Sofija Grandakovska is an academic, poet, and author in the field of Comparative Literature and Comparative Genocide Studies, with a specialization in the Jewish and Holocaust history in the Balkans. Another area of interest is Byzantine studies. She has significant publications in literary and visual semiotics, literary theory, critics and interpretation, and art.
She is an author of several scholarly books in the field of Comparative Literary Studies: “Miniatures and Maximums”, (2020), “The Akathistos Hymn: From Word to Fresco Painting” (2017), “The Portrait of the Image” (2010), and “The Discourse of the Prayer” (2008). In the field of Holocaust and Jewish studies, she is editor, author of the foreword, and a co-author of the bilingual chrestomathy “The Jews From Macedonia And The Holocaust: History, Theory, Culture” [Евреите од Македонија и холокаустот: историја, теорија, култура] (2011).
Grandakovska is also the author of three bilingual books of poetry: “Signet” [Мухур] (2022), “The Burning Sun” [Препечено сонце] (2009), and “The Eighth Day” [Осмиот ден] (2005).
Sofija Grandakovska received a bachelor’s degree (1999), master’s degree (2007), and doctorate (2009) from the Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Philology “Blaže Koneski”, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, North Macedonia. Her bachelor’s, master and doctoral dissertations are in the field of literary and visual semiotics.
In 2006, Grandakovska was awarded the “Best Young Scientist of the Year Vita Pop-Jordanova Award” by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, for her extraordinary academic work and internationally published research papers in the field of Comparative Literary Studies. In 2007, Grandakovska was nominated by the Department of Literature and Literary Science at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts for a doctoral research program at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, in Belgrade – Institute of Byzantine Studies, and the Institute for Balkan Studies. In 2009, she was a fellow at Apexart Cultural Center (New York City), followed by a nomination for her extraordinary achievements in literature and literary studies in her home country North Macedonia.
In the fall of 2009, Grandakovska was recognized as an assistant professor in the field of cultural theory at the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities Research “Evro-Balkan” (Skopje), where she taught in the period 2009 – 2013. In 2014, she was elected senior scientific associate/associate professor at the Institute of National History, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje.
Dr. Grandakovska was the recipient of Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim Chair for the Study of Racism and Anti-Semitism, von Oppenheim Family of Cologne Postdoctoral Fellowship at the International Institute of Holocaust Research of Yad Vashem (Jerusalem, Israel, 2013-14), and a Saul Kagan Postdoctoral Fellowship of Advanced Shoah Studies (New York City, Belgrade, 2016-18). In 2018, Grandakovska was a visiting scholar at the Center for Jewish History (New York City).
Grandakovska led the 2010–2011 international project “The Jews from Macedonia and the Holocaust” (supported by Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, Brussels). She is a writer of the catalog and co-curator of the multimedia exhibition “The Jews from Macedonia and the Holocaust” (at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 2011, and Gallery of the Jewish Community, Belgrade, 2013). The documentary film “The Jews from Macedonia and the Holocaust”, based on her research and collection of documents, was realized by Žaneta Vangeli and produced by the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities Research “Euro-Balkan” (2011).
Grandakovska managed the first Summer School in Holocaust studies “The Diverse Survival Strategies of Jewish and Roma Communities in Macedonia: From Resistance to Memorialization” (2011) in North Macedonia (supported by the International Task Force for Holocaust Remembrance, Brussels), attended by young scholars from European countries and complemented by follow-up activities.
From 2011–2012, Dr. Grandakovska worked with Michael Berenbaum and served as a professional consultant and researcher for the conceptual development of the project “Permanent Exhibition of the Holocaust Memorial Museum for the Jews from Macedonia” for the Berenbaum Group (Los Angeles, California). She was a consultant, researcher, and writer on the segment focused on the deportation of the Jews from Vardar Macedonia for the documentary film “The Jews from Macedonia”, directed by Dejan Dimeski, produced by the National Television and the Ministry of Culture of North Macedonia (2016–17).
In 2018, Grandakovska was the principal investigator for North Macedonia at the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (Brussels) and the author of the study on the project to identify Holocaust-relevant legal cases, including major trials in Macedonia.
Grandakovska is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (City University of New York), in the Department of Anthropology. The subject she teaches explores matters of “culture and crime” manifested in violent form, with a particular emphasis on colonialism, war, and genocide in various societies, territories, and times. She is a co-editor of the “News from the Ninth Floor”, published on a semester basis by the Department of Anthropology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).
Since 2020, Dr. Grandakovska serves as an auditor at the University Partnership in Holocaust Studies, by Claims Conference (New York City), for Holocaust courses taught at the universities in Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Dr. Grandakovska joined the New York Institute for the Humanities and Social Studies and took part in the Board of Directors in 2022.
