Tamara completed a BA in International Relations at the University of Malta and thereafter a Masters Programme in European Studies at Uppsala University in Sweden, where she specialized on Europeanization and minority rights in Europe. Since September 2010 she is a PHD Fellow at the Institute of Society and Globalization at Roskilde University in Denmark, where she is also teaching within the EU Studies programme. Her PHD dissertation looks at the role of Europeanization and the dynamics added by transnational human rights on present approaches to national minority groups in Europe. The key focus relates to the fusions between national and supranational politics and legislation, looking at the extent of impact generated by EU integration policies and legislation on national minority groups in EU member states. To this end, she applies the mechanisms of Europeanization and transnational forces as the main framework within which national minority groups are studied.

As such, her main research interests are located within the field of European studies, European integration, EU policy making, human rights and how these features link to national minority groups in times of Europeanization, globalization and transnationalization. At the ECMI Tamara will be working with Tove Malloy under the cluster of Citizenship and Ethics, but she will also be developing own research further.

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Elvira completed a B.Sc. in Finance at the University of New York Tirana and then the Master Programme at the European University of Tirana where she specialized in international marketing focusing both in the role ethnic entrepreneurship can play on the internationalization of the Albanian brand as transnational bridges - ethnic marketing channels, as well as on the possibilities ethnic minorities can find and have to be higher socially integrated in the societies and labor markets at the countries they actually live and work, considering their actual social position and role they play in these societies.

Since January 2011 she is PhD candidate at the Doctorate School in Economics at the University "Aleksander Moisiu" of Durres, Albania. She also teaches International Marketing and Marketing Management at the University "Aleksander Xhuvani" of Elbasan, as a full time lecturer. Her dissertation looks at the role of the ethnic minorities as transnational bridges for the internationalization of their national brands, focusing in the Albanian ethnic entrepreneurship. The main focus relates to the role this ethnic minorities can play assisting their national economies to internationalize reducing costs and facilitating their international entry in the international market, and by the other side the benefits they could gather both, socially and professionally by this role, increasing and improving their social status and integration in the countries they live and work. To re-assume, she studies Albanian ethnic minorities status in EU and applies the transnational bridging role these ethnic minorities can play to improve Albanian brands entry in the international market, especially in EU.

As such, her main research interests are located within the field of ethnic minority development, both socially and economically, their international and EU integration, the national policies to develop in order to foster their integration as transnational marketing channels for internationalization of the national brands, as well as their role in developing standardization of the national brands according to the EU and international market demand, in the possible ways to be found in order to enhance and accelerate their social and professional integration in the EU society, comprising education and VET (Vocational Education Training) as means to develop and improve their intellectual quality in the light of the EU and international best practice and standards. At ECMI Elvira will be working with Dr. Tove Malloy and Dr. Andreea Udrea under the cluster of Politics and Civil Society.

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