Sofija Grandakovska

Sofija Grandakovska serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Her academic career spans both American and Macedonian institutions, with previous positions including Associate Professor/Senior Scientific Associate at SS Cyril and Methodius University's Institute of National History in Skopje and Assistant Professor at the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities Research 'Euro Balkan.'

Her educational background includes a PhD (2009), MA (2007), and BA (1999) from SS Cyril and Methodius University's Faculty of Philology 'Blaze Koneski,' Department of Comparative Literature in Skopje. She has taught courses such as Culture and Crime, which examines violence as a cultural concept through colonialism, war, and genocide, and Sex and Culture, exploring relationships between mythic, divine, and political concepts of sex and culture.

Grandakovska's research centers on Holocaust history in the Balkans and Yugoslavia, with specialized focus on Macedonian Jewish communities, Anthropology of Genocide, Comparative Genocide Studies, and Memory & Memorialization. Her work critically examines racial dynamics, anti-Semitism, and cultural preservation within Southeast European contexts. She brings a unique interdisciplinary approach combining literary criticism, historical analysis, and anthropological methodology to explore how communities process traumatic historical events.

Her recent publications demonstrate consistent scholarly output with a clear trajectory toward documenting Sephardic Jewish experiences in Ottoman Macedonia, analyzing Holocaust memorialization, and examining the intersection of religious identity with political frameworks. The publications reveal growing emphasis on archival recovery of 'impossible witnesses' and the reconstruction of cultural memory following community destruction.

• Saul Kagan Claims Conference Academic Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Advanced Shoah Studies
• Postdoctoral Fellow of The Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim Family for the Study of Racism and Anti-Semitism at Yad Vashem
• Vita Pop-Jordanova Award from the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Certificate of gratitude from Macedonia's Directorate for Protection of Cultural Heritage

Grandakovska has received significant research support including Ford Foundation grants and has been a Visiting Scholar at prestigious institutions including the Center for Jewish History in New York and the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Her scholarly work bridges academic disciplines through a distinctive methodology that combines literary analysis with historical anthropology, particularly in documenting the experiences of Sephardic communities in the Balkans. She has established herself as a leading voice in Balkan Holocaust studies with a particular focus on Macedonia's Jewish communities and their complex relationships with Ottoman governance structures.