Team

Our interdisciplinary team consists of researchers at five institutions, jointly implementing the project.

Team Regensburg

Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS)

The Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) is one of the largest and longest established research institutions of its kind in Germany – its foundation dates back to 1930. Since 2017, the IOS is a member of the Leibniz Association and thus part of a leading and prestigious network of research institutions in Germany. IOS researches the history as well as the economic and political development of Eastern and Southeast Europe, with a focus on the period since around 1800 and present-day developments. Its multidisciplinary research often highlights transnational and comparative dimensions. Next to its own research, the Institute provides academic infrastructures. These include the management and publication of four international journals, two book series, a working paper series and the creation of reference works. IOS hosts one of the most important libraries specialized on East and Southeast Europe with more than 350,000 media items and providing a wide range of electronic services (digital repositories and research data portals).

Homepage of Leibniz IOS

Academic Director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) and Professor and Chair of Southeast and East European History at the University of Regensburg
Prof. Dr. Ulf Brunnbauer

Academic Director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) and Professor and Chair of Southeast and East European History at the University of Regensburg

Prof. Dr. Ulf Brunnbauer

Ulf Brunnbauer has a PhD in History from the University of Graz (1999) and habilitation from the Free University of Berlin (2006). His research revolves around the social history and historical anthropology of Southeast Europe since the nineteenth century with a particular focus on migration, labour, environment, and family structures. He is especially interested in the relationship between social practice and social structures, the dynamics of transformations, and the importance of transnational linkages for Southeastern Europe. His most recent book, co-authored with Philipp Ther et al., is In den Stürmen der Transformation (2022), a history of global transformations using the example of two shipyards in Croatia and Poland since the 1970s. He is also the author of Globalizing Southeastern Europe. Emigrants, America, and the state since the 19th Century (2016) and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Balkan and Southeastern Europe (2021), together with John Lampe Brunnbauer serves as co-editor of the Handbuch zur Geschichte Südosteuropas, the book series Südosteuropäische Arbeiten and the journal Südost-Forschungen, published by IOS.

Contact:ulf.brunnbauer@ur.de

More information about Ulf Brunnbauer:Homepage of "Leibniz IOS"

Academic Coordinator

Dr. Kathleen Beger

Kathleen Beger studied Slavic Languages and Literature and East European History in Leipzig, Kyiv and Vienna. From 2014 to 2018, she was a doctoral student at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies and a lecturer at the University of Regensburg, where she received her PhD with a comparative thesis on childhood in the Soviet Union. She is the author of the book Erziehung und “Unerziehung” in der Sowjetunion (2020). Since February 2023, she is the academic coordinator of our project at the IOS.

Contact:beger@ios-regensburg.de

More information about Kathleen Beger:Homepage of "Leibniz IOS"

Phd Student

Andi Balla

Andi Balla joined IOS in July 2023 to start his doctoral research on the effect of public narratives on demographics in communist and post-communist Albania. He holds an MSc from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism (2007) and a BSc from the University of Wyoming (2003). As a journalist in Tirana, Toronto and New York, a key part of his work focused on migration, demographics and the diasporas of Albania and Kosovo. He has also conducted related research at the Albanian Institute for International Studies (2013-2023), where he published the book Pit Bulls and Butterflies: Stories from a nation at crossroads (2015).

Contact:balla@ios-regensburg.de

Team Graz

Centre for Southeast European Studies (CSEES) at the University of Graz

The Centre for Southeast European Studies (CSEES) was set up in November 2008 following the establishment of Southeastern Europe as a strategic priority at the University of Graz in 2000. The Centre is an interdisciplinary and cross-faculty institution for research and education, established with the goal of providing space for rich teaching and research activities at the university on and with Southeastern Europe and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.

CSEES is publishing a peer-reviewed open access online journal “Contemporary Southeastern Europe” and a book series “Southeast European Studies” with Routledge. It also runs a Visiting Fellow program that has included over 60 fellows to date. The policy and research blogs also encourages its researchers to contribute to public outreach activities regularly. The Centre is organizing regular lectures, workshops, conferences, discussions and other events on current topics, including the brownbag seminars series and regular public events.

The Centre has a large network of academic collaboration including universities, research institutions and civil society in Europe, in the Western Balkans and in Turkey and has led or participated in a various international research projects funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF), European Commission, Zukunftsfond of the Republic of Austria, Akademie der Wissenschaften and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation related to democracy, minority rights and EU integration of Southeast Europe. Additionally, the Centre is coordinating the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG), an open group of policy analysts, scholars and researchers.

