Born in Croatia, René grew up in Italy during the Yugoslav Wars. Bilingual by necessity, he became an avid language learner. Multilingual competence allowed him to live and connect to people’s stories across Croatia, Italy, India, Czechia, Canada, Argentina and finally South Africa.

Since 2017, as part of his dissertation in sociology at the University of Toronto, he has been exploring the potential of language in bridging long-standing class and racial divides.

He learnt Afrikaans to fluency and became involved with South African theatre and arts festivals. His ethnography focuses on the ways arts promote cultural change, refurbishing Afrikaans into a force of inclusivity, cultural restitution, and unity within South African multilingualism.

When not researching, he climbs mountains.