Professional Background
Sofija Grandakovska teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York (CUNY), in New York City. She received a PhD in general and comparative literature (2009) from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia. In 2009, Dr. Grandakovska was appointed assistant professor in the field of cultural political theory at the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities Research “Euro-Balkan” (Skopje). In 2014, she was named associate professor and senior scientific associate in cultural history by the Institute of National History at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. In 2025, she was promoted to full professor by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York. Additionally, Dr. Grandakovska previously held the Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim Family of Cologne Research Position for the Study of Racism and Anti-Semitism at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel, and was a Saul Kagan Scholar in Advanced Shoah Studies, supported by the Claims Conference.
Dr. Grandakovska is the author of four scholarly monographs: The Discourse of Prayer (Skopje: Premin, 2008), The Portrait of Image (Skopje: Galikul, 2010), The Akathistos Hymn in Word and Fresco (Skopje: Menora, 2017), and Miniatures and Maximums (Skopje: Kalamus, 2020). She has published two bilingual books of poetry in Macedonian and English, The Eighth Day (2005) and The Burning Sun (2009), and is the editor and co-author of the chrestomathy The Jews from Macedonia and the Holocaust (Skopje: Euro Balkan Press, 2011). Additionally, she co-curated “The Jews of Macedonia and the Holocaust,” an exhibition presented at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Skopje in 2011, and later at the Gallery of the Jewish Community in Belgrade in 2013.
Fellowship Research
As a Broadening Academia Initiative Hybrid Fellow, Dr. Grandakovska will conduct research for her project “The Italian Twofold Politics toward the Sephardim from Macedonia: From Diplomatic Protection to a Direct Means of Deportation to Treblinka II.” Her research examines Italy’s contradictory policy toward Macedonian Jews. While Italy provided a refuge in western Macedonia by ignoring antisemitic legislation and offering diplomatic protection to Italian citizens in Vardar Macedonia, its authorities simultaneously facilitated the deportation of Jews from Skopje to Treblinka II by permitting the Bulgarian-German authorities to use Italian-supervised railways in Kosovo. While at the Museum, Dr. Grandakovska will utilize materials concerning Macedonian Jews that were created by the German, Italian, and Bulgarian occupation authorities.
Residency Period: November 1, 2026 - April 30, 2027