Further, and addition to regular teaching, the Centre also coordinates a Joint Master in South East European Studies (with the Universities of Belgrade and partners throughout Europe) and the PhD in Law and Politics, as well as a PhD program on Southeastern Europe.

Homepage of CSEES

Director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies (CSEES) and Professor for Southeast European History and Politics at the University of Graz

Univ.-Prof. Dr Florian Bieber

Florian Bieber has studied Political Science and History at Trinity College (USA), the University of Vienna, and Central European University (Budapest) and holds PhD in Political Science from the University of Vienna. He is the coordinator of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG). He has worked for the European Centre for Minority Issues and taught at Kent University (UK). He is also a Visiting Professor at the Nationalism Studies Program at CEU. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the LSE and New York University, and held the Luigi Einaudi Chair at Cornell University as well as the Jean Monnet Chair in the Europeanisation of Southeastern Europe. His research focuses on nationalism, democracy and authoritarianism and European integration in Southeastern Europe. He edits the book series Southeast European Studies with Routledge, and his publications include Pulverfass Balkan (Ch. Links 2023), Negotiating Unity and Diversity in the European Union (Palgrave 2021 with Roland Bieber), Debating Nationalism (Bloomsbury 2020) and The Rise of Authoritarianism in the Western Balkans (Palgrave 2020).

Contact:florian.bieber@uni-graz.at

PhD Student

Ivana Spirovska

Ivana Spirovska is a doctoral student currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Law and Politics at the University of Graz, with her doctoral research focusing on Romani statelessness in North Macedonia and reexamining the concept of citizenship. She holds a BA in Law and Bachelor in Education: English Language and Literature from the University St. Kliment Ohridski in Bitola, North Macedonia, and ERASMUS Mundus Joint MA Degree in Migration and Intercultural Relations (EMMIR). She has conducted independent research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education rights of marginalized groups of children in Bitola, North Macedonia, particularly children belonging to the Roma communities. As a research assistant at the University of Stavanger in Norway, she was involved in the project “Our migration history,” documenting immigration to Stavanger and the surrounding area. Human rights, statelessness, national/ethnic minorities, and migration have been at the heart of her research.

Contact:ivana.spirovska@uni-graz.at

Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC) at the University of Graz

The Center for Interdisciplinary Aging and Care Research (CIRAC) was founded in 2020 and engages in a critical, multi-perspective examination of questions related to aging and the organization of care (structures and cultures of caregiving) within society.

One of the focal topics of the Center for Interdisciplinary Aging and Care Research (CIRAC) is cultural studies of aging (Aging Studies), which deals with cultural representations of aging and care. This area focuses on questions regarding the heterogeneity of aging, individual experiences of growing older, the institutionalization of end-of-life, as well as topics such as digitization, technology and robotics, intergenerational dynamics, gender, intersectionality, migration, dementia, medical/health humanities, and narrative medicine.

Another important aspect involves addressing the societal needs related to the development and transformation of health systems, support networks, and caregiving structures for older adults and at the end of life. This effort is guided by the discursive connection between Public Health, Care Ethics, and Palliative Care, which serves as the conceptual basis for our approach.

These themes are placed within an inter- and transdisciplinary, international research context. CIRAC is strongly connected with national and international partner institutions (such as ENAS, NANAS, GSA, AgeCap Göteborg, TCAS Trent, and the Gilbrea Center, Canada). CIRAC also takes charge of coordinating the Age and Care Research Group Graz (https://ageandcaregraz.at) which facilitates collaborations with other universities in Graz alongside partners from practical sectors.

The Center currently has a team of 14 individuals at different points in their careers. They are engaged in projects funded by Horizon Europe, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Fonds Gesundes Österreich, SSHRC- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, and the Province of Styria.

Homepage of CIRAC

Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC) at the University of Graz
Mag.a. Dr.in Anna-Christina Kainradl, MA

Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC) and Professor in Cultural Aging and Care Research at the University of Graz

Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. phil. Ulla Kriebernegg

Ulla Kriebernegg studied English & American Studies and German Philology at the University of Graz and at University College Dublin, Ireland. She earned her doctoral degree with distinction and completed her habilitation (post doctoral degree) in American Studies at the University of Graz. Her primary focus in research and teaching lies in North American literary and cultural studies, age/aging and care research, and health humanities. She coordinates the Age and Care Research Group Graz and holds an adjunct professorship at the Medical University of Graz. Ulla is a founding member of the European Network of Aging Studies (ENAS), having served as its past president (2019 – 2022) and vice president (2015 -2019). She stands as Executive Board member of NANAS (North American Network in Aging Studies) and is an active member of the Gerontological Society of America’s Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Gerontology Panel. She is Associate Editor of The Gerontologist, co-edits the Aging Studies book series (transcript, Bielefeld) and holds memberships on the editorial boards of the Journal of Aging Studies and Arts, Culture, Humanities. She was a visiting scholar at Boston College, Montclair State University, Arizona State University, Trent University and the University of Toronto and has taught internationally (USA, Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba, and Uruguay). She is the recipient of six teaching and research awards and is a Fellow of the Trent Centre for Aging & Society, Canada, and AgeCap, Centre for Ageing and Health at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her publications include Care Home Stories (co-ed., transcript 2017), Aging Studies and Ecocriticism: Interdisciplinary Encounters (co-ed., Lexington 2023), and her monograph Putting Age in its Place: Long-Term Residential Care in Contemporary Film and Fiction (forthcoming).

Contact:ulla.kriebernegg@uni-graz.at

Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC) at the University of Graz

Mag.a. Dr.in Anna-Christina Kainradl, MA

Anna-Christina Kainradl is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC) at the University of Graz, Austria. Her dissertation focused on old age and migration in the context of the Austrian Healthcare System, analyzing the sensitivity of medical-ethical theories to intersectional discrimination. Her research focuses on ethical questions in old age, migration and care from an intersectional perspective. She also teaches Medical Ethics at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, and is involved in projects dealing with age, autonomy, knowledge, health literacy, and migration. Her publications discuss age(ing) in the context of health and care. In 2023 she co-edited Aging Studies and Ecocriticism: Interdisciplinary Encounters (Lexington). She is member of the Advisory Board of the European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS) and a member of the Age and Care Research Group Graz (ACRGG).

Contact:anna.kainradl@uni-graz.at

Department of Slavic Studies, University of Graz

Graz has a long tradition as an educational center for the Slavic neighboring states and as a center of philological research into Slavic languages, literatures and cultures. The world’s oldest chair in Slovenian language was established here 150 years ago. Today, the focus is on Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Russian, and Slovenian. The additional languages offered at the department include Polish and Ukrainian.

Research in the field of Slavic linguistics, literature, and cultural studies is guided by interdisciplinary questions. Three professorships and their teams explore areas such as biolinguistics, minority culture, and aesthetics of the future.

In individual projects, research networks, and international collaborations, scholars examine fundamental questions of poetics and Slavic knowledge cultures, from avant-garde art and the representation of age and aging to trauma and transit. Early-career researchers specialize in the literatures and cultures of Ukraine and Belarus.

The Department of Slavic Studies participates in the University of Graz field of excellence “Dimensions of Europe” as well as in the Faculty of Humanities’ main area of research “Trans-Mediterranean Entanglements.”

Research into transformation aesthetics investigates, among other things, counter-concepts to aging, above all rejuvenation, immortality, trans- and posthuman existence as represented in IT, art, medicine, natural sciences, and philosophy.

Homepage of Department of Slavic Studies

Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Oana Hergenröther

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Graz

Dr. Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl

Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl studied Slavic and Romance languages, literatures, and cultures in Graz, Moscow, and Rouen and holds two master’s and a doctoral degree from the University of Graz. She specializes in literary and cultural studies with a focus on twentieth- and twenty-first-century Russian as well as post-Yugoslav fiction, émigré literature, and age/aging studies. In her PhD thesis (2002), she analyzed representations of women’s aging in Russian fiction (Repräsentationen weiblichen Alterns in der russischen Literatur: Alt sein, Frau sein, eine alte Frau sein, publ. Hamburg, 2014). Her current research project focuses on narratives of homecoming in Slavic literatures of exile. She is the editor of the volume Aging in Slavic Literatures: Essays in Literary Gerontology (Bielefeld, 2017). Among her recent publications are the multi-disciplinary essay collection Foreign Countries of Old Age: East and Southeast European Perspectives on Aging (Bielefeld, 2021), co-edited with Oana Hergenröther, and a contribution to the Bloomsbury Handbook to Ageing in Contemporary Literature and Film on representations of aging in Russian fiction (London, 2023). Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl was granted the Prof. Paul Petry Award in Aging Studies in 1998; she is an alumna of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a member of the European Network in Aging Studies’ (ENAS) Academic Advisory Board.

