Dardania

Dardania

Since my last post, I have begun exploring Prishtina's urban spaces in order to gain a broad space of data for later use. So far, I've visited several areas during this trip, such as the city centre, Vellusha, Pejton, and Dardania. Drawing on descriptions and observations so far (and yes, including a photo), this post centres on the latter, Dardania, and its immediate vicinity. This will be the first in a series of posts on Prishtina's urban spaces. From these posts, I hope you can appreciate that, not only is my time being put to use, but cities contain a diversity of spaces which should be appreciated in order to paint a picture of urban life.

Prishtina in Photos, Part I

A number of you have requested that I post photos of my time here in Prishtina. If you were one of this group, I hope you enjoy these photos, which I've taken over the last week. However, these pictures also represent some of my initial impressions of the city, and, as a result, they begin an ongoing series of posts through which I document my fieldwork.

Street leading from Mother Teresa Blvd., City Centre.

Back in Prishtina!

Skanderbeg Statue, Prishtina City Centre

I'm finally back in Prishtina! Or, to put it more accurately, I've been here for about a week and have just now found some time to write this post. Here, I'll recap some of my experiences over the past week and a half, although some things, such as Kosovo's still-contested election, will be explored in greater detail later on. Sufficed to say, it has been an eventful 11 days since leaving for Prishtina on 3 June.

I first traveled to Prishtina in March 2013, when I visited the city as part of my Masters programme at the interdisciplinary Durham Global Security Institute, located at Durham University. We spent about a week there, visiting people and organisations involved in Kosovo's reconstruction and statebuilding. Through this experience, I gained an interest in Prishtina's politics, leading me to conduct my dissertation research there during summer 2013 on communication and Kosovo Albanian identity. Following the course's conclusion, I embarked on a PhD programme in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, also at Durham University, and I began to plan for a year of fieldwork in Prishtina on rhetoric and political action.