Aleksandra Vedernjak-Barsegiani

Short bio

I was born in 1981 in Austria into a mixed family, Carinthian-Slovene and German. My interest in global issues led me to various stays, work experiences and film projects in countries such as Ireland, Mexico, Slovenia and Georgia. I finished an university degree in Media and Communication Studies with my thesis/documentary film „Frauen.Ženske.Donne. Women at Work at the Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt”. I co-founded see-id – In Dialogue with South-Eastern, where I am involved in cultural project management and camera work (No Country Of Our Time? documentary on Jugonostalgija). I see documentary film as an interface to science, as my contribution to a dialogue on cultures, trans/migration, equality, on reflecting and understanding  genders. Postcolonial and Queer-Feminist Theories, activism and Modern Arts inspire me. The working title of the PhD-Project is Practices of Transmigrants. Dealing with migration management from Georgia to Austria. The ethnographic field research was conducted from 2010 until 2012 in Austria and in Georgia (South Caucasus), with participants living and communicating in transnational spaces. I challenge the construction of third country nationals and try to make concepts on politics of belonging, social practices, subversion and agency productive. I have a son and we live in Vienna. I speak German, English, Slovene, Spanish and work on my Georgian and Russian.


Teachings:

Questioning Migration Management: Logics of Differentiation
Master course since Summer term 2014, with [kriMi]
Institute of International Development, University of Vienna

Communication from the gender perspective
Bachelor seminar since Summer term 2014, with Daniela Gronold
Department of Media and Communication Science, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt


Recent Publications:


(2015). Inkorporation oder Subversion? Praktiken im Umgang mit Migrationsmanagement in Österreich. In: movements #2. un/sichtbare politiken der migration. Journal für kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung. (upcoming)

(2014). Kommunikative und digitale Praktiken von Transmigrant_innen von Georgien bis Österreich. In: Biffl, Gudrun/Rössl, Lydia (Hg.) (2014): Migration & Integration 4. Dialog zwischen Politik, Wissenschaft und Praxis. Tagungsband Dialogforum-Summer School 2013, Wien: Guthmann-Peterson, S. 221-232.