Dr. Katharina Biegger

Dr. Katharina Biegger, born and raised in Switzerland, is a qualified primary school teacher and hotel manager, and has worked in various positions and professions before and during her studies of German language and literature, education, and folklore at the University of Zurich. After graduating, she continued her studies with a dissertation on the early modern polymath Theophrastus Paracelsus, earning a doctorate (Dr. phil.) in 1989. She gained work experience as a research assistant in the Department of Folklore and as a translator of academic books. After moving to Berlin in the early 1990s, she worked as an academic administrator at the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). As a member of the Institute`s leadership, her primary responsibility for many years was the organization of the Fellow selection process. She enjoyed months away from work and Berlin with internships and studies in the USA, Romania, France, and New Zealand. Beginning with her involvement in the establishment of the New Europe College (NEC) in Bucharest, she has taken pride and pleasure in working with Central and Eastern European colleagues on various projects and programs, but especially with NEC and the Center for Advanced Study in Sofia. She also serves as a strategic advisor to the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University St. Gallen.