Venera Cocaj is a PhD Candidate at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. Her PhD research is part of a larger scientific research project ‘Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding: From Static to Dynamic Discourses across National, Ethnic, Gender and Age Groups,’ funded by the European Research Council. Her research focuses on wartime sexual violence and gender-based violence in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Venera was responsible for research for the documentary ‘The Sky is Turning,’ which was the recipient of the 2018 Human Rights Award for the best journalistic piece, awarded by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo.

Previously, she was the head of research at ORCA, an organization which focuses on academic integrity at the University of Prishtina, and worked as human rights programme manager at the non-governmental organisation, Youth Initiative for Human Rights-Kosovo. She also contributed and led projects on education, human rights, women and LGBT rights, and transitional justice in the Balkans.

She is actively involved in the feminist and human rights movements/initiatives in Kosovo and in the Balkans. She is fluent in Albanian, Serbo-Croatian and English.

Academic supervisors

Dr Denisa Kostovicova and Dr Marsha Henry