Contact:dagmar.gramshammer@uni-graz.at

More information about Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl:Homepage of "University of Graz"

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Oana Hergenröther

Oana Hergenröther obtained her doctorate in English and American Studies from the University of Novi Sad, and has been working as a researcher in literature and cultural studies at the University of Graz. In Graz, she currently divides her time between the Plurilingualism Research Unit and—as part of our project—the Department of Slavic Studies. Her research interests include age/ing studies, and literatures in plurilingual and minority contexts in Southeastern Europe. She was a visiting scholar at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York, while writing her thesis about American author Paul Auster’s fiction and films, on which she based a monograph published in 2019 (Mediterran Publishing). In 2021, she co-edited (with Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl) the volume Foreign Countries of Old Age: East and Southeast European Perspectives on Aging ([transcript]), a pioneer volume on the topic. Hergenröther is an active literary translator between Serbian, Romanian, and English, and, most recently, the translator and editor of an anthology of contemporary Romanian short fiction (Arhipelag, Belgrade, 2022).

Contact:oana.hergenroether@uni-graz.at

Team Sofia

Department of History and Theory of Culture at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (SU), established in 1888, is the oldest and the largest Bulgarian university. It has 16 faculties offering 119 degree programmes in the fields of fundamental, social and humanitarian sciences.

SU is one of the leading universities in Southeastern Europe not only in terms of academic performance, public influence and international contacts. It is an important research hub in the region participating in large international projects, including a few H2020 and Horizon Europe projects. Many members of SU faculty are among the leading researchers in Bulgaria and internationally, publishing in diverse and authoritative outlets.

The Department of History and Theory of Culture, which is the main host of the project activities is one of the most dynamically developed sections of the University, established in 1981. The Department prides itself with a truly interdisciplinary focus. It has become a space for original research, freely and creatively merging the fields of History, Anthropology, Theory of Religion, Philosophy of Culture, Cultural Policies, Urban Studies, Popular Culture, Digital Cultures, Cultural History of Medicine, etc.

Homepage of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

Head of the Department of History and Theory of Culture at Sofia University
Assoc. Prof. Galina Goncharova

Full professor at the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade
Prof. Dr. Saša Nedeljković

Head of the Department of History and Theory of Culture at Sofia University

Assoc. Prof. Galina Goncharova

Galina Goncharova has a PhD in cultural studies (2011) and a habilitation (2021) from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky”. Her main research topics are related to construction of generational identities, death and dying experience, and cultures(s) of care. She is working from a longue durée perspective (19th-21st century), focusing on certain social dynamics such as: the resistance to state/institutional power and social conventions; the (dis)empowerment of minorities and marginalized groups in transnational contexts; the relationship between biographical and public discourses of care. She has been doing field work and oral history for 18 years on various national and international projects that have served as a basis for comparative studies of cultural and social discontinuities in South-Eastern Europe. Goncharova is author of two books in Bulgarian: Politics of „Generation”. Generational divisions in Bulgaria in the Second Half of the 19th to Early 20th Century (2019) and Chronicles of wealth and modernization in the Kingdom of Bulgaria. The story of Alexander Tenev (2021). She is co-editor (with Ina Dimitrova) of Disability, Care, Postsocialism (2021), thematic issue 3 of Critique & Humanism Journal.

Full professor at the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade

Prof. Dr. Saša Nedeljković

Saša Nedeljković is a full professor at the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. His main areas of interest are ethnicity, nationalism, religion, violence, migration. He especially dealt with the cultural dimension of violence, contemporary migrations of Montenegrins to Serbia, hidden and double minorities in Serbia and Romania, gray economy in the Balkans during World War II, esoteric and gnostic communities in Serbia etc. He participated in a number of international projects and conferences, and was a visiting professor at several universities in the USA, Austria and Slovenia. He conducted field research in Serbia (including Kosovo), Austria, USA and Romania. He published and edited a large number of scientific monographs and published two novels, in which he examines the possibility of connecting the self-cognition procedure in Gnostic practice and the self-reflexive approach in anthropology.

Contact:snedeljk@f.bg.ac.rs

More information about Saša Nedeljković:Homepage of "Faculty of Philosophy – University of Belgrade"

Research Fellow

Dr. Aurelia Borzin

Aurelia Borzin is a sociologist, photographer and poet. She earned her PhD at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iasi, Romania (2020) with a research on the social experience of patients in the Psychiatric Hospital in Chisinau. She is the author of the book A sociology of the psychiatric hospital from the patients’ perspective (2022, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University Press, Romania). Aurelia is passionate about poetry, photography and life stories.

