NCCS Founding Members

Currently works as a Full-time Professor at The Institute for Macedonian Literature (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje). Her specific areas of research interest include: Cultural Studies, Macedonian and Comparative Literature, Theory of Literature, Media and Gender Studies. Her teaching focus at the Graduate Program in Cultural Studies is centered on the following subjects (or courses): Introduction to Cultural Studies, Imagology, Gender and Culture, Globalization and Culture, and Academic Writing. She also teaches Macedonian Language, and The Basics of Proof-Reading and Writing at the State University of Tetovo. Her publications include: An Open Circle (The Poetics of the Novels of Tashko Georgievski, 1997), A Mirror of the Discourse (2000), The Fantastic and the Macedonian Novel (2001), Allegory, the Grotesque and the Macedonian Novel (2002), Literature and Transition (2008). Textbooks: Reformed High School Education: Macedonian Language and Literature for the 4th Year Student (co-author), (2004), Comparative Literature (for the 4th Year of the Reformed High School Education as an Elective Subject) (co-author), Skopje: (2004). She helms several national and international projects, currently including: COST project, IS0703, The European Research Network on Learning to Write Effectively (ERN-LWE) (2009-2012), Literacy Development in the Humanities (LIDHUM), University of Zurich (Switzerland) (2011-2013), COST project IS1007, Investigating Cultural Sustainability (2011-2014), and the Macedonian Historical Novel (Institute for Macedonian Literature). She is a member of the following professional associations: The Association of Comparative Literature of Macedonia and The Macedonian Writers’ Association. Her social and professional functions include: Director of the Institute for Macedonian Literature (2005-2011), Member of the Rector Board of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University-Skopje (2004-2009), Member of the Council of the International Seminar of Macedonian Language, Literature and Culture (2004-2011), Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Spectrum (Volumes 47 and 48), Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Culture, President of the Council of the Institute for Macedonian Literature (2002-2004).

Full Professor at the Institute for Macedonian Literature, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia. He teaches Cultural Studies: Topics and Methods, Post-Colonial Theory, as well as Theatre and Its audience. Holds two PhD degrees in theory of the theatre, the first obtained at the Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts RATI-GITIS in Moscow (1999), and the second at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (2003). His fields of research interest include: Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Identity, Cultural Memory, Culture and Politics, as well as Theatrical Theory. Is the head researcher of “The Macedonian Literature Data Base”; Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Spektar (2010-2012); Member of the Macedonian Writers’ Association. Has published the following monographs: (1993) From an Original Idea to the Creation of a State (co-authored with Jovan Pavlovski); (1996) Macedonia: Yesterday and Today (co-authored with Jovan Pavlovski); (1998) Pure Play: Biomechanics in the Theatre System of V. E. Meyerhold; (2005) Theatre and Myth. Participates in the preparation of “MI-AN Encyclopedia” (MI-AN, 2006). Has participated in the following projects: “Macedonian Theater in the Context of the Balkan Theater Sphere” (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, 2003-06). Honored with The Mito Hadzi Vasilev-Jasmin State Award for the book “Macedonia Yesterday and Today“ (co-authored with Jovan Pavlovski)(1997) and with the collective award Goce Delchev for the publication Macedonian Theater in the Context of the Balkan Theater Sphere (2003).

Lecturer at Departement of Cultural studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia. Her PhD tesis was titled “Localisation of the global. Interpretations of television programmes in comparative perspective” (2005). Among numerous conferences she attends, several most significant are: “Space and time in culture”, at the international conference «Macedonian identity: literature, language, history, culture» at the University «Sts Ciryl and Methodius» in Skopje (Macedonia) (2011); «Creation of symbolic social spaces in matrix of contested territories”, at the Festival of science in Rijeka (Croatia) (2010); “Projection of symbolic spaces into contested places”, at the international conference “From place to non-place: interdisciplinary approaches to space and culture” at Institute of ethnology and folklore research in Zagreb (Croatia) (2009) etc. Selected bibliography: (2012) “Avanture culture. Kulturalni studiji u lokalnom kontekstu” (Adventures of Culture. Cultural Studies in Local Context) (eds: Sanja Puljar D’Alessio and Nenad Fanuko). Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk; (2012) «Kultura kao emergentno svojstvo otjelovljene spoznaje» (Culture as a feature of emergency of embodied cognition) in Avanture kulture. Kulturalni studiji u lokalnom kontekstu (with Benedikt Perak). Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk; (2011) «Construction of a Place in Ethnographic Film», Kontekst 9/2011: 139-151; (2011) «Projekcija simboličkih prostora u sporna mjesta. Mostar» (Projection of symbolic spaces into contested places. Mostar) in Mjesto, nemjesto. Interdisciplinarna promišljanja prostora i kulture. (Place, Non-place. Interdisciplinary rethinking of space and culture). Čapo, Jasna i Gulin Zrnić, Valentina, eds. Zagreb: Biblioteka nova etnografija: 227-242; (2006) «Dom, teren i nešto treće: o etnografiji televizijskih gledateljstava» (Home, field and something third) u Etnologija bliskoga. Poetika i politika suvremenih terenskih istraživanja (Ethnology of proximate. Peotics and politics of field research) Čapo Žmegač, Jasna et al., ed. Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk i IEF, 97-116; (2003) «Vplev snemanja na krajevno šego” (Impact of filming on a local custom), “Glasnik Slovenskega Etnološkega Društva” 43/1,2, 58-61, Celje; (2003) “Le realtà del carnevale espresse dal film etnografico” (Realities of the carnival expressed by ethnographic film), “Quaderni ISSM”, Istituto di Studi sulle Società del Mediterraneo, 33, Napoli(2002) “Etnografski film u odnosu na etnografsko pismo” (Ethnographic film vs. written ethnigraphy), “Narodna umjetnost”, Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research, 39/2, 33-51, Zagreb. Filmography: (2007) «Around Mostar, The Bridge and Bruce Lee». With Vanni D’Alessio; (2001) Pescatori di Mergellina – (Fishermen from Mergellina)

