Mary Amme-Shiraef

It brings me great joy to share that I have joined @MZESUniMannheim as a Lorenz-von-Stein Postdoctoral Research Fellow. So, I'm moving to Europe for a couple of years (or more?), and I officially work in a palace. Come visit!

For the love of WOMEN, CHILDREN & even SMALL-HANDED MEN—@Apple MUST bring back the SMALL iPhones (the best!) but with the BIG cameras. People are begging. Everyone’s talking about it. HUGE opportunity—don’t blow it!!! I’M SERIOUS.

@albanianstats A contributing factor re-gender is that X users are disproportionately (and increasingly) male

I have the feeling that the diaspora in Germany is either more recent from Albania, or from the Albanians of ex-Yugoslav who tend to care more about their heritage/ethnicity compared to Albanians in Italy/Greece. As for the gender demographic, it seems to be true in general for all accounts with a focus on stats/maps.

Demographics of those who have liked the posts from this account during the last 3 months.

Other contributing factors were generally low literacy in Albania (esp. but not only b4 1945) as well as a largely rural population, hard for the state reach. Day 1 of the new year and I’m still a baseline major 🤓 for the quirks of demographics data and all things Albania.

This means families had to go back and record births of kids for the state— without knowing the precise day or month they were born.

Can you imagine a time so chaotic and uncertain that you birthed a child but no recorded it? Many Albanian mothers (still) can.

@ShanaScogin @IUBloomington @IUBSPEA Hoorayyy!! The best news in academia of 2024 for sure. Much much deserved. I’m so happy for you! PS: Bloomington is where my aunt and uncle live— so I visit often. Let me know if you have questions for the move. 😊

Ending my 2024 with good news! I'll be starting as an Assistant Professor at @IUBloomington SPEA (O'Neill School @IUBSPEA) in August 2026. I am beyond excited to join the amazing folks at SPEA and continue my work on environ governance & disasters in Nepal and beyond.

Looking forward to this. Join us if you can!

Save the date! On Oct 25, 12pm CST (7pm CET) I'm giving my first post-PhD public talk about my research on Greekness in Albania. It will be at UT Austin's @UTCREEES and on Zoom for my colleagues @MZESUniMannheim, in Albania, and anyone interested: cla.utexas.edu/creees/events/…

The deadline for this grad student award for folks studying "any field of Slavic/East European/Central Asian studies" is coming up (Sept 7). I can no longer apply for these smaller "top-up" research funds 💁‍♀️, but no one said I can't share them! awsshome.org/awards/graduat…

For once in my life I was ahead of the news cycle! maryshiraef.medium.com/observing-amer… Special thanks to my colleague @ttichelbaecker for snapping a photo of the print version for me and @online_MM for the interview. I loved the process of sharing my thoughts with a local newspaper!

For my 4th of July I staked out my independence from the University of Notre Dame and became Dr. Shiraef. Thank you to everyone who helped me get this far. I cannot wait to keep learning and growing!

It contributes amazing data detailing the entire process of minority identity formation, including Albania’s early state formation (1905 to 1944), communist-era assimilation and integration of ethnic groups (1945 to 1990), and ethnic revival (1991 to 2004). Can’t wait to defend!

Tomorrow I defend my dissertation at the University of Notre Dame! The argument is that ethnic engineering—the recognition of certain ethnic groups in the state apparatus but repression of others—left a legacy on the Greek minority identity in post-communist Albania.

@valfig_tin This looks super interesting! Can’t wait to read it. Also, did you know twitter has labeled your book abstract as having “sensitive content”—creating an extra step to be able to read it? 🤔

@Nadja72638243 Maybe that's the goal? If you link me with more info, I'll write to him and ask.

@Nadja72638243 hmm.. do you have a better source than the screenshot on his participation in the forum? I haven't heard from Prof. Dallmayr in a while, though I know he wrote a book called Dialogue of Civilizations and is all about peace / getting people into a dialogue with each other.

Feeling fortunate to be able to drop in and converse with the eminent philosopher, Fred Dallmayr. He’s 93, and has published TEN books since I saw him last in 2019.. yet, he didn’t know what a selfie was. The real pandemic hero.

My new weekend hobby is writing out and sharing the stuff that has been sitting in my head (or inbox) for too long -- it needs to get out! I hope folks thinking about planning a trip to Edinburgh and/or the Highlands soon find this piece helpful: maryshiraef.medium.com/edinburgh-the-…