EDUCATION

1996-1999  Doctoral study, Title of the doctoral work: "Latvian Mythology: Problems of Reconstruction"

The material for the study was collected working in the British Library, The Royal Swedish Library, the Academic Library of Latvia, University of London, as well as interviewing exile Latvians in England and Sweden. The main emphasis in the work is placed on contemporary treatment of the available mythological data and evaluation of attempted reconstructions from anthropological perspective. The final version of the text is in preparation, due first half 2005.

1995  Workshop on sound archiving methods and techniques in Vienna, Austria

1993 Participation in the Folklore Fellows network summer school in Turku, Finland, becoming an associated member of FF

Many of outstanding Nordic researchers participated in this summer school in capacity of lecturers and moderators; the course offered an opportunity of getting acquainted and exchanging opinions with colleagues from all over the world.

1981-1986 Studies at the Faculty of Philology, State University of Latvia, Department of Latvian philology, with additional courses in translation

EMPLOYMENT

since 1986  full time staff member of the Archives of Latvian Folklore (a department of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art)

Work includes organisation and participation in fieldwork sessions, archive material study,  organisation and performing of archival duties, consulting other researchers etc. Since 1998 the head of the research and archiving project studying the manuscript corpus of Latvian folksongs compiled by Krišjānis Barons (inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register on 4 September, 2001)

1996-1997 within the framework of a programme of the British Council worked as a lecturer of the Latvian language at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies,  University of London

During the period prepared presentations on Latvian culture, actively participated in the life of Latvian community in London; presented a paper at the SSEES and at a seminar organised by the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh

OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

1999 As a visiting researcher participated in the work of a research project of Södertorns Högskola, Sweden; lectured on the study of Latvian folklore and history of folkloristics at the University of Stockholm

1995-1997 Participated in a project of Nordic, Baltic and other scholars on the problems of Baltic mentality

since 1992 participation with papers in different international and national scholarly events, including the Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society (1995), annual conferences of IASA (International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives; 1999 and 2001), , "Youth Research and Policy. IT Century: Young People and Social Changes" (an international conference in Rīga, 2001); regular publications in national and Baltic scholarly press.

SKILLS PROFILE

• Languages: Latvian, English, Russian – fluent, German – reading skills, Spanish, Swedish – basic skills
• Documentation techniques: video recording with full format VHS, photography (including basic skills in art photography), sound recording using cassette and reel tapes, portable digital formats, harddisk systems
• Computer skills: Windows (all platforms from 3.11 to Win XP), system management, MS Office productivity suite (Word, Excel, Access, Power Point), Open Office, graphics software (Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Corel), sound processing (Sound Forge, Cool Edit Pro); basic web page building (designed the homepage of the Archives at http://www.lfk.lv), advanced Internet user

INTERESTS

• Music and songwriting, participant of different singing groups since 1981, received basic vocal training, author of some 30 songs.
• Literature, translation (translated Michael Crichton's novel "Congo" into Latvian)
• Sports (skiing, tennis, volley-ball)

Academic and professional references are available on request.