Iva Drozdek

Iva Drozdek

Iva Drozdek, PhD Candidate in Literature and Cultural Identity, University of Osijek, Croatia

My name is Iva Drozdek and I'm 31. I was born in Osijek, Croatia, but spent my childhood in Germany and Belgium since the Homeland War raged in former Yugoslavia. I have a degree in English and German language and literature. I'm a Ph.D. Student of Literature and Cultural Identity, and am very interested in everything that has to do with influencing and forming people/attitude/nations. Furthermore I really enjoy intermedial research such as movie adaptations of novels and of course the academically unrecognized texts in songlyrics. Currently I'm working on my thesis Song lyrics of the 20th century in which I will analyse and categorize the most popular songlyrics of the past century in English, German and Croatian. My goal is to present the academic audience with the importance and cultural influence of song lyrics, as well as their change in topics throughout the century. What I am mostly looking forward to during my fellowship in Edmonton is not only having the opportunity to fully engage in my research but also to have people surrounding me who enjoy analysing texts/people. That is always very inspiring. The possibilities at the University of Alberta are (for the lack of a better word) mindblowing and there are so many lectures I would like to attend or at least to get a glimpse of. Since I've experienced life as a refugee I fully understand the need to have contact with one's origins, although one lives happily in another country. Being part of the With Institute gives me the opportunity to help people here connect with their Croatian ancestry.

Contact

E-mail: drozdek@ualberta.ca
Telephone: +1 780 492 6390
Address:
University of Alberta
Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies
Suite 300 F
Arts & Convocation Hall
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6G 2E6