On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, Elizabeth Gowing and Robert Wilton will speak on "Extraordinary Women in the Balkans." The lecture will be held at 4:30 p.m. in 3512 Haven Hall and is free and open to the public.
Elizabeth Gowing worked in primary education and in education policy in the UK before moving to Kosovo in 2006. She is co-founder of charitable NGO The Ideas Partnership, which empowers and supports people in need in Kosovo in the fields of education, health and social welfare. She is also the owner of the Sapune social enterprise, offering employment to village and minority community women and support to the education of their children, and promoting Kosovo's traditional craft of filigree in eco-friendly products. Elizabeth is the author of five travel books, of which four are about Kosovo and the Balkans. Her most recent book, written together with Robert Wilton, is No Man's Lands: 8 extraordinary women in Balkan history. Elizabeth also translates from Albanian.
Robert Wilton was private secretary to the UK Secretary of State for Defence, advisor to the Prime Minister of Kosovo in the period before the country's independence and head of an international human rights mission in Albania, and has lived and worked in the Balkans for most of the last fifteen years. He also writes on the history and culture of the region and translates Albanian poetry. He's co-founder of The Ideas Partnership charity, working with marginalized Balkan communities.
The first of his Comptrollerate-General literary historical thrillers won the inaugural Historical Writers Association/Goldsboro Crown for best debut novel. There have been four in the series, all critically acclaimed. His Gentleman Adventurer novels are a series of historical entertainments exploring the seedier aspects of espionage and mystery in the years before the First World War.