Contact:aurelia.borzin@gmail.com

Phd Student

Stefania Gabrovska

Stefania Gabrovska joined Sofia University and the SEEAGE project in July 2023 to start her doctoral research on the post-communist understanding of mental health and care, in particular, depression and memory loss. She has a MSc in Clinical Psychology from Utrecht university (2022) and a BSc in Psychology, with a Cognitive Neuropsychology major from Tilburg university (2021). She is currently working as a consulting therapist under supervision at a private practice. Her internship work in the multi profile hospital for active treatment in neurology and psychiatry “St. Naum” (2021-2022) was mainly focused in assessing older people with degenerative diseases with neuropsychological tests and assessment in the psychiatric ward. She wrote a paper with the topic: “Hybrids: diagnosis and self-diagnosis in the world of modern technology” which she presented on a big national transdisciplinary conference in Aprlitsi, Bulgaria (December 2021).

Contact:Stefania.gabr@gmail.com

Team Budapest

Hungarian Demographic Research Institute (HDRI)

The Hungarian Demographic Research Institute (HDRI) is the only research institute in Hungary that carries out research on population issues and processes. In 1963 a demographic research group was founded within the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO), which became an independent institute in 1968. It is now one of the oldest independent demographic research institutes in Europe. The HDRI is an independent public organization, supervised by the president of the HCSO. Ever since its foundation, the institution has maintained a close relationship with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its Committee of Demography, which pays continuous attention to the professional and scientific work at the Institute. The research activities of the Institute encompass all the key themes of demography. Researchers study the basic demographic processes (fertility, nuptiality, mortality, migration), the structural characteristics of the Hungarian population and the reasons that may explain current developments (changes in family and household structure, ageing, education, economic activity, geographic differences, and special population groups).

Homepage of Hungarian Demographics Research Institute

Associate Professor at Corvinus University Budapest and Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Demographic Research Institute (HDRI)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Attila Melegh

Associate Professor at Corvinus University Budapest and Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Demographic Research Institute (HDRI)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Attila Melegh

Attila Melegh is a sociologist, economist and historian. He studied economics and sociology at Karl Marx University of Economics and social history at Oxford University. He has a PhD in history from Debrecen University. He is habilitated associate professor at Corvinus University, Budapest, and a senior researcher at the Demographic Research Institute. Editor of Eszmélet and Demográfia English Edition journal. He was the founding director of Karl Polányi Research Center at Corvinus University between 2104-22. He has participated and conducted more than 12 major international research projects. For Spring 2024 he has been selected as a Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business. Beside another 120 publications he is the author of the book On the East/West Slope, Globalization, Nationalism, Racism and Discourses on Central and Eastern Europe published at CEU Press. His new, 2023 book at Palgrave-Macmillan is: The Migration Turn and Eastern Europe: A Global Historical Sociological Analysis.

Contact::melegh@demografia.hu

More information about Attila Melegh:Homepage of "Hungarian Demographic Research Institute"

Research fellow

Dr. Julianna Boros

Julianna Boros studied sociology and economics at the University of Miskolc, and epidemiology at the University of Debrecen. In 2020, she successfully completed her PhD in Sociology and Demography at the University of Pécs. With over two decades of experience in the field, she has been actively engaged in various health-related interview surveys. She has made contributions as a researcher and/or a project leader in significant surveys such as the National Health Survey 2000, 2003, World Health Survey 2003, European Health Interview Survey 2009, 2014, European Disability and Social Integration Module 2009, Mikrocenzus Disability Survey 2016, and Cohort ’18 Hungarian Birth Cohort Survey, which is an ongoing project since 2018. In addition to her research work, serves as a lecturer in medical sociology at Semmelweis University in Budapest.

Contact:boros@demografia.hu

More information about Julianna Boros:Homepage of "Hungarian Demographic Research Institute"

Senior Research Fellow

Judit Monostori

Judit Monostori is senior research fellow at the Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, where she has been since 2007. She is currently lecturer at Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the Corvinus University of Budapest. Her doctoral thesis focused on the causes of early retirement. Her research interests include social inequalities, demographic ageing and family sociology.

PhD Student

Orsolya Udvari

Orsolya Udvari is a PhD student in the Sociology Doctoral Program at Corvinus University of Budapest since 2021. She holds a Master’s degree from the Central European University in Sociology and Social Anthropology (2019). Her research focuses on the phenomenon of obstetric violence. Her topic is women’s trauma narratives in the Hungarian healthcare system, comparing experiences based on class and ethnicity with qualitative methods. Her field of interest lies at the intersection of social and gender inequalities, reproductive decisions, and demographic changes. She is a member of the Budapest team, and also works on research projects with the ‘Momentum’ Reproductive Sociology Research Group formed in 2021 at the Eötvös Loránd Research Network.

Contact:udvari@demografia.hu

More information about Orsolya Udvari:Homepage of "Hungarian Demographic Research Institute"