Nicholas Borbely
Credentials: Scandinavian Studies
Position title: Graduate Student
Email: nborbely@wisc.edu
Address:
Languages: Italian, Icelandic, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Russian, Turkish, Finnish
Pronouns: He/him/his
About: Nicholas (Nico) Borbely is a first-year M.A./Ph.D. student and Icelandic language teaching assistant on the philology track. He has previously studied at Beloit College and the University of Iceland. While studying at Beloit, he completed two semesters abroad, one at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, Russia, and another at the University of Turku in Turku, Finland. His Beloit College capstone project, entitled “Linguistic Crossover Between Russian and the Turkic Language Family,” focused on linguistic borrowings between the two with Azerbaijan as a case study.
His University of Iceland thesis, entitled “Er ég komin(n) heim? Sjálfsmyndir og málbakgrunnar íslenskra þriðju menningar barna (Have I Come Home? Identities and Language Backgrounds of Icelandic Third Culture Kids),” investigates the cultural and linguistic upbringings, reintegration experiences, and identities of Icelanders who were born or grew up abroad and subsequently settled in Iceland.
He has additionally completed summer language programs in Icelandic at the University Center of the Westfjords and the University of Iceland, and in Turkish at the Azerbaijan University of Languages in Baku, Azerbaijan through the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS). Shortly before graduating from the University of Iceland, he completed a summer course in Faroese language and culture at the University of the Faroe Islands in Tórshavn through the Nordkurs consortium.
Areas of interest and research: Historical sociolinguistics, identity studies, indigenous studies, lesser-spoken/endangered language preservation and activism, migration studies, multicultural studies.
Education:
– Beloit College, B.A. in Russian with a Concentration in Global Studies
– University of Iceland, Bachelor of Arts in Icelandic as a Second Language
Courses Taught:
– SCAND 404 Languages of Northern Europe: First-Year Modern Icelandic
Awards:
– Fulbright Icelandic Ministry of Education and Culture Award, 2019-2020
– Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies Government Grant for Icelandic as a Second Language Studies, 2019-2022
– Charles Eugene Street Memorial Endowed Award, Spring 2018
– Martha and Alan P. Stutz Grant, Spring 2018
– Beloit College Liberal Arts in Practice Center Field Experience Grant, Summer 2016