Kristina Eiviler joined the URPP Language and Space in April 2019.

Interactions, Objects, Spaces: Interdisciplinary approach to vernacular practices in public places

In my research, I apply EMCA methodology on the ethnographical data, to analyze the cross-cultural phenomenon of interaction between people and publicly venerated objects, along with the spacial modifications that emerge as a result of these interactions.
The commonly seen form of the indicated phenomenon is: people touching specific parts of the statues, or stones, for luck. Nonetheless, this phenomenon can attain significantly complex expressions, such as accomplishing more engaging physical contact with the object (sitting, standing, lying, bowing to the object, etc), incorporating other objects to the venerated object (food, flowers, coins, notes, etc), constructing new discourses about the place or institutionalizing it (making it a public facility, organizing touristic venues, etc). Given that these objects are a part of the public landscape and that the interactions occur in mundane settings, the human-object, human-human and the spatial dimensions of the interactions are strongly entangled. Therefore, I examine the embodied forms of the behavior and the semiotic resources of the space which are being activated through these encounters and which might differentiate ritual(ized) from everyday actions. My focus in on naturally-occurring interactions, namely object-cantered sequences and sequences of distinctive spatial practices. I analyze how participants moderate their trajectories, postures, gestures, how they interact with the object and through the object, how the dynamics of these interactions re-shapes spacial dimensions.
In order to answer the research questions, I include disciplines such as linguistic anthropology, material culture studies, sensory anthropology, popular culture studies, urban studies. The data I am currently working on consists of video recordings, audio recordings, photographs, texts and interviews. The significant part was collected in Russia, in the Moscow Metro station “Revolutionary square” with the 76 human-size bronze statues; in the Moscow park Kolomenskoe, with the Gus stone – male stone and the Deviy stone – female stone, and in Pereslavl-Zalessky (Yaroslavl Region), which, thought the years, became a pilgrimage hot-spot due to the Synyi stone, located there.

Supervisor: PD Dr. Klaus Wolfgang Kesselheim

Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Tschofen

Funding Source: URPP Language and Space

• Multimodal interaction analysis
• Anthropology of religion
• AI, robotics, religion, and spirituality
• Linguistic anthropology
• Video-based research and eye tracking
• Spatial theories
• Theater and performance studies

Best Student Paper Award: Eiviler, K. (2023). "The Silence in the crowd: How visitors of venerated places display and make the self-focused state of non-talk accountable to the others" International Conference on Conversation Analysis (ICCA), Brisbane, Australia. Best Student Paper Award.

Winner of the 4th Global Science Film Festival, category: Scientists-as-Filmmakers. “Who is (not) Swiss?” (2020, 4`4``, language Swiss German). Team: Kristina Eiviler (UZH), Petra Sidler (FHNW & NCCR – on the move) and Monika Molnar (UZH).

Conferences

Eiviler, K. (2023). "To Be or Not to Be Blessed? A Case Study on Human – BlessU-2 Robot Interactional Practices" 20th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR), Vilnius, Lithuania. 

Eiviler, K. (2023). "The Silence in the crowd: How visitors of venerated places display and make the self-focused state of non-talk accountable to the others" International Conference on Conversation Analysis (ICCA), Brisbane, Australia. Best Student Paper Award. 

Eiviler, K (2022). “The body and the object: Exploring the cultural phenomena of touching statues in public spaces” Annual conference of the Language and Social Interaction Working Group (LANSI), Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA.

Eiviler, K (2022). “Achieving Spirituality? Interactional linguistics and the spatial turn”. 19th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions, Cork, Ireland.

Eiviler, K (2021). “Bodies in Action: What Can Multimodality Tell Us about the Resilience of Vernacular Religious Practices”. 18th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (IAHR Regional Conference), Pisa, Italy.

Eiviler, K. (2019). "The Touch of Luck: A Case Study on the Practices of Touching
Monuments in Public Spaces in Moscow." 17th Annual Conference of the European
Association for the Study of Religions (EASR), Tartu, Estonia.

Eiviler, K. (2019). "Monuments and the Places of Veneration in Moscow: Commemoration, Rituals, Mythology." 19th International School in Folkloristics and Cultural Anthropology, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia.

Eiviler, K. (2018). “`Взято – проклято`. Представления о скрытом сокровище:
мифические хранители и способы получения ” (`Seized-Cursed` the Idea of the Hidden Treasure – Mythical Keepers and the Ways of Getting the Treasure). V International Conference Demonology as Semiotic System. Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia.

