MASTER OF ARTS IN
GLOBAL & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Alumni Profiles
Flora Ferati
Flora Ferati is an international student from Kosova. She is currently a Master of Arts degree candidate in Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara, and formerly received her Bachelors of Arts degree with honors in International Affairs and Political science with minor in German language at Graceland University in Iowa.
Her research interests include human rights, conflict resolution and sustainable economic development. Flora works as a teaching assistant for Global Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara. Although her favorite country is Albania, she finds Santa Barbara the most beautiful place in the U.S. Aside from studying and teaching, she spends her time hanging out with her friends, playing tennis and reading.
It is Flora’s dream to meet Nelson Mandela one day.
As a Kosovar-Albanian during the Kosovo conflict, she was a witness to ethnic cleansing. She reveals:
"When I was threatened to be separated from my family and eventually killed, two things came to my mind: could the suffering, deaths, and massacres have been prevented? And how would those military and paramilitary forces feel about themselves at different stages of their lives afterwards? Those who survive the conflict admit that it takes much more efforts to rebuild a war-torn country and trust between hostile communities than preventing a war between them. In the process, one realizes that each individual matters and has a potential to make a difference.
I've learned that education for democracy is the most powerful weapon against dictators and the best guarantee for advancing individual rights/freedoms and democracy. I want to make a difference in some part of the world by empowering individuals, preventing conflicts, and fostering democratic institutions. I owe it to myself and to financial donors and other individuals who’ve helped me develop intellectually through their global visions, efforts, and actions.”
Flora spent her summer in Leipzig, Germany at the Erasmus Mundus Leipzig Summer Institute, focusing on European integration, minorities in Europe, and did a brief internship for the Law Department on "Bona fide" principle and international law. She is currently completing an internship with the Chad Relief Foundation in Santa Barbara, CA whose objective is to provide assistance to the forgotten refugees from the Central African Republic in south Chad and to the local population surrounding the refugee camps.
