Dr. Fatos Tarifa is a social scientist

Social Scientist

Social Scientist is a New Delhi based journal in social sciences and humanities published since 1972....

 and a former diplomat from Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

. He served as Albanian ambassador to the Netherlands (1998–2001) and to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (2001–2005). Currently he is Director of the European University of Tirana

European University of Tirana

The European University of Tirana is a private university in Tirana, Albania. It was established in 2006 by six Albanian intellectuals: the four academics, Adri Nurellari, Blendi Kajsiu, Ermal Hasimja and Henri Çili; the manager Laert Duraj and the journalist Robert Rakipllari.UET has been...

 Institute of Social and Policy Studies. Tarifa has taught and conducted research at the University of Tirana

University of Tirana

The University of Tirana is a public university located in Tirana, Albania.-History:UT was founded in 1957 as the State University of Tirana through the merging of five existing institutes of higher education, the most important of which was the Institute of Sciences, founded in 1947...

, the Institute of Social Studies

Institute of Social Studies

The International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague is a unique, independent and international graduate school in the social sciences...

 at The Hague, Webster University

Webster University

Webster University is an American non-profit private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Webster University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools...

 (Leiden, the Netherlands), Campbell University

Campbell University

Campbell University is a coeducational, church-related university in rural North Carolina, USA. Its main campus is located in the community of Buies Creek; its law school moved from Buies Creek to a new campus in the state capital of Raleigh in 2009. Campbell has an approximately equal number of...

, the University of North Carolina

University of North Carolina

Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...

 at Chapel Hill, and Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti is west of Detroit and eight miles east of Ann Arbor. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School...

 and he has delivered lectures at institutions of higher education throughout the world, such as Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

, Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, University of California at Berkeley, Tufts University

Tufts University

Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

, University of Essex

University of Essex

The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

, University of Amsterdam etc. Tarifa has authored, co-authored and edited 30 books and numerous articles on political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

, sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

, and international relations

International relations

International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

. His books and articles have covered topics ranging from democratic transition and social issues in Eastern Europe to Human development, and current international affairs. In 1998 he became the founding Editor of "Sociological Analysis", an innovative, international scholarly journal published at Chapel Hill, NC. He serves as a member of the International Advisory Board of the "Journal of Social Sciences" and the "Journal of Applied Social Science". 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. He is widely considered to be "the founder of sociological studies in Albania, and one of the country's most prominent social scientists" (1). He has "already earned the title of father of Albanian sociology, a moniker he has generally resisted" (2).

Education

Tarifa has a double doctorate, with a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

 and a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Tirana

University of Tirana

The University of Tirana is a public university located in Tirana, Albania.-History:UT was founded in 1957 as the State University of Tirana through the merging of five existing institutes of higher education, the most important of which was the Institute of Sciences, founded in 1947...

. He has been, inter alia, a lecturer, a researcher and a distinguished visiting fellow since 1981, when he joined the School of Political Science and Law at the University of Tirana. In 1992 he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship at the Department of Sociology at UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...

.

Main Publications

• The First Decade and After (2000) – ISBN 90-6490-044-2;
• The Breakdown of State Socialism and the Emerging Post-Socialist Order (2001) – ISBN 90-6490-045-0;
• Culture, Ideology, and Society (2001) – ISBN 90-806178-2-2;
• The Quest for Legitimacy and the Withering Away of Utopia (2001) – ISBN 90-806178-3-0;
• The Balkans: A Mission neither Accomplished nor Impossible (2002) – ISBN 90-806178-1-4;
• To Albania, with Love (2007) – ISBN 0-7618-3590-3;
• Acrimonies of Transition: Private and Public (2007) – ISBN 1-933377-23-2;
• Europe Adrift on the Wine-Dark Sea (2007) – ISBN 978-0-9776662-8-7;
• Jeta shoqerore si eksperience sociologjike [Social Life as Sociological Experience] (2007) – ISBN 978-99943-44-20-8;
• Saga e dy kontinenteve [The Tale of Two Continents] (2007) – ISBN 978-99943-44-38-3;
• Vengeance is Mine: Justice Albanian Style (2008) – ISBN 978-0-9801896-0-5;
• Ftese ne sociologji [Invitation to Sociology] (2008) – ISBN 978-99943-44-73-4;
• Amerikanofobia dhe anti-amerikanizmi europian [Americanophobia and Anti-Americanism in Europe] (2008) – ISBN 978-99943-44-87-1;
• Europa e pabashkuar [Ununited Europe] (2009) – ISBN 978-99956-3-802-3;
• Paradigma e tranzicionit demokratik [The Paradigm of Democratic Transition] (2009) – ISBN 978-99956-3-824-5;
• Kaloresit e humbur te kryqezates anti-Kadare [The Defeated Warriors of the anti-Kadare Crusade] (2010) – ISBN 978-99956-3-841-2;
• Rilindja e Europes [Europe's Renaissance] (2010) – ISBN 978-99956-3-847-4;
• Fati i nje shekulli [The Fate of a Century] (2010) – ISBN 978-99956-3-851-1;
• Letters to America / Letra Amerikes (2011) – ISBN 978-99956-3-894-8;

Sources

..