First Steps Towards Knowledge

As a Fulbright Student Researcher, I am affiliated with a local group or school as part of the rules of the grant. My affiliation in Skopje is with the Euro-Balkan Institute (I would link you to their website, but I can no longer access it as my virus soft-wear logs malicious attacks every time I attempt to access it, so I won’t link you to it so your computer doesn’t have any problems either).  They study gender, politics, the Balkans, history but only in postgraduate studies. I contacted one of their professors who had received a grant to teach in the US, Katerina Kolozova, who agreed to offer me affiliation with her Institute. They promised me many great NGO contacts, a computer, and office space! What they didn’t tell me was the wonderful library that they had that I could use!

I began soon after meeting with them to use their library and looking at a few of their really cool books. Unfortunately, you cannot take any of them out. So I just have to go there and spend hours just sitting in a library (in un-comfy chairs, by the way) and read the books. So, on this blog I will begin by summarizing some of it. I looked at many different books while at the Institute and will being to summarize them on here. In addition I will place information up about my individual meetings with NGOs (non-governmental organizations, in case you didn’t know).

To show you exactly what I will be researching, and in the spirit of open research, I will post my Personal Statement as well as my Statement of Purpose from my Fulbright Application. That way you can get a better understanding of what I will be attempting to research here.