Dr. Julie Mostov

Under Dr. Mostov's leadership, the Office of International Programs at Drexel University brought a global dimension to university life, promoting a wide range of initiatives from academic majors and study or work abroad to major research projects, international cooperative agreements, conferences, co-curricular programming, and cultural events. All of these initiatives reflect an awareness of today’s global challenges and opportunities in science and technology, politics and economics, society and culture.

Before creating the Office of International Programs at Drexel, Dr. Mostov was Director of International Area Studies at the University. As a scholar, she specializes in studies on the politics of national identity, sovereignty, citizenship, and gender and has a particular interest in Southeastern Europe. Her publications promote the notion of soft-borders, transnational citizenship, and relational sovereignty, and explore gender and sexuality in the politics of national identity. Her recent book, Soft Borders: Rethinking Sovereignty and Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, May, 2008) is based on her extensive knowledge of ethnic conflict in Southeastern Europe and the problems of citizens who find themselves trapped within the “hard borders” of ethnocratic states. Other publications related to this work include her book with Rada Ivekovic, From Gender to Nation, (University of Bologna/Longo Editore, 2002 and Zubaan Press, New Delhi: India, 2004); “Soft Borders and Transnational Citizens;” “‘Our Women’/ ‘Their Women’: Symbolic Boundaries, Territorial Markers, and Violence in the Balkans;” “Sexing/ Desexing the Nation/ Body;” and “Women and the Radical Right: Ethnocracy and Body Politics.”

In addition to this academic research, Mostov has been actively involved in development projects in Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and Moldova, and programs and grants to stop violence against women in the U.S. and abroad. She serves on the Editorial Board for Southeastern Europe, an International Journal of the University of Bologna and is the President of the Board of Directors for Women Against Abuse in Philadelphia.