| Project Detail |
Expertise and specialised workforce in communist Albania
Between 1955 and 1978, the Albanian communist regime leveraged transnational educational networks to enhance workforce specialisation. The MSCA-funded Expertise project delves into Albania’s Cold War-era educational networks, utilising archives from Albania, China, Italy and East Germany, along with interviews, to delve into the impact of educational exchanges on Albania’s economy and workforce during the same period. The project posits that an examination of these educational networks and the circulation of expertise would enhance our understanding of Albania’s communist regime in the 1960s. This project aims to investigate how foreign expertise, technology and specialised workforce contributed to the development of economic and social institutions in Albania. The findings may also inform EU policies regarding the Balkans.
My research explores the educational networks of Albania during the Cold War. Using several archives from Albania, China, Italy, and East Germany, as well as conducting interviews, the research investigates in what ways educational exchanges impacted Albania’s economic policies and the formation of an adequate specialised workforce from 1955 to 1978 when hundreds of students were sent abroad to pursue university studies. Albania’s communist past has been little studied. This project proposal contends that studying educational networks and expertise circulation would provide a complete understanding of the communist regime of Albania during the 1960The overall research objective of this proposal is to understand the impact of the educational networks and expertise circulation in Albania’s economic policies from 1955 to 1978. The project is expected to have a major impact in the field of East European transnational networks during the Cold War, and Albania’s communist history as it will explore for the first time the importance of access to foreign expertise and technology, as well as the education of specialized workforce in the building of economic and social institutions in Albania. Historical studies may contribute to the European Union’s adopting adequate policies towards the Balkans – an important task in light of recent events in Eastern Europe with the war in Ukraine. In the meanwhile, the new scientific skills in reading and processing political documents as well as learning didactics in the European Union, together with research methodologies acquired through the two-years’ training at the Department of East and Southeast European History (GOSE), Ludwig Maximilien University (LMU), under the supervision of Prof. Mari-Janine Calic, will allow me to foster my academic profile as a regional expert in East and Southeast European studies, thus increasing my chances to continue my career in academia by becoming a research leader in the field of Cold War in Europe. |
