Vita

Education
Institutions and Areas of Specialization

• ABD Doctoral Student in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature

University of Pittsburgh, 2004-present, expected date of defense: Spring 2011

Areas of interest: minority and identity issues in contemporary German migrant literature, German, Postcolonial and Balkanist Studies

• Master’s in German Languages and Literature

University of Pittsburgh, 2002-2004
M.A. Thesis: The Subversion of the Body in Karen Duve’s Novel “Der Regenroman”

• Master’s and Bachelor’s in German Philology

Shumen University “Bishop K. Preslavsky,” Bulgaria, 1996-2001
Staatsexamen (government-recognized exam)

Pedagogy Training and Certifications

• PhD Certificate in Cultural Studies, University of Pittsburgh, August 2009
•  UPOLAI Training session, University of Pittsburgh, October, 2006
• “Zertifikat Deutsch,” Training Session - Goethe Institute, University of Pittsburgh, October, 2003 
• "More Students Learning More German with TPRS," AATG Seminar, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, October, 2002

Professional Experience and Skills

Teaching Experience and Pedagogical Skills

• Advised and guided students in basic and advanced knowledge of German as a:

Teaching Assistant and Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, 2002-present

German Teaching Aid, Foreign Languages High School, Shumen, Bulgaria, 2001

• Developed students’ ability to better understand, learn, and use new material
• Explained the teaching material with examples regarding a situation or a text structure
• Stimulated students to develop cognitive, cooperative, and creative thinking
• Organized extra-curricular activities (meetings with German authors, etc.)

Courses Taught

• Elementary German I 
• Elementary German II
• Summer Intensive German I
• Summer Intensive German II
• Intermediate German I
• Intermediate German II
• Augsburg Recitation
• The Major Cultural Periods 1

Creative Skills

• Cooperated with two employees from the local TV channel “Shumen” in Shumen, Bulgaria to translate audio-visual document films about Austria and Germany, 1999
• Translated film scripts from German into Bulgarian and performed the voice-overs

Communication skills

• Translated for MALEV LTD (German-Bulgarian import-export company), 1997-1998
• Drafted professional letters for the German bureau in Hamburg and corresponded with business partners there
• Organized business visits between German sales representatives

 
Recognition and Service

Departmental administrative assignments

• Co-coordinator for Intermediate German 2, German Department, University of Pittsburgh, 2007-2008
• Rater of UPOLAI in German (University of Pittsburgh Oral Language Assessment Instrument), German Department, University of Pittsburgh, 2006-2008
• German Department TA mentor, University of Pittsburgh, 2007-2008
• Undergraduate advisor for the study abroad program at the German department, University of Pittsburgh, 2006-2007

Research Grants, Fellowships, and Scholarships

• American Council of Learned Societies/Andrew Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2010-2011
• Austrian Room Committee Scholarship Grant, 2009
• NeMLA Summer Research Fellowship Award, 2009
• ACLA Travel Grant, April 2008
• Lillian B. Lawler Predoctoral Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching and Research, AY 2008-2009
• Cultural Studies Predoctoral Fellowship, AY 2008-2009 (declined)
• European Union Center of Excellence and European Studies Center Research Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2008
• Travel Grant for GSA conference in San Diego, CA, 2007
• University of Pittsburgh Research Grant, Bulgarian-Polish Relations, Summer 2007
• Bavarian Ministry of Education Grant, University of Augsburg, Germany, 2001-2002
• University of Shumen Grant for Research on Balkan-German Relations, University of Bucharest, Romania, 2001
• DAAD Scholarship for an exchange semester at University of Augsburg, 1998-1999

Conference Presentations

• 3rd Biannual Graduate Student Conference, Austin, Tx, March 25, 2010. “Enterprising Identity in Urban Spaces. The Figure of the Entrepreneur in Recent German Migrant Writings.” (paper read in absence). Negotiating Europe, Defining Germany: Past, Present and Future.

• 62nd Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, KY, April 16-18, 2009. "Reaching for a Common Ground.  Dimitre Dinev's and Wladimir Kaminer's East Side Stories of Migration." Transnational Writing in German.

• Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, Feburary 26 - March 1, 2009. “Knocking on Europe’s Doors: On Migrants and ‘New Europeans’ in the Works of Wladimir Kaminer and Dimitre Dinev.” When East Meets West: Representations of Germans and Eastern Europeans.
• American Comparative Literature Association 2008 Annual Meeting: Arrivals and Departures. Long Beach, CA, April 24-27, 2008. “Balkan Stories, Migrant Realities! Reconfiguring Eastern European Identities under Global Conditions: The Case of Dimitre Dinev.”  Cultural Journeys: In and Out of the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia.

• 61^st Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, April 17-19, 2008. “Diasporic Voices or the Aporia of Shifting Identities in Rumjana Zacharieva’s Bärenfell (Bear Skin 1998).”  German Studies?? Transnational Writing in German.
• Interzone EU: Crossroads of Migration. University of Pittsburgh, February 22-23, 2008.“Why is the West the Best?  On Losses and Gains of Identity in German-Balkan Migrant Writings!” The East Within.
• German Studies Association Thirty-First Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, 4-7 October 2007."In the Eyes of the Other. German Migrant Writing of the New Millennium." Germany-Poland Border Studies 3: Culture of the Other.
• Work in Progress Series organized by the German Department, University of Pittsburgh, 23 February 2007."Balkan Ghosts. Migrant Stories. Eastern European Identities Reconfigured."
• German Studies Association Thirtieth Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, September 28-October 2, 2006. “Renegotiating Immigrant Identities under Global Conditions: The Case of Wladimir Kaminer.” Narrating the New Economic Reality: German Literature's Response.
• Cultural Studies Graduate Student Conference: Empire and Imperialism, University of Pittsburgh, April 2005. “On Colonialism and Imperialism in Frantz Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth and Hannah Arendt’s ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism.”
• Workshop for the Language Media Center at the University of Pittsburgh, November 2006. "Making Digital Movies with Movie Maker."

Languages

• Bulgarian – native
• German - excellent all-round knowledge

• English – excellent all-round knowledge
• Russian – fair reading and speaking skills

Professional Affiliations:  AATG, MLA, WiG,  NeMLA