Boryana Dobreva is the Director of Online Learning in the College of General Studies. In this role, she is responsible for the strategic growth and development of all online undergraduate academic programs within CGS and oversees online course development. Prior to this position, Boryana served as Director of Academic Programs for CGS from 2015 to 2022 and worked closely with academic departments and faculty to develop flexible programs and online courses designed to meet the needs of CGS' students. She also served as Director of Global Education at Northwestern College (NWC), IA from 2013 to 2014, where she oversaw NWC's study abroad and study away semester programs and faculty-led summer study abroad trips.
In addition to her administrative duties, she is also the advisor of CGS Student Government (CGSSG) and councilor for the CGS Alpha Chi Chapter of the Alpha Sigma Lambda (ASL) National Honor Society for non-traditional and adult students.
Boryana has over 20 years of experience teaching at the university level. She has taught beginning and advanced level foreign-language, culture, and reading classes in German and ESL, as well as study abroad pre-departure for-credit seminars.
Her research work has been supported by grants and scholarships from the American Council of Learned Societies; the Northeast Modern Language Association; the University of Pittsburgh's European Union Center of Excellence and European Studies Center, the Lillian B. Lawler program, and the Austrian Room Committee, as well as the Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS), Germany's Bavarian Government Scholarship program, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
She has presented at national and regional conferences such as UPCEA, KFLC, GSA, and NeMLA, among others.
Education & Training
- PhD, German Studies, University of Pittsburgh
- PhD Certificate, Cultural Studies, University of Pittsburgh
- MA, German Language and Literature, University of Pittsburgh
- MA, German Philology, B. K. Preslavsky University, Bulgaria
- OLC Certificates, Instructional Design and Leadership in Online Learning
Representative Publications
Dobreva, Boryana. "Diasporic Voices or the Aporia of Shifting Identities: The Case of Rumjana Zacharieva," Colloquia Germanica. 41:4, Themenheft: Transnational Writing in German. Tubingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH Co. KG, 2008, 315-328.
Research Interests
Her administrative research includes assessment in online learning, collaborative online development and design frameworks, as well as online quality assurance. Boryana's previous academic research interests focus on German women's writing in the 21st century, postmodernism, 21st century intra-European mobility; alienation; Balkan alterity; cosmopolitanism and diaspora; East European intellectual expatriates; estrangement; stereotypes and cliches.