//   SPEAKERS

Odeta Barbullushi was born in Shkodra, Albania on June 16, 1979. She received her doctorate (PhD) in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom in 2010. She holds an MA in Contemporary European Studies from the University of Sussex, UK (2004, with Honors), and another one in International Relations and European Studies Central European University, Budapest (2003). She graduated in Journalism from the University of Tirana in 2001. In 2013, Ms. Barbullushi held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Graz Karl Franzen, Austria.

Dr. Barbullushi has served as Deputy Foreign Minister of Albania. Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Barbullushi has held several research and management positions in the academic sector. From 2007 to 2008 she worked as a lecturer at the Centre for European Studies, University of Birmingham where she taught the modules EU in a Globalizing World and Political History of Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century (2007-2008). From 2009 to 2014 she worked at the European University of Tirana, initially as the Head of Department of Political Science and International Relations, and most recently as the Vice-Rector for Research and Methodology. She has taught several courses in the field of international relations, such as The Albanian Question and Albania’s Foreign Policy, Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis, Theories and Issues of International Relations, etc.

Dr Barbullushi’s research and academic work was funded by a number of prestigious international scholarships and awards, such as Open Society Institute (OSI) postgraduate fellowship, Sasakawa Fellowship, Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award, Ernst Mach Global Fellowship, and ‘Brain Gain Incentive’ grant. She has coordinated and been part of a number of regional projects in the field of capacity building in research, human rights in higher education, European integration of the Western Balkan, etc. In between her postgraduate studies, she worked as adviser for the media at the office of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Integration in 2003.

Ms. Barbullushi’s portfolio at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs covered primarily Albania’s relations with the countries of the region, both at the bilateral level and in the context of international organizations, and Albania’s relations with the EU and EU member states.