Elvira Topalovic

Elvira Topalovic serves as Professor of German Language Didactics at the Institute of German Studies and Comparative Literary Science within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at University of Paderborn, holding a W3 professorship since April 2012. She directs the Deutsch-Treff initiative and maintains active leadership roles in major German academic organizations.

Her educational background includes a Magister Artium from the University of Cologne (1996), doctoral studies completed summa cum laude at the University of Cologne (2002), and earlier academic training at the University of Sarajevo where she earned certification as a German language and literature teacher for secondary schools (1988).

Professor Topalovic's research focuses on language acquisition processes, particularly examining written and spoken language development, grammar acquisition, orthography learning, and the intersection of multilingualism with educational settings. Her work increasingly addresses language inclusion practices and digital education methodologies, reflecting contemporary challenges in language teaching. She investigates how children develop causal reasoning in writing across primary school years and analyzes typographic aesthetics in children's literature interpretation.

Her current professional activities include serving as co-editor of the journal "Der Deutschunterricht," representing the Society for German Language Teaching in the German Council for German Orthography, and participating in the BMBF-funded "Communities of Practice NRW" project. She previously chaired the Society for University German Studies within the German Association of Germanists (2019-2022) and served as department head at Paderborn (2016-2019).

Professor Topalovic has held teaching and research positions at multiple German universities including Münster, Cologne, and Dortmund, with earlier academic roots at the University of Sarajevo where she worked as a teaching assistant in German language and literature during the late 1980s and early 1990s before relocating to Germany.