Sonja Hristina Bjelić, PhD Candidate, University of Ljubljana
Sonja is a third-year doctoral student in Balkan Studies at the University of Ljubljana, where her research focuses on Romani women’s experiences of maternal healthcare in Serbia through the theoretical lenses of biopower, relationality, and intersectional feminism. Through CEU’s Doctoral Support Program (DSP), Sonja is hosted by the Gender Studies Department and affiliated with the Romani Studies Program, further developing her doctoral work.
She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University (2019) and a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Iowa (2015). Her collaborative writing projects have been published in numerous experimental journals and recently she completed a solo chapbook that explores themes of gender, power and the constraints of language. She has taught in the English Department at the City University of New York for seven years.
Her creative and scholarly practices are deeply intertwined at the intersection of poetics, theory, and the body. Sonja maintains a movement practice rooted in calisthenics and improvisation. Her body-based research is informed by pole dance and intensive study in group improvisation. She regularly performs with a collective in Belgrade that explores relational and improvisatory movement in public spaces.
Sonja is a Certified Birth Doula (DONA), HypnoBirthing® Educator, Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC®), and Pathway 3 mentee working toward the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) credential. She is deeply involved in reproductive advocacy and has attended numerous trainings, workshops, and conferences in reproductive care, including a one-year study program in physiological birth. Softly Circle Perinatal encompasses her praxis of embodied, relational support throughout the perinatal continuum.