Viktoria Basham

Education

University of Virginia, PhD, Slavic Languages and Literatures, 2017
University of Virginia, MA, Slavic Languages and Literatures, 2012
Washington and Lee University, BA, Russian Area Studies, 2010

Areas of Expertise

Folklore
Honors education

Bio

I have over ten years of experience in higher education in faculty, advising, and administrative positions. In my current role I teach honors classes of various levels and subjects and serve as a faculty mentor for student research projects that have resulted in presentations and publications on an institutional, regional, and national level. In addition, I serve as the HONR 111 Program Director, the CHC Curriculum Committee Chair, and the faculty advisor for the Honors Ambassadors program. My fields of scholarly expertise and interest include folklore and honors education. I am the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Teaching/ Research Award for 2024-2025 and am fluent in three languages--English, Bulgarian, and Russian.

Research Interests
Teaching Philosophy

I am an advocate for dynamic, experiential, student-centered, and student-driven learning experiences that allow students to not only develop valuable lifelong transferrable skills but also to reflect on their own growth and change as learners, community members, and individuals. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are very important to me, and I do my best to provide students with diverse, equitable, and inclusive opportunities both in and out of the classroom to help them improve their overall academic success, physical and emotional wellbeing, and sense of belonging in the community.
Selected Publications

Basham, Viktoria (2025) Campus Legends and Mysteries: Building Institutional Identity through Campus Lore. vol. 21. pp. 31-39. Honors in Practice: A Publication of the National Collegiate Honors Council.
Web Address

Basham, Viktoria (2025) A Bloodthirsty Enemy or a Loving Father: The Dual Nature of the Rhodope Vampire as Depicted in the Bulgarian Folktale “Vampire at the Inn.”. no. 2. pp. 111-120. Europe and the Orient: Journal of Historical and Cultural Interactions.
Web Address

Basham, Viktoria (2025) Can a Plutenik Be the “Good Guy?”: Reworking Bulgarian Folkloric Beliefs in Vasil Popov’s Mamnik. no. 5. pp. 65-78. Library: Journal of Library and Information Sciences, Bibliography and Literary History.
Web Address
Current Courses
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Awards/Honors
Professional Memberships
Licensures and Certifications

Certificate in the Effective Teaching Practice Framework, The Association of College and University Educators

This certificate shows that I have demonstrated the comprehensive knowledge and skills that constitute the ACUE Effective Teaching Practice Framework.

Certificate of Completion: Fulbright Scholarship Program, The Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State

I received this certificate in recognition of my successful completion of the Fulbright Scholarship Program.

Certificate of Completion: Responsible Conduct of Research for Faculty Researchers, CITI Program and Salisbury University

This certificate recognized that I successfully completed the Responsible Conduct of Research for Faculty Researchers program.
Service Activities and Community Relations

Since October 2025 I have served as the HONR 111: Freshman Research Seminar Program Director. In this role I am responsible for communication, program development, instructor onboarding and alignment, and program assessment.
Since August 2025 I have served as the Clarke Honors College Curriculum Committee Chair. In this role I organize and lead all CHC Curriculum Committee meetings, prepare the agendas for each meeting, take detailed notes during the meetings, prepare the final copy of the notes after the meetings, serve as the Committees' Curriculog point person, regularly communicate with the other CHC Curriculum Committee members and share any necessary information and documents with them. I also communicate with campus stakeholders such as faculty and staff as needed.
I served as the Honors Student Association Faculty Advisor from August 2023 until April 2026 and have been serving as the Honors Ambassadors Faculty Advisor since April 2026. In these roles I have worked closely with the leadership bodies of these student organizations; have advised them on policies, rules, and procedures; have helped them with budget planning and distribution; and have assisted them with event planning, advertising, marketing, and recruitment.
External Collaboration Highlights

While I was in Sofia, Bulgaria as a Fulbright Teaching/ Research Sholar in 2025 I developed a strong and fruitful collaboration with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. I conducted research using their archives and museum objects and was invited to deliver a research talk at the Institute at the end of my Fulbright grant. As a Fulbright alumna it was important to me to continue my collaboration with the Institute after my return to the US. In the fall of 2025, I collaborated with the Clarke Honors College and the Fulton School at Salisbury University to invite my Fulbright mentor Dr. Nikolai Vukov, a distinguished folklorist from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences to Salisbury University for a series of public talks and classroom lectures. Dr. Vukov accepted the invitation and will be visiting Salisbury University in mid-November 2026.
Press Releases
1. Six from SU Earn Prestigious Fulbright Student Awards
  Monday, July 13, 2026
2. Lankford Earns SU's First Fulbright UK Summer Institute Award
  Wednesday, April 10, 2024
3. SU's Basham, Habermeyer Named 2024-25 Fulbright Scholars
  Monday, March 25, 2024

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