Fatos Tarifa

Dr. Fatos Tarifa (born 1954) is a social scientist and a former diplomat from Albania. He served as Albanian ambassador to the Netherlands (1998–2001) and to the United States (2001–2005). Currently he is Director of the European University of Tirana Institute of Social and Policy Studies. Tarifa 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, such as Duke University, Stanford University, New York University, Harvard University, Brown University, University of California at Berkeley, Tufts University, University of Essex, University of Amsterdam etc. Tarifa has authored, co-authored and edited 30 books and numerous articles on political science, sociology, and international relations. 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 and a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Tirana. 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.

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

• Lucas, Peter (2007), "Foreword", in Tarifa, Fatos, To Albania, with Love, Hamilton Books, ISBN 978-0-7618-3590-5 .
• Heyns, Barbara (2003), "Introduction", in Tarifa, Fatos, Social Problems of Transition, Smiet, ISBN 90-806178-5-7 .