Contact Information
Office Hours
Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:30-2:15 and by appointment
Biography
Eda Derhemi completed her undergraduate studies in Linguistics and Literature at the University of Tirana, Albania, where she then taught for five years. After living and working for some years in Italy, including working as a correspondent for Deutsche Welle, she came to the US to enter graduate studies at Illinois (UIUC) where she received a Master's degree in Linguistics and a Ph.D. in Communications. In 2001, while finalizing her doctorate at Illinois, 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 a year of Postdoc Research in Albania and Kosovo, with an Award from IREX for work 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 linguistics, Italian and Albanian language, and communications. In the recent years she has taught courses with a focus on sociological and sociolinguistic aspects of “Linguistic Endangerment”, “Language and Minorities in Europe”, “Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean” and “Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Changes in the Balkans". She regularly writes cultural and political opinion pieces for the main Albanian media.
In her free time, she enjoys writing essays, 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 new films produced in young countries. A heavenly evening for her often includes a good slow-paced film with great photography and a glass of a berrylike chewy red 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
- Italian Language Studies
- European Union and Diversity in Europe
- Mediterranean Studies
- Language, Media and the Post-Socialist Condition
- Translation Studies
Languages of Focus in my Teaching and Research: Italian, Albanian, Arbëresh, Arvanitika
Research Description
Eda Derhemi has presented her research in over 30 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.
She is the author of four edited volumes: Sociolinguistic Studies on the Albanian Language (IJSL, Nr.178 - 2006); Protecting Endangered Minority Languages: Sociolinguistic Perspectives (UNESCO's MOST, vol. 4, Nr. 2, 2002 - https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?oi=10.1.1.109.2253&rep=rep1&type=pdf); and Perpjekja - The Albanian Migration after 1990, Nr. 146-147. 2011; and Endangered Languages and Diaspora - FEL XXV proceedings. 2021.
She is now working on two edited volumes: on with Routledge on the resilience of endangered languages in the 21st century, to be published in 2022; and the other with Brill on Endangered Languages and Diaspora, to be published in early 2023.
Her last article "Arberesh as an endangered language" was recently published in the Journal Continuum p. 212-225 (https://online.fliphtml5.com/mhxxc/uwut/#p=1).
Two of her book chapters are in press: one is a chapter contracted by Routledge on the role of structural change in the case of endangered languages based on Arberesh and Arvanitika; the other chapter is "Zeriqi dhe etniciteti emërhumbur i arvanitëve: një ese narrative dhe një trajtesë teorike" (Zeriki and the nameless ethnicity of the arvanitis: a narrative essay and a theoretical examination)
Currently she is also working with Zsuzsanna Fagyal on the e-text for the FRIT 418 course Language and Minorities in Europe.
Her most recent translation (with Francesco Ferrari) is that of the Albanian novel "Mjaltë në teh" (Miele sul coltello) in Italian. October 2020 - Besa Editrice (Italy).
Below are some of her most recent blog entries about linguistic endangerment and minority languages published in English
http://www.ogmios.org/ogmios/Ogmios_067.pdf (pp. 9-11)
http://www.ogmios.org/blog/matrimonio-allarberesh-marriage-arberesh-style/
http://www.ogmios.org/blog/jacinta-tobin-and-dharug-songs/
Most of her essays in Albanian are published in the online cultural magazine Peizazhe të fjalës - https://peizazhe.com/
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
- European Union Center;
- Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies;
- Translation Studies;
- Media and Cinema Studies
Recent Publications
Derhemi, Eda. "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. 2013, 12(2). 41-51. https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-0004/CGP/v12i02/39919
Costanzo, Emanuela, Giorgio Montecchi, and Eda Derhemi. "Prison libraries in Italy". Library Trends. 2011, 59(3). 509-519. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2011.0003
Derhemi, Eda. "Features of dysfunctional attrition in the Arbresh of Piana degli Albanesi". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2006, (178). 31-53. https://doi.org/10.1515/IJSL.2006.014
Derhemi, Eda. "New Albanian immigrants in the old Albanian diaspora: Piana degli Albanesi". Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 2003, 29(6). 1015-1032. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183032000171348
