Dikova, Rositsa | Bulgaria

Rositsa Dikova is presently finalising her doctoral studies at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohrydski”, Bulgaria. She has been affiliated with the Department of Philosophy in her Bachelors degree and holds a Masters degree in Gender Studies with the same university. Major field of academic research and project activities bond closely with investigations into narrative identity and the narrative approach to ethics. Ms. Dikova has undertaken several studies related to the ethical implications in narratology, with focus on artifactual objects of investigation such as fairy tales, ABC books and virtual social networking platforms, mostly concerned with mechanisms to create and sustain personal and collective identity. Rositsa`a Doctoral thesis is focused on the politics of narrative identity formation, within a discourse of domination, encompassing the emergence and formation of the Modern concept of Childhood within a narrative approach to ethics, in a time span of three centuries, leading to the contemporary definition of Children as the “native inhabitants” of the digitalized world. During her stay in Graz, Ms. Dikova is to further advance the investigations into narrative identity and the politics of collective identity formation, as milestones in the impact of Information and Communication Technologies over societal macrostructures within an on-line identity discourse.

Project at IAS-STS: New stories, new agents: The impact of ICT on self-representation and narrative identity

The research project targets aspects of the impact of ICT over the politics of personal identity, envisaged within the way public identity and social roles transform in the course of expanding social networking interaction. The inquiry shall focus on social identities and boundaries of publicity and privacy, as key points in addressing the impact of ICT over societal macrostructures that underpin the politics of personal and collective identity. Major issues to be addressed include transformation of the idea of agency with the growing popularity of social networking sites, self-representation and narration of identity and the transformations the narrative approach to identity undergoes once placed within the “borders and windows” of such virtual spaces. In reflecting upon the way social networking in on-line spaces affect and reflect major changes in the way we narrate identity two themes are to be examined – 1) styles of self-presentation in spaces “privately public and publicly private” and 2) the shift to autonomous and agent-active narrative public representation of the self within social networking on-line. Analyses of two different types of virtual spaces are to be made. The approach combines analysis of the geographies of online platforms and narrative approaches to identity with special focus on accessibility in ICT and its impact on socializing the web.
 

Selected publications

"Once Upon a Theme". In: The Philosophy of Security in an Insecure World. Proceedings of XXV Varna International Philosophical School – June, 1st - 3rd 2008. IPhR – BAS, Sofia, 2010

“Geography of Social Networks: Mechanisms to sustain Collective Identity On-line” (География на социалните мрежи: Механизми за удържане на колективна идентичност). In: Filosophical Studies of Virtual Culture Magazine, “St Kliment Ohrydski”, Sofia, 2010:1; under “The Topography of the Academic Virtual Society” Project

The Little Big Marginalia: Narrative Identity and the Formation of Childhood in Modern Europe, PhD School Yearbook, “St Kliment Ohrydski”, Sofia, 2010, underprint