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Eda Derhemi

Teaching Associate Professor

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 2001 she completed an internship working on indigenous languages and cultures of the world at the Office of Management of Social Transformation at UNESCO in Paris. In 2007 she conducted one year of Postdoc Research in Albania and Kosovo, with an Award from IREX working on the linguistic representation of ethnic conflict in Kosovar Media. In 2014 she was awarded a grant as a Fulbright Scholar for research and teaching in Albania on language and propaganda. She has extensive teaching, field-work and research experience in various countries and universities lecturing in language, linguistics, and media studies. In the years between her academic career in Albania and in the US, Eda worked as a correspondent for Deutsche Welle in Italy, and today she continues to write cultural and political opinion pieces in the main Albanian media.

In her free time, she enjoys writing short stories and poetry, translating, gardening, running and cooking (she normally runs during cooking, but seldom cooks during running). She loves good films of all times and the new films of the recently sovereign countries. A heavenly evening for her often includes a good slow-paced film and a glass of a berrylike chewy wine. Eda is an indefatigable traveler, and very devoted to her family, her friends, and the many communities she has lived in.

Research Interests

  • Linguistic endangerment and language death
  • linguistic minorities, diaspora and migration
  • Languages in the Mediterranean
  • EU linguistic legislation; language, media and post-socialist condition
  • Focus on these languages: Albanian, Italian, Arberesh, Arvanitika Affiliations: Lecturer in the French and Italian Department (Italian program)
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor in Media and Cinema Studies
  • European Union Center faculty
  • Research Associate in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

Research Description

Eda Derhemi has presented her research in many international conferences all over the world. Her work on linguistic endangerment, minorities and diaspora communities, post-socialist migration, extensive analyses on Arbëresh (in Italy) and Arvanitika (in Greece) and on linguistic representation in the media of ethnic conflict has been published in several academic journals.

Currently she is working with Zsuzsanna Fagyal on the book Language and Minorities in Europe (Bristol: Multilingual Matters), to appear in February, 2017.

Education

  • PhD in Communications (ICR): 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

Additional Campus Affiliations

Teaching Associate Professor, French and Italian
Teaching Associate Professor, European Union Center

Recent Publications

Derhemi, E., & Moseley, C. (Eds.) (2023). Endangered Languages in the 21st Century. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003260288

Derhemi, E. (2023). Examining the Role of Change in Endangered Languages with Some Reference to Arbëresh and Arvanitika. In E. Derhemi, & C. Moseley (Eds.), Endangered Languages In The 21St Century (pp. 158-175). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003260288-13

Derhemi, E. (2013). Small local press as a dynamic tool for maintaining linguistic diversity: The newspaper Mondo Albanese and the endangered Arbëresh vs. new media. International Journal of Community Diversity, 12(2), 41-51. https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-0004/CGP/v12i02/39919

Costanzo, E., Montecchi, G., & Derhemi, E. (2011). Prison libraries in Italy. Library Trends, 59(3), 509-519. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2011.0003

Derhemi, E. (2006). Features of dysfunctional attrition in the Arbresh of Piana degli Albanesi. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, (178), 31-53. https://doi.org/10.1515/IJSL.2006.014

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