Alexandra Petrulevich

Short presentation

Docent/Associate Professor & Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Languages

Keywords

• onomastics
• manuscripts
• language contact
• research infrastructures
• East Norse
• Old Norse
• language history
• GIS for language study
• Scandinavian languages
• medieval literature
• Norse perception of the world
• digital humanities
• spatial humanities
• spatiality
• digital research infrastructures
• place-name policymaking
• large-scale cadastral maps of the Swedish conglomerate state

Biography

Appointments

6/2026- Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Languages, Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

8/2025–8/2026 PI of the Circus project Swedish baby names for data-driven modelling of cultural and linguistic change (Circus, UU), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

Parental leave: 8–12 2025 20%, 2024–7/25 50 %, 8–11 2024 100 %, 2020–2022 10–30 %, 10/2019–9/2020 40 %, 2–10/2019 60 %, 11/2018–2/2019 100 %

6/2022–12/2026 Co-proposer/researcher in the infrastructure project Digitization of the West Norse Manuscripts in Swedish Collections (Riksbankens jubileumsfond, IN21-0003), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

1/2022–6/2025 PI of the NOS-HS project Linking, Building and Sustaining Humanities Digital Spatial Infrastructures for Research in the Nordic Countries (NOS-HS, 345105), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

10/2021–5/2026 Associate Senior Lecturer, Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

6/2021–6/2026 PI of the project Swedifying the other: place-name policymaking in the large-scale cadastral maps of the Swedish Empire (Riksbankens jubileumsfond, P20-0105), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

2/2021–9/2021 Senior Lecturer, Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

3/2017–1/2021 Researcher in the digital humanities infrastructure project Norse perception of the world: A mapping and analysis of foreign place names in medieval Swedish and Danish texts (Riksbankens jubileumsfond, IN16-0093:1), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

11/2017–1/2018 Part-time lecturer, Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism, Stockholm University

8/2016–2/2017 Lecturer, Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism, Stockholm University

8–10/2016 Part-time lecturer, Department of Scandinavian languages, Department of linguistics and philology, Uppsala University

1/2011–5/2016 PhD position, Department of Scandinavian languages, Uppsala university

International work experience

• A number of papers and talks at international conferences and guest lectures at universities abroad (2011–2026), the most recent: the 51st NORNA (the Nordic Cooperative Committee for Onomastic Research) symposium "Names and Cultural Heritage", 19–21 May 2026
• October 2026: Visiting Lecturer via Nordic Teacher Exchange, Faculty of Humanities, University of Helsinki
• October 2022: Visiting Research Fellow, Faculty of Humanities, University of Helsinki
• Autumn 2013: Field work on place names in Pomerania, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Greifswald
• Autumn 2012: Work with manuscripts of Knýtlinga saga at Nordisk Forskningsinstitut, Copenhagen
• August 2011: Work with manuscripts of Knýtlinga saga at Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum och Landsbókasafn Íslands, Reykjavík

Qualifications

• Docent/Associate Professor in Scandinavian languages from 2023
• PhD in Scandinavian languages/onomastics (2011–2016) Doctoral dissertation: Place-name adaptation as a process. An investigation of Wendish place-names and place-name variants in Knýtlinga saga Department of Scandinavian languages, Uppsala university
• MA in linguistics and translation studies (2000–2006), Udmurt State University, Izhevsk, Russia.

Editorial Board

2024– Editorial board member for Studia Geohistorica

Commisions of trust

• 2026– Member of the steering committee, SPHINX, Uppsala University.
• 2025–2028 Deputy representative on the department board, Dept. of Scandinavian languages, Uppsala University.
• Board member and treasurer of Ortnamnssällskapet i Uppsala, Uppsala, 2017–.
• Nomination committee member of Isländska sällskapet, Uppsala, 2020–.

Former commisions of trust and departmental service

• Board member and treasurer of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences, 2017–2024.
• Chair of Junior Faculty, Uppsala university, 2021.
• Faculty of Languages' representative in UpGIS, 2018–2021.
• Board member of Junior Faculty, Uppsala university, 2017–2021.
• Member of the external reference group for Centre for Digital Humanities Uppsala, 2018–2020.
• Board member of Isländska sällskapet, Uppsala, 2013–2020.
• Member of Department's Doctoral Student Association's nominating committee, spring term 2014.
• Head of Department's Doctoral Student Association, 2012–2013.
• Treasurer of Humanistiska doktorandrådet, 2011–2013.
• Member of Humanistiska doktorandrådet's nominating committee, spring term 2013.
• Representative of the department in Humanistiska doktorandrådet, 2011–2013.
• Humanistiska doktorandrådet's representative in FUGA (The Faculty Board of Education), 2011–2013.
• Representative in the Faculty of Languages' Gender Equality Group, 2011–2013.

PhD theses supervision

Main supervisor for

• Lisa Vikström, 2022–: Vem har rätt till ortnamnen? Ortnamnsvård 1964–2021
• Julia Nordlöw, 2026–: Urbana binamn: variation, funktion och konsumtion

Co-supervisor for

• Birger Mård, 2022–: Fornsvenska binamn i ett socialt perspektiv

Research

Ongoing projects

PI of the Circus project Swedish baby names for data-driven modelling of cultural and linguistic change (Circus, UU), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

Digitization of the West Norse Manuscripts in Swedish Collections (Riksbankens jubileumsfond, IN21-0003), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

Project leader: Lasse Mårtensson

Swedifying the other: place-name policymaking in the large-scale cadastral maps of the Swedish Empire (Riksbankens jubileumsfond, P20-0105), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

Project leader: Alexandra Petrulevich

Norse perception of the world: A mapping and analysis of foreign place names in medieval Swedish and Danish texts, Department of Scandinavian languages, Uppsala university, a three year digital humanities infrastructure project (2017–2020). Project leader: Jonathan Adams

Responsibilities:

• Project leader for a network project within spatial humanities, GIS for language study (LanGIS)
• Responsible for communication cooperation with the Uppsala University's IT Department
• Responsible for design input for a database and a website for external users
• Responsible for excerpting location based data from medieval Old Swedish manuscripts
• Responsible for social media

Finished projects

NOS-HS project Linking, Building and Sustaining Humanities Digital Spatial Infrastructures for Research in the Nordic Countries (NOS-HS, 345105), Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University

Project leader: Alexandra Petrulevich

GIS for language study (LanGIS), Faculty of Languages, Uppsala University, a two year network initiative within spatial humanities (2017–2019). As a project leader I have main responsibility for:

• planning and carrying out of the network's activities
• project's economy and administration
• communication between the network's members and other actors at Uppsala University and other universities

Research interests

• Digital humanities in general and spatial humanities in particular
• Spatiality in Scandinavian Viking Age and medieval material
• Development of name politics in Sweden (at the time of the Swedish Empire and later)
• History of Scandinavian and Germanic languages and language change through language contact
• Onomastics (name research), especially contact onomastics, name replication and name adaptation
• Scandinavian philology and Old Icelandic sagas
• Runology