Dr. Julie M. Kolgjini was born in Devils Lake, North Dakota, where she received much of her early education. She graduated from Anoka High School in Anoka, Minnesota in the spring of 1990. For her undergraduate education Julie attended Concordia University (St. Paul, Minnesota), the University of Washington (Seattle), and the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis), where she received an Austrian Studies scholarship to study at Karl-Franzens Universität in Graz, Austria. In the spring of 1994 Julie graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in International Relations (Diplomacy) and German with honors (Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude). She later went on to teach English at Moscow State University in Russia (1994-1996), which led her to pursue an advanced degree in Teaching English as a Second or Other Language and Linguistics at the University of Minnesota (1997-1999). In the autumn of 1999 she enrolled in The University of Texas at Arlington’s doctoral program in Linguistics, where she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study under the supervision of Dr. Kolec Topalli at the University of Tirana in Albania (2001-2002). In May 2004 she received her Ph.D. in Linguistics (Palatalization in Albanian: An Acoustic Investigation of Stops and Affricates). While at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Julie taught courses for both the Linguistics Department (e.g. LINGUISTICS 3330: Phonetics and Phonology and ESOL 4301: Academic Presentations) and the English Department (e.g. ENGLISH 0301: ESL Developmental Reading and Writing and ENGLISH 1301: ESL Expository Writing). While at UTA, Julie also served as the president of the student-run linguistic organization Lingua, and coordinated its annual linguistics conference UTASCIL (UTA’s Student Conference in Linguistics).
Since 2004 Julie has been teaching various courses (e.g. Basic Writing, Writing and Literature I, Writing and Literature II, Written Argument, Arts of Expression, Global Literature: An Exploration of Albanian Literature throughout the Ages, and Albanian Language Analysis) for Rochester Institute of Technology, and in particular at the RIT Kosovo (A.U.K). She has also taught intermediate and advanced Albanian for non-native and native speakers (including heritage speakers) of Albanian in accredited universities in the United States. Julie is also active in the field of translation and interpretation (e.g. The Article System of the Albanian Language [Nyjat e Gjuhës Shqipe] by Dr. Kolec Topalli; The Historical Evolution of the Albanian Pronominal System [Evolutioni Historik i Përemrave të Shqipës] by Dr. Kolec Topalli; and Historical Phonetics of Albanian [Fonetika Historike e Gjuhës Shqipe] by Dr. Kolec Topalli). Currently Julie is working on a translation related to the history of the Albanian language. Recently she has also organized and participated in various conferences (e.g. RIT Kosovo (A.U.K)’s TESOL conference, RIT Kosovo (A.U.K)’s annual student Albanalogical conferences, and the 17th Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore Conference at The Ohio State University in Columbus, presentation entitled Alternative verbs paradigms in Albanian: The case of the Geg imperfect).
