Brown Analyzing Political Dissidence

June 14, 2011

Watson Associate Professor Keith Brown has been awarded a grant from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research for a collaborative research project on political dissidence titled "Roads Not Taken: An Oral History of Macedonian Democracy since 1980."

The research explores an underexamined period in recent history, in which many of the country's current leaders began their political careers. Through the techniques of oral history – not widely known or used in Macedonia – Brown and his collaborators will highlight the activism of this period and map its pathways, with the goal of raising awareness of the different trajectories and outcomes of dissent, and providing grounds for a more reflective public debate over present and future policy, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens and government.

Brown will collaborate with younger Macedonian historians including Irena Stefoska, a Fulbright visitor to the Watson Institute in 2009-2010.