Fatos Tarifa

Fatos Tarifa, a native of Albania, is currently Director of the Institute of Social and Policy Studies at the European University of Tirana. He holds a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Tirana and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Tarifa has served as Albania’s Ambassador to the Netherlands (1998-2201) and to the United States (2001-2005). He has taught and conducted research at the University of Tirana, the Institute of Social Studies at The Hague, Webster University (Leiden, the Netherlands), Campbell University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Eastern Michigan University and he has delivered lectures at institutions of higher education throughout the world. He is the recipient of several awards, including a Senior Fellowship with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Senior Fulbright Fellowship. He has authored, coauthored and edited numerous books and dozens of articles and chapters. At Chapel Hill, he edited an innovative, international scholarly journal, Sociological Analysis, which is now published under the auspices of the European University of Tirana. His main areas of interest are in political sociology, international relations, and social theory. Beyond these accomplishments, Dr. Tarifa will probably be best remembered as the leader of a campaign to introduce the discipline of sociology into higher education in Albania