IRENA VASSILEVA, PhD, is Professor of English and German linguistics. In 2006 she obtained the academic degree of Dr. phil Habil. from the University of Leipzig. She is author of Author-Audience Interaction. A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Sankt Augustin: Asgard Verlag. (2006), Academic Discourse Rhetoric and the Bulgarian - English Interlanguage. Sofia: Tip-top Verlag. (2002), Who is the author? (A contrastive analysis of authorial presence in English, German, French, Russian and Bulgarian academic discourse). Sankt Augustin: Asgard Verlag. (2000), as well as of a number of articles in international peer-reviewed journals. She is co-editor of The Digital Scholar: Academic Communication in Multimedia Environment (Forum für Fachsprachen-Forschung, vol. 153). Berlin: Frank & Timme Verlag. (2020). Irena Vassileva’s international experience includes: two Research Group Linkage Programme group projects financed by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation – 2017 – 2018, and 2013 – 2016, several research fellowships from the same foundation, as well as research fellowships from the Open Society Fund, the Canadian Government, DAAD, EEA (2010, 2012). She also worked as a Senior research fellow at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Vassileva has taught on various programmes at two Bulgarian universities, at the University of Bonn, Germany, as well as at six UK universities. She has delivered lectures and seminars in both English and German.