Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research (ISPJR)

The Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research (ISPJR) is one of the oldest public university research institutions in the social sciences in the Republic of Macedonia, founded in 1965 by the University Council of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University- Skopje. Since the establishment of the institution, the main activities of the Institute have been realizations of scientific research projects and organization of postgraduate (master and doctoral) studies. At present ISPJR consists of the Department of Sociology, the Department of Political Science, and six other research centres. Currently there are 25 permanent employees and 2 additional staff, among them 16 PhD- Research Fellows, 2 MSci- Research Assistants, and 9 support staff.

ISPJR has conducted a large number of scientific and applied research projects in the fields of Sociology, Political Science, Law, Management and Communication studies, and has cooperation with many domestic and international academic and professional organizations, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Macedonia and other national institutions, the World Bank, and other European and international organisations. ISPJR organizes master and doctoral studies in Sociology, Political science, Management of human resources, and Communication science. More than 470 students have obtained their MSc degree in this institution, and more than 130 have defended doctoral dissertations.

Klime Babunski PhD is Head of the Department for Applied Research, Documentation and Publishing at ISPJR. He has been employed in ISPJR for more than 30 years. He has participated and/or conducted numerous national and international research and evaluation projects. His main fields of interest are freedom of expression, media policy, communication systems, and anticorruption.

Aneta Cekik PhD is Docent/Assistant professor of Political science at ISPJR. She has been working as teaching and research assistant at ISPJR since 2007. Her main research interests are in the fields of interest group politics, EU lobbying, Europeanization in the EU acceding countries and ethnic conflict study. She has taken part in number of research projects involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her current research focuses on interest groups’ lobbying in Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Vesna Zabijakin-Chatleska PhD Docent/Assistant professor of Organization science and Management at the postgraduate studies of Human Resource Management at ISPJR, as well as researcher at the Centre for Management and Human Resource Development. She has experience in developing and implementing training programmes and curriculums in the field of business management, as well as in political management and work organization and business processes. She has also been a consultant in the field of general management; business processes; management of human resources in organizations, and as a research fellow in several projects.