I am currently engaged in three different projects involving research: “The Question Project”, which involves helping professors understand the importance of teaching students the art of asking questions for knowledge, dialogue, and critical thinking. I am also working with a committee of professors on the importance of healthcare in rural communities in South Carolina. Finally, I am writing a book on sermons I have preached over the years as a minister.

What is your go-to website for news and analysis? 

I honestly get a lot of my news from CNN and the internet; but when I want to know the depths of what is being said, I research it for myself in more reputable publications (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, scholarly journals and historic materials when applicable, etc.)

Do you have a writing routine? 

I have never written well at home. My usual writing routine includes a trip to the campus library with my laptop, some snacks, my research/academic materials, and a fan (I need the noise of the fan to block out everything around me and to keep me cool since I tend to stay hot). That is how I create my OSE – Optimal Study Environment.

What was the worst advice you have been given? 

The worst advice I’ve been given is to stay in a relationship when my gut is telling me to run for my life!

Have you ever been inspired by a student? If so, how? 

I was on the campus of UW-Madison one Saturday morning years ago to recruit for a program called INROADS. It was the middle of a Wisconsin winter, so it was around -10 to -15 degrees that morning. Only one student showed up – a female student from Jamaica! Her determination to defy the odds and show up has always forced me to respect and admire her. She eventually graduated with a double degree in Accountancy and MIS and to this day she refers to me as her mentor and we keep in touch.

Name one thing that you would do if you were not a professor? 

Be a full-time pastor

Describe Balkan in three words 

Historic, Exquisite, Proud

Would you share with us something you would never put in your CV? 

My favorite comic book character is the Scarlet Witch

Currently, I am looking into the repatriation of children in the Balkans after the Great War. As a result of constant fighting between 1912 and 1918, many children were lost or displaced in the contested lands between Bulgaria, Greece, and Macedonia, and I am trying to trace their faith. Some were orphans, others fled with the armies, still others got married or recruited as labor. I want to reconstruct the stories of these children and families.

What is your go-to website for news and analysis?

BBC News and New York Times for international news; Balkan Insight for regional news.

Do you have a writing routine?

I write in bursts. I allocate 2 days a week and try to write for 4-5 hours each day. But it doesn’t always work, especially if I have a lot of teaching or administrative tasks. For this reason, I write during my breaks.

What was the worst advice you have been given?

I wish I had studied more modern languages! I studied Latin, Ancient Greek, and Old Church Slavonic in high school, but I wish I had learnt German instead.

Have you ever been inspired by a student? If so, how?

I constantly learn from students: I ask for reading and viewing recommendations, inquire about their opinions on politics and arts, share humorous stories with them. I believe the interaction with students in a two-way process of learning, not just the professor imparting knowledge. I am constantly delighted and surprised by the wisdom of young people.

Name one thing that you would do if you were not a professor?

I can see myself as an attorney, but I am glad I am a professor!

Describe Balkan in three words

Small distances. Beautiful nature. Curious people.

A phenomenon called “Kvas Patriotism” as reflected in Russian literature. Also the representation of war in the films of Sergei Loznitsa. 

What is your go-to website for news and analysis? 

Meduza (particularly the podcasts that show an “internal” independent-thinking Russia) 

Do you have a writing routine? 

Best is to read and gather notes, then go to a college library space where I turn off my cell phone and wifi and organize my thoughts on the computer. 

What was the worst advice you have been given? 

Stay away from urban areas (from my father, but I ignored him!) 

Have you ever been inspired by a student? If so, how? 

I am humbled when I see how my students turn out, especially those who work in NGOs. 

Name one thing that you would do if you were not a professor? 

I could work for a newspaper, I think. 

Describe Balkan in three words 

Warm, clever, complicated! 

Would you share with us something you would never put in your CV? 

Studied abroad as a 16 year old one summer in Brazil 

Much of the literature on media development in the West Balkans has focused on the transition to democracy and the role of what is almost always described as the “legendary” radio station B92. I hope to expand my research into media in developing democracies by looking specifically at the case of B92 and its relationship to the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF)’s innovative model of media assistance.

What is your go-to website for news and analysis?

New York Times and Washington Post

Do you have a writing routine?

The best advice I ever got about writing I read many years ago while working on my doctoral dissertation: try to write for two hours every day. Even if you feel that you are getting nothing done, you are still thinking about and engaged with your topic. Some days you will write for much more than two hours, but if two hours is your minimum and your objective, it is manageable.

What was the worst advice you have been given?

I’m hoping to finish up a book manuscript based on my dissertation about humanitarian psychiatry and trauma in postwar Sarajevo; I’ve also been doing a little light research about the pandemic’s impacts on mental health and care-seeking in the region.

What is your go-to website for news and analysis?

In full awareness of their limitations, I tend to get my basic news from the New York Times and the Washington Post; I go to the New Yorker and the Atlantic for deeper analysis. Ed Yong, a Pulitzer-prize winning science journalist for the Atlantic, has been a guiding light for understanding the politics and inequalities of COVID over the last two years.

Do you have a writing routine?

If I need to get some serious writing done, I tend to need to get up early in the morning — not usually my routine — and have several hours of quiet focus before the world and my email inbox get active. I spread my materials out around me a little chaotically, close all other programs on my computer, and face the blank page until my mind starts to get muddy. Classical music or a walk with my dog are both helpful when I get a little stuck. I need total quiet and no distractions — cafes don’t work!

What was the worst advice you have been given?

This is a tough one! Good advice is easier to recall. Honestly I think I’m lucky to have mostly received good advice along the way. My PhD mentor, medical anthropologist Joao Biehl, once told me with regard to writing: “You have to slay your imaginary masters.” Totally true.

Have you ever been inspired by a student? If so, how?

My work over the last decade has been in heavy teaching positions, including lots of courses during the academic year and supervision of a summer school for American undergraduates in Serbia and BiH. This has been both a blessing and a curse, but above all such a gift to rise to the sacred duty of passing the torch on to new generations in hopes of a better world. I have had so many incredible and inspiring students between the two institutions I’ve worked for (Princeton and Northwestern), and watching them grow — and feeling my contribution to that growth — is a big part of what keeps me going. My students from working class and non-white backgrounds inspire me the most — they face the longest odds and pay a high cost for their resilience, but their determination to get what they deserve from powerful institutions and to channel those resources toward real transformation can be totally exhilarating. One of my most amazing students was one of my first, Raphael Frankfurter, a pre-medical anthropology major at Princeton. I took him and a few other undergraduates to rural Sierra Leone each year to support and study a small medical humanitarian NGO there in the years leading up to the Ebola outbreak. He was hard-working, brilliant, and a natural anthropologist, picking up the local language, building extraordinary community relationships, and conducting important research about community health needs. He went on to run community health worker programs for Partners in Health (Paul Farmer’s global health NGO) at the age of 23 during Ebola. After that he enrolled at UC-Berkeley for a dual MD-PhD (anthropology), and will surely go on to be a leader in the fight against global health inequities. His trajectory has pushed me to sustain my faith in the value of critical social science and ethnography, and to hang on to my hope that our societies might truly become less cruel some day.