Interview with LiDS Intern Laura Sajko

20 July 2026

Photo: Laura Sajko

Laura Sajko is a third-year PhD student in General linguistics at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University Prague, Czechia, and works as a teaching assistant at the Chair of Czech Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia. She joins LiDS as an intern for the month of July, where she is embedded in the AvH team, Language Diversity and Social Participation Across the Lifespan.

Welcome, Laura!

 Please tell us a little about your PhD

My PhD research focuses on communication in tourism, specifically interactions between Czech tourists visiting the Croatian seaside and Croatian locals. I approach this topic through the lens of Language Management Theory, examining how participants in conversations adapt and manage their language use in response to both internal and external factors.

 My research is qualitative in nature and is based mainly on interviews with Czech tourists and Croatian locals. Through these interviews, I explore their experiences of communicating with one another, with particular attention to language choice, strategies, and perceptions of successful or challenging interactions. I am also interested in the linguistic landscape of the Croatian seaside and the regional differences in the landscape since the differences can tell us a lot about the language repertoires of the tourists that visit a specific area.

Why did you choose to do an internship at Universität Hamburg?

As part of my PhD programme, I am required to complete an internship with a researcher whose work aligns with my own, which is, in my case, a researcher conducting qualitative research on multilingual communication. I was particularly drawn to Professor Piller and the LiDS Research Centre at the Faculty of Education. Professor Piller’s team is highly active in conducting qualitative research in migration contexts. While my work focuses more on ‘short-term’ migrations, I think that the opportunity to learn from their expertise will be highly valuable for the further development of my research as I find new ways to improve how I conduct my research and how I analyze the data I gain from it. 

What are you most looking forward to during your time in Hamburg?

I am most looking forward to gaining as much practical and theoretical insight as possible during my internship, as well as collaborating with and learning from other researchers. I am excited to participate in the Hamburg International Summer School, Literacies for Social Participation, as part of a really diverse group of learners. Most of the lecturers are from the University of Hamburg, so it will be a great way to learn more about the breadth of language-related research here. I will also be presenting my PhD project at the Doctoral Symposium, which is part of the summer school.   Of course I’m also looking forward to exploring the city of Hamburg and to ‘re-learning’ German in the process.

Do you have plans for after your PhD?

After completing my PhD, I hope to continue working at the Chair of Czech Language and Literature in Zagreb, since I very much enjoy teaching and interacting with students. I also intend to further develop my research on communication between different nationalities, particularly in the context of tourism in Croatia, with the aim of, hopefully, contributing to improved communication practices, for example, in the healthcare system. 

In addition, I am interested in expanding my research to include language use within Czech minority communities in Croatia, as well as the institutional dimension of language management within the Czech minorities, since Croatia is home to the largest Czech minority in Europe. This also includes examining how language use is shaped and regulated at the governmental level in general, especially in light of the increasing presence of migrant workers in Croatia.