About me

Biliana Müller graduated from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria with a master thesis in Indo-European linguistics entitled Derivatives from names of Gods in Sanskrit in contemporary European languages.

Inspired by the example set by Ferdinand de Saussure who went to Germany (Leipzig) to study Sanskirt she also went to Germany and joined the Sanskrit Department at the Humboldt University in Berlin where from 1990 till the end of 1994 she participated the research project on style differentiation in the texts of the Old Indian Epics रामायण/Rāmāyaṇa and महाभारत/Mahābhārata, conducted by Professor Wolfgang Morgenroth. Due to the reorganisation of German universities after the reunification of Germany and the following closing of many departments of Sanskrit studies, including the one at the Humboldt-University in Berlin, she eventually joined the Research Center for Semiotics based at the University of Engineering (Technische Universität) in Berlin.

At the Research Center for Semiotics she joined the group working on non-verbal communication and commenced her own research project on the language of hand gestures in Indian dancing. Supervised by Professor Roland Posner, she finished this project with a doctoral thesis entitled “The Structure of Hand Gestures in Indian Dancing According to Bharata’s ” which she successfully defended in front of an interdisciplinary academic board with representatives from three different disciplines and two different universities. Professor Günter Abel chaired the viva voce exam and raised questions from the field of theoretical philosophy, Professor Klaus Butzenberger from the University of Tübingen evaluated the level of Sanskrit implemented in the research and Professor Roland Posner participated on the board with questions from the field of general linguistics.

The full text of the thesis in German language is available for free download from here: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-tuberlin/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1938

After graduation as Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the Technische Universität in Berlin, Biliana Müller joined the Department of Slavonic and Ugro-Finnian Studies (DSUFS) at the University of Delhi (DU) in India. As a member of the academic board, she participated actively in administrative issues, helped develop academic programs, lecture series, workshops and international conferences, and supervised students' research at graduate and postgraduate level.

During this period, the University of Delhi inaugurated the semester system of examination. The transition started in 2010 with the 13 science undergraduate courses and by 2012 all the other streams at the University were compulsory moved from an annual to a semester mode of teaching and examination. This step required a complete change and as a member of the academic staff, Professor Müller was actively involved in the process of adapting the syllabus, examination papers and teaching material.

Biliana Müller was also member of the organising body of two conferences staged by the Department that were significant for the Department’s international activities. The first commemorated 65 years of Russian language teaching at the University of Delhi in 2012 and drew over 300 participating scholars from all over the world. The second conference "Revisiting East and Central Europe and Russia: Society and Culture '20 years' after" took place in March 2013. As an active organising member, she took part in fund-raising, speaker selection, conceptualisation of panels, publication of abstracts and the final edition the conference proceedings.

Awards and Distinctions

Membership

• 2008 till now member of ACCL: Academic Circle of Comparative Literature http://calic-bg.biz.nf/
• 2009-2012 member of the parents' council, German Embassy School New Delhi, India http://www.dsnd.de/
• 2003-2008 member of European Hindi Samiti, London, UK http://www.hindiclasses.co.uk/hindi_samiti.html