Sonya Yampolskaya (RUS/UK; Hebrew teacher, lecturer, researcher)

is a Hebraist interested in the sociolinguistics of Hebrew, which includes its history and the perception of it through the centuries as well its relationship with other languages, especially with Yiddish. Her PhD thesis combined core and sociolinguistic approaches to the development of Hebrew in the 19th century related to the concept of Hebrew revival in the 20th century. Currently, she is a researcher at the University College London (UK), working on Maskilic Hebrew (Hebrew of Jewish Enlightenment).

She studied semitology at St. Petersburg State University (BA, MA), researching Medieval Hebrew poetry, followed by studies of sociolinguistics and cultural anthropology at the European University of St. Petersburg (MA, PhD program). She also took part in research expeditions on Jewish anthropology in Ukraine and Moldova, advanced her knowledge at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and learned Yiddish in Vilnius and Tel Aviv.

She has  taught Modern Israeli Hebrew, Medieval and Ashkenazic Hebrew literature, lectured on Hebrew history and linguistics at St. Petersburg State University, at Research University Higher School of Economics and at different Jewish community centers and synagogues in St. Petersburg.