Eiviler, K. (2018). “Ritual and Theatre: Anthropology of the ‘Theatre of the Oppressed”. II International Scientific Conference Anthropology of Everything for 10 minutes. Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia.

Eiviler, K. (2018). “К вопросу о переводе драматургических текстов на примере пьесы Ивана Вырыпаева `УФО`” (Towards the Problematics of a Theatre Drama Translation, on the example of the Translation of Ivan Vyrypaev`s Drama the `NLO`). III International Scientific Conference for Students Translation – an Object of Scientific Research. Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia.
* Award: winner in the category “The most original and innovative topic”.

Eiviler, K. (2018). “Легенда о невесте из Елашници” (The Legend of the Bride of
Jelasnica). International Conference of the Young Scientists Folklore and Cultural
Anthropology Today. Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia.

Eiviler, K. (2015). “О нестајању `повлашћених простора`, или: концепција простора у савременим словенским драмама породичне тематике] (: On the Disappearance of the “Privileged Space”, or: The Concept of Space in the Contemporary Slavic Plays Dealing with the Theme of Family). International Conference for Students of Comparative Literature – Prva stran. Faculty of Philosophy, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Eiviler, K. (2015). “Сатана као антихерој у савременој руској, српској и хрватској
књижевности” (Satan as an (Anti)Hero in the Contemporary Russian, Serbian and Croatian Literature). International Conference for Students of Slavic Studies – Jučer, danas, sutraslavistika. Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia.

Congresses

Eiviler, K (2021). «Там камни копают!»: к вопросу конструирования сакрализованного пространства в вернакулярных практиках.(“They Dig Stones There!”: Towards the Question of Construction of Sacralized Space in Vernacular Practices). 14th Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia (online). Tomsk (Russia).

Eiviler, Kristina (2019). "От ужаса к смеху: К прагматике демонологических преданий о тенцах на примере нарративов Тимокского района восточной Сербии." (“From Horror to Laughter: Towards Pragmatics of Demonological Stories about Tenci on the Example of Timok Region in the East Serbia”)13th Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia. Kazan (Russia).

Colloquia

Eiviler, K (2022). “Exploring the Agency of Venerated Objects: Concepts, Practices, Ecologies” Colloquium of the Postdoc and PhD students, ISEK - Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Eiviler, K (2021). “Performing the silence and making it accountable: co-creating the norm in vernacular practices with stones”. Data session at the University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Eiviler, K & Kesselheim, W (2021). “Input: Blind spots in current research on linguistic landscapes”. Workshop "Linguistic landscapes - Schwerpunkt Schweiz/Languages in CH". URPP Language and Space Colloquium. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Eiviler, K (2021). “The Spaces of Veneration. Linguistic Aspects of the Landscape Appropriation in the Cases of Central Russia and Central Switzerland”. URPP Language and Space colloquium. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Eiviler, K (2020). “Cross-Cultural Analysis of Interaction between People and
Unconventional Places and Objects of Veneration”. Colloquium of the Postdoc and PhD students, ISEK - Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Eiviler, K (2019). "Analysing Interaction between People, Objects and Places of Veneration" ZuSaM Colloquium (University of Zurich, University of Salzburg, University of Munich). Georg-von-Vollmar-Akademie e.V., Kochel am See, Germany.

Panels

"Robot Priests: Religion, Ritual and Spirituality under the Lens of AI", Panel convenor with Raluca Mateoc (University of Geneva), at the 20th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR), Vilnius, Lithuania. 

Education

Exchange studies

Research visits

Summer schools

Workshops

“SPEAK UP! Session on Decolonizing, decapitalizing, and decompartmentalizing Academia” (2021). Samira Ibnelkaid (PostDoc at the University of Oulu, Finland) and Kristina Eiviler (role: organizer, presenter, and moderator), University of Zurich, Switzerland.

“Video-based research” (2021). University of Oulu, Finland (online).

"Open Access and Audiovisual Sources" (2019), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Scholarships and grants

Digital competence

Basic R, Adobe Premier Pro CC, FinalCut, MAXQDA, EXMARaLDA, ELAN

Student positions and memberships

• Representative of Postdocs and Doctoral Students at the Steering Committee of the URPP Language and Space (Jan 2021-Jan 2022).
• Member of the CORE-ILCA
• Member of the Lecturers Without Borders
• Member of the Zurich English-Speaking Theater

Translations

Films

Languages

Serbian (native); English, Russian (fluent); Spanish, Slovenian, German (intermediate); Polish, French, Finnish, Turkish (elementary).