Structure of East Slavic Languages
  • Russian Historical Syntax and Discourse Grammar
  • History and Structure of West Slavic Languages
  • History of Bulgarian

 

Secondary

  • The Culture of Medieval Rus'
  • South Slavic Literature and Culture
  • History and Structure of South Slavic Languages