Congratulations to 2016 Fellow Louisa Slavkova on the latest publication by Sofia Platform, Mapping Transition in Eastern Europe: Experience of Change after the End of Communism. Slavkova is the Executive Director of Sofia Platform and served as editor and contributing author for the publication.
Driven by questions regarding the rise of populism, illiberalism, and xenophobia in Eastern Europe, Slavkova and her colleagues mapped the challenges faced today that can be ascribed to the recent past. The publication looks at six Eastern European countries and what the neglect of political culture and civic and historical education means for the durability of democracy.
Slavkova authored a comparative chapter in the book that outlines common problems and provides ideas about how to approach them. The six country profiles focus on a set or sets of issues and offer means to overcome them using the toolbox of civic education.
Slavkova hopes that this publication will contribute to a broader discussion about the role of civic education in countries in transition.
Sofia Platform was established in 2011 with the objective is to promote liberal values by acknowledging the local context of countries in transition and reflecting the need of knowledge transfer between them. Sofia Platform is based in Sofia, Bulgaria and works primarily in Europe and North Africa.
In 2016, she was a Visiting Fellow with the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Acountability Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Slavkova has previously worked as a Programmes Manager at the European Council on Foreign Relations and as an adviser to the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nickolay Mladenov (2010 – 2013). Prior to that, she worked with the Network European Citizenship Education platform of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education. She has an MA in Political Science from the University of Cologne and is currently pursuing a PhD.
Click here to access Mapping Transition in Eastern Europe: Experience of Change after the End of Communism.
Click here to read more about Slavkova and the 2016 AHDA cohort.
