Biography

Eda Derhemi finished her undergraduate studies in Linguistics and Literature at the University of Tirana, Albania. She completed her graduate studies in Illinois, receiving a Master's degree in Linguistics and a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Illinois at U-C. In 2007 she conducted one year of Postdoc Research in Albania and Kosovo, with an Award won from IREX. She has an extensive teaching and research experience in different countries and universities lecturing in Language, Linguistics, and Media Studies. She also worked for many years as a correspondent journalist for Deutsche Welle, and now is a regular writer of opinion pieces in the main Albanian media.

In her free time, she enjoys writing short stories and poetry, translating, running, fine cooking and wine tasting. She is an indefatigable traveler. She is devoted to her family, friends and the many communities she has lived in.

Specializations / Research Interest(s)

Linguistic endangerment and language death; minority languages and ethnicity; language of the media and propaganda; methods of critical discourse analysis; Arberesh; Arvanitika. Affiliations: Lecturer of Italian in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese; Adjunct Assistant Professor in Media and Cinema Studies; Research Associate in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies ,

Research Description

• Partial list of research publications

  EDITORSHIP

  2010      

    Guest Editor of“The post-communist Albanian migration”- political, socio-cultural and linguistic analyses. Fall Edition, 2010 of Quarterly Critical Journal Përpjekja, no. 26 – 27.

  2006

  Co-editor of  “Sociolinguistic Studies on the Albanian language”. The International Journal of the Sociology of Language. N. 178.

  2002

  Guest editor of  Journal on Multicultural Societies Unesco’s MOST (Management of Social Transformation) issue: Endangered Languages and Efforts for Survival, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2002 (http://www.unesco.org/most/jmshome.htm).

  JOURNAL and BOOK ARTICLES

  2011     

    “Diverse and changing voices in a struggle for survival – Arberesh’s existence against all odds”, Endangered Languages: Voices and Images, Marleen Haboud and Nicholas Ostler (Eds.), p.12-20 published by FEL.

  2010      

  “Socio-cultural trends of the Albanian emigration after 1990” – editorial introduction of Përpjekja n. 26-27, p. 4-11. Tiranë: Marin Barleti.

    “Existential cultural dilemmas of the first generation ofa new Albanian Diaspora in the US”-Albanian Journal  Përpjekja. 26-27: p. 136-156. Tiranë: Marin Barleti.

    “Political implications of uses of Standard Albanian in the post-socialist communication”,  in Studien zur albanische Sprache, Literatur und Kulturgeschichte. 391-421, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden.

   2009      

  “The symbolic paradise of an ethnic apartheid – Mitrovica of  Kosovo”,  in Divided
  cities: Conflict and Cooperation,  p. 25-48. Logos Verlag: Berlin.

  2006

  Features of dysfunctional attrition in the Arbresh of Piana degli Albanesi. The International Journal of the Sociology of Language. # 178, 2006. p. 31-55.

   2003

  New Albanian immigrants in the old Albanian diaspora: Piana degli Albanesi, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS). Vol. 29, no. 6, University of Sussex, England, 2003, p. 1015-1033.

  2002

  The endangered Arberesh language and the importance of standardized writing for its survival. Unesco’s MOST Journal on Multicultural Societies, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2002. p. 248-269.

  2002

  Protecting endangered languages: Sociolinguistic perspectives (Thematic Introduction) Unesco’s MOST Journal on Multicultural Societies, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2002. p. 150-161.

Education

• PhD in Communications: University of Illinois at U-C; Master's in Linguistics: University of Illinois at U-C; Bachelor's degree in Linguistics and literature: University of Tirana, Albania;

External URLs

• http://media.illinois.edu/faculty/detail/eda_derhem

Courses

• Courses in basic and intermediate Italian language, and in Italian linguistics