Danai Gkorla was born and raised in the northwest of Greece, in the countryside near a small town called Ioannina. From a young age, she enjoyed outdoor activities and martial arts. Soon, she discovered she had a passion for storytelling and started exploring various forms of it. From writing to photography, there were many media that contributed to the exploration of sharing/telling stories. Storytelling meant having a voice and expressing it, for oneself and everyone else was invited to partake.

Growing up in a bilingual environment, she further got exposed to the world of languages, which would open many doors in the future and introduce her to the fascinating world of other cultures around the world and their histories. As a Greek, she has a strong connection to her heritage, but she also feels like part of a bigger culture that connects all humans together around the globe, across continents and oceans.

Danai moved to Bremen, Germany, to pursue a bachelor’s degree at the university. Her major was cultural studies, and her minor was a combination of film and media studies. During her time at the university, she tried to follow her other passions as well and took courses in physics, theater, psychology, and more. The bachelor’s program provided a great amount of writing opportunities on diverse subjects, such as historical, political, and anthropological ones, but she also got to write texts of an analytical nature, such as book reviews and film analyses.

Research was also a big part of Danai’s studies, not only in front of a screen and over books’ pages but also outside among people. An example of an ethnographic project she conducted was one on a topic of her own choosing. The final research report bore the title ‘The Comfort of Cemeteries in a Period of Grief: A Journey Through Time.’ The paper was about if and how cemeteries can contribute positively to a person’s grieving process. Danai conducted interviews with people that felt ready to share their personal experiences and thoughts. This was a very important project, because not only did it change Danai’s perspective on cemeteries, it also taught her a lot of important things about the subject of grief and how it can be dealt with. Besides that, the significance of places providing emotional support was a very interesting topic to explore.

During her studies at the university, Danai had, of course, also the chance to learn a lot about one of her other passions: cinema. Films belong to a special kind of storytelling, in her view. Films bring together the visual and written sides of stories, and they create something unique: an unforgettable experience. Danai thinks every kind of film genre is worth watching, but her favorite kinds are the ones that combine grand visuals and colors with emotional storytelling. Films that explore the relationship of the characters with each other but also with specific aspects of their lives; a multilayered approach to life that does justice to the complexities as well as simplicities humans go through.

Towards the end of the studies, Danai did an internship at a local magazine in Bremen, where she learned a lot of new things and familiarized herself with the newsroom as a workplace. During this time, she realized that journalism is a field that she definitely wanted to pursue further in the future and hopefully make a career out of. Danai’s bachelor’s thesis bears the title ‘Nature-Related Storytelling in the Past and Today: Cultural Shifts and Changes in the Human-Nature Relationship.’ She decided to combine her love for nature and stories with her interest in history, culture, archaeology, and research and write about their different aspects and how they all come together.

Danai currently lives between Germany and Greece and is eager to move to and explore more places in the coming years.