Assistant at the Department of Cultural Studies, the Faculty of Philosophy, the University of Rijeka (Croatia). His courses include: Spirituality and Culture; Transcultural Religion; Language, Thought and Culture; Cognitivism and Cultural Studies; Thematic Strongholds in Cultural Studies. Author of the following text: Opojmljivanje emocionalnih kategorija. Kognitivnolingvistički pristup (Terming Emotional Categories. The Cognitive-linguistic Approach). Publishes scientific studies both in Croatia and abroad. Works as a translator. Studies abroad: The Institute for Oriental Research, Ecolle de l’extreme Orient Pondycherry; The Institute for Sanskrit Literature, Adyar; The Faculty for Classical Indian Languages and Literature, University of Madras. Edits the website of the Linguistic School of Classic Tamil (http://www.efeo.fr/ctws). His duties at the Faculty of Philosophy also include: Coordinator for the ERASMUS programme and ECTS Coordinator for the Department of Cultural Studies (since 2010); Academic Associate for building e-learning capacities. Presides over the non-profit organization “Yoga Recreation Association”, in Rijeka, which includes organizing practical and theoretical yoga courses for the greater public. As owner and manager of Ars-Lingua Zagreb, carries out the following duties: translation and editing of theoretical books in the area of humanities, economics and marketing; organizing Hindu language courses; organizing Sanskrit language and Sanskrit literature and culture courses. Served as President of the Department of Culture of the Croatian-Indian Friendship Association. Wrote for The National Geographic (articles in the area of Indian Studies).

Associate professor at the Department for History and Theory of Culture, University of Sofia. Following an MA in Philosophy, she has got a PhD in Sociology from the University of Sofia. She has been visiting professor at the University of Firbourg and fellow of Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, and Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin. Her research interests are in the field of oral history and anthropology of socialism and post-socialism, biographical and cultural memory, remediation of memory, biographical methods, social constructivism. She has published a monograph on the ‘normal life course’ in communist Bulgaria (Biography and Normality, 2002, in Bulgarian) and a number of book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed international journals. Last (co)edited volumes include: Negotiating Normality: Everyday Lives in Socialist Institutions (Transaction 2012) and 20 years after the Collapse of Communism: Expectations, achievements and disillusions of 1989 (Peter Lang 2011, ed. with N. Hayoz and L. Jesien). Her current work is on vernacular memory of socialism in Bulgaria, everyday ethnic identities and inter-ethnic tensions in mixed population regions (part of FP6 MICROCON project) and an AHRC/ESRC funded project on religious and secular life-course rituals in the UK, Romania and Bulgaria.

Full Professor for Cultural Studies at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; Head of the Centre for Cultural and Religious Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana; Coordinator of the doctoral program Balkan Studies. He was Head of the Department of Cultural Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana (2005-2007). He was visiting professor in European Institute, Columbia University, New York, 2008/2009 and in Centre for European Studies, Jagiellonian University, 2001/2002, 2002/2003. He was Research Fellow at NIAS, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities, Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts, Wassenaar, spring of 2012). He has Erasmus EuroMedia Awards (European Society for Education and Communication, ESEC, Vienna, 2008), as well as Award for important achievements in the pedagogical and research fields (University of Ljubljana, 2001). Dr. Velikonja was Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Rosemont College, Philadelphia (2004/2005) His main research areas are Balkan studies, studies of contemporary cultures, ethnic studies, study of contemporary ideologies, and memory studies. He has published a monographs: Velikonja, M. (2008, 2. edition 2009): Titostalgia – A Study of Nostalgia for Josip Broz; MediaWatch, Peace Institute; Ljubljana; 146 pages. (Serbian translation in 2010); Velikonja, M. (2005): Eurosis – A Critique of the New Eurocentrism; MediaWatch, Peace Institute; Ljubljana; 111 pages. (Serbian translation in 2007); Velikonja, M. (2003): Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Eastern European Studies, 20; Texas A&M University Press; College Station; Texas; 365 pages; Velikonja, M. (2008): co-editor of the double thematic issue of the Časopis za kritiko znanosti, Journal for the Critics of the Science, on street-art Veselo na belo – Grafiti and street art; No. 231/232; Velikonja, M. (1996): Masade duha: Razpotja sodobnih mitologij (Masadas of Mind: Crossroads of Contemporary Mythologies); ZPS; Ljubljana; 212 pages. – In Slovenian (with summary in English).

A senior lecturer at the Faculty of Letters of the West University of Timişoara. He currently teaches courses of Literary Theory, Modern Literary Theory and Cultural Studies, Romanian Literature, Hermeneutics, and Narratology. His research interests are in the fields of Literary and Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Romanian and Comparative Literature, Academic Writing and Multiliteracy. He is the author of Eugène Ionesco. Theatre, Metatheatre, Authenticity (Eugène Ionesco. Teatru, metateatru, autenticitate), Timişoara, West University of Timisoara Publishing House, 2006, and Introduction to Literary Studies, Iaşi, European Institute Publishing House, 2007, as well as of a number of studies focusing on various aspects of Literary and Cultural Studies, published in Romanian and international journals. He is a member of the Romanian Association of Comparative and General Literature (ALGCR) and editor of the Annals of West University of Timişoara. Philological Series.