My academic experience is a combination of journalistic practice, research, and teaching. Journalistic practice in international contexts has shaped the foundation of my expertise. Producing and reporting news and long-format stories in cross-national contexts has been fulfilling and the decision to move to academia full time was not easy but it became one of the most rewarding decisions. The transition has allowed me to conduct original research and get a closer look at news media through the lens of my international multimedia background. My research interest is the intersection between media, technology, and democracy with a focus on journalistic practice.

At American University for my Ph.D. dissertation at the School of Communication, under the guidance my advisor Dr. W Joseph Campbell, dissertation committee members Dr. Sherri Williams, and Dr. John C. Watson, and external reader Dr. Lea Hellmueller, I examined the post-communist media landscape in Bulgaria and Romania through the lens of journalistic practice models and drew extensively on the contents of fifty in-depth interviews with news media professionals in the two countries. This study considers the journalists’ perspectives about the lingering effects of communist rule as well as the influence of disinformation in places that had been regularly exposed to government propaganda for decades. Part of my findings were published in chapter of the book Global Journalism in Comparative Perspective: Case Studies on Journalistic Practice. I am working on publishing the complete and updated analysis in a book.

As a PhD student at American University, I joined a journalism history class with Professor Mark Feldstein's at University of Maryland, in which I enrolled as part of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area opportunity. For my final paper, I revisited key moments of the coverage of the Bulgarian Connection theory in American and Bulgarian media to add a fresh perspective to the existing analysis and call for more responsible approach when it comes to covering international stories. The Bulgarian Connection theory started with neoconservative journalists implicating Bulgaria in the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in the 1980s. The theory, which was never proven, was embraced by U.S. major news organizations like the New York Times, NBC, and Time magazine and there was little room for dissenting opinions.  For my research, I  interviewed journalists covering the trial against the shooter, a former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria, and a former CIA intelligence analyst who talks about the atmosphere at the Agency regarding the Bulgarian Connection theory. My study found that  the dominant frame in media coverage of the Bulgarian Connection theory in the United States was biased towards a right-wing conspiracy. My analysis points to the limited consideration of the Soviet bloc as monolith by neoconservative activists who held the agenda-setting power. In addition, in “Tracing the Bulgarian Connection,”  which was published in Journalistic practice I demonstrate how unchallenged biased experts filled the gap in the public space with ideologically driven narratives that were amplified by popular publications and television stations.

My first research paper was my Master’s thesis for Wake Forest University where I studied Communication. For the Master’s thesis, I developed a comparative content analysis of news stories. My research documented how the Voice of America, the BBC, and Radio Moscow reported about the Civil Rights Movement in America during the Cold War. For my thesis, I traveled to the United Kingdom to gather research at the BBC Monitoring archives. I explored transcripts of BBC news radio programs and summaries of Radio Moscow’s broadcasts compiled by the Monitoring Service of the BBC.

I spent most of my research in Washington, D.C. where I looked through archives and talked to former and current VOA journalists.  My research showed the competing framing about the Civil Rights struggles in the United States. Radio Moscow was disseminating commentary arguing that the civil rights struggles in America were a certain sign that democracy and capitalism do not work. VOA, on the other hand, wanted to make sure that its audiences are aware of the context of what was taking place.  VOA programs looked beyond the violence and emphasized on explaining the conflict.

In studying journalistic practice, I am also taking into consideration the conceptual understanding of terms that journalists rely on in their daily practice. Journalists as fact-tellers respond to and sometimes not knowingly spread false information, but there's no agreement on definitions of different types of false information. In one of my papers, which was accepted to AEJMC in 2022, I examined recent scholarly work and news articles about “disinformation,” “misinformation,” and “fake news” and addressed the puzzling spectrum of the definitional flabbiness of these terms.  My content analysis study among academic journals and news articles found that there is no clarity on a contentious, important, and multifaceted topic, which is not beneficial to scholars and media practitioners confronting false content and its possible effects.

Prior to Wake Forest, I completed the graduate program in Broadcast Journalism at University of Westminster in London. My B.A. degree is from Sofia University where I studied Social Work.

As a professor, I strive to be patient, fair, open-minded, and creative. My classroom is a place where students communicate with each other, challenge their own perspectives, and gain knowledge. I acknowledge students’ previous experience and have an open mind in my conversations with them. I am very clear in my expectations. I am not hesitant to tell my class that I am learning and might make mistakes. That is why I do an early semester check-in and learn from my students’ feedback. I am not afraid of discussing difficult topics but also aware that some topics could act as trigger for some students if not handled professionally.

In their feedback students say they appreciate my background and passion about teaching. The also point to the engaging class activities, up-to-date case studies, my enthusiasm, fair evaluation standards, and overall classroom environment that stimulates student thinking and encourages differing viewpoints. The focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in teaching is central to me, inspired by personal experiences and learning. It determines my priority to make sure the environment in my classroom is welcoming and encouraging where multiple contributions are acknowledged.