Institute for Advanced Studies - INS

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Sa svega 26 godina završila je doktorske studije, usavršavala se na univerzitetima u Hajdelbergu, Salcburgu, Ljubljani i Buenos Airesu, a danas je njen naučni rad prepoznat i međunarodnom nagradom RSA & Routledge Early Career Award za 2026. godinu.

🔬 Dr Teodora Stanković, naučna saradnica Instituta za napredne studije Univerziteta Crne Gore, priznanje je dobila za istraživanje o ukrajinskim izbjeglicama u Crnoj Gori i Srbiji i ulozi geopolitičkog pozicioniranja zemalja domaćina u oblikovanju migracionih tokova.

„Za mene je to potvrda da teme kojima se bavim imaju širi značaj, ali i da istraživanja koja se odnose na Crnu Goru i Zapadni Balkan mogu biti relevantna u međunarodnom akademskom kontekstu“, kaže Stanković.

🌍 U intervjuu govori o putu od istraživačke ideje do međunarodno nagrađenog rada, geopolitici i migracijama, značaju Zapadnog Balkana za savremena istraživanja, iskustvu rada na međunarodnim projektima, ali i o tome kako se istraživanje i rad sa studentima međusobno dopunjuju.

📖 Kako izgleda naučni put mlade istraživačice iz Crne Gore čiji rad prepoznaje međunarodna akademska zajednica? Pročitajte intervju sa dr Teodorom Stanković:

https://www.ucg.ac.me/objava/blog/10/objava/215831-medunarodno-priznanje-za-mladu-naucnicu-ucg-dr-teodora-stankovic-dobitnica-nagrade-span-class-cyrlatignore-rsa-routledge-early-career-award-span

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Kako može doprinijeti vašoj karijeri i istraživačkom radu? 🎓✨ Saznajte od Maše, Fulbright Visiting Scholar-a iz 🇲🇪 za 2025–26 godinu, koja sa vama dijeli utiske o tome kako je iskustvo iz 🇺🇸 uticalo na njen istraživački rad i profesionalni razvoj. Detaljnije o uslovima za prijavu za Fulbright na 🔗 https://me.usembassy.gov/academic-professional-exchanges/. Prijavite se do 16. novembra ➡️ https://apply.iie.org/fvsp2027

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What impact can have on your career or research? Hear from Maša, a 2025–26 Fulbright Visiting Scholar from 🇲🇪, on how her experience in the 🇺🇸 shaped her research and professional journey. ✨ Explore the call for applications 🔗https://me.usembassy.gov/academic-professional-exchanges/ and apply by November 16 ➡️ https://apply.iie.org/fvsp2027

The Fulbright Program
Exchange Programs - U.S. Department of State

📣 A new article by our research fellow Bojan Baća and research affiliate Miloš Bešić has been published in Voluntas, the official journal of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR). The article builds on Baća’s practice-oriented approach to civil society research, developed in earlier work published in International Political Sociology, Sociology, and Political Geography, to develop a new formal analytical framework for comparative civil society research.

Drawing on data from 20 countries of postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe, the study examines how political and economic transformation, institutional structures, state–society relations, and socialist legacies shape protest and other contentious forms of civic engagement. It combines country-level data from the Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index, and Freedom in the World with individual-level data from the European Values Study in a multilevel comparative design.

The article is available as open access. Link in the comments.

✨📢 We are delighted to share that our Research Fellow, Teodora Stanković, has received the RSA & Routledge Early Career Award for her paper „Ukrainian refugees in Montenegro and Serbia: political position and decision to settle“, published in the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

Presented by the Regional Studies Association (RSA) in partnership with Routledge, the award recognizes original and outstanding contribution to regional studies by early-career scholars, celebrating excellence and innovation in this field.

The award was presented by Professor Mia Gray from the University of Cambridge, Chair of the RSA Awards Committee, during the RSA’s 2026 virtual awards ceremony.

This recognition highlights the relevance of Teodora's research on migration and the role of geopolitical positioning of host countries in shaping destination patterns, with a particular emphasis on the Western Balkans.

We warmly congratulate Teodora on this well-deserved achievement!

More information is available via the link in the comments.

📣 Earlier this month, our Research Fellow Maša Ždralević participated in the Cancer Grand Challenges: Spatial Biology Conference, held from 1–3 September 2026 at the Royal Society in London, UK.

The conference brought together leading international researchers in cancer biology, spatial omics, genomics, bioengineering, and computational biology to discuss recent advances in understanding the spatial organisation of tumours and their microenvironment. Particular attention was devoted to emerging spatial transcriptomic and proteomic technologies, tumour heterogeneity, cell–cell interactions, and the integration of multimodal spatial data.

Maša presented her research on the spatial characterisation of cell-state remodelling during adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) dedifferentiation, conducted during her Fulbright Visiting Scholar appointment at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA. The study applies high-resolution spatial transcriptomic approaches to investigate changes in cellular states and tissue organisation associated with tumour progression and dedifferentiation.

Her participation also provided an opportunity to exchange ideas with researchers developing and applying cutting-edge spatial biology technologies, as well as to establish new contacts relevant for future research collaborations and the further development of spatial and translational oncology research at the University of Montenegro.

Cancer Grand Challenges, co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the US National Cancer Institute, is a global initiative bringing together interdisciplinary teams to address some of the most complex challenges in cancer research. The London conference highlighted the growing potential of spatial technologies to transform cancer research by revealing not only the molecular characteristics of tumours, but also the spatial relationships between individual cell populations within the tumour microenvironment.

📣 Last week, our Research Associate Nikola Zečević participated in the international conference “From Exile to Diaspora: Southeast European Intellectuals and Political Activists Abroad,” held on 9–10 September 2026 at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

In his paper, “Paper Sovereignty and Competing Claims to Representation: Montenegrin Émigré Politics after State Collapse, 1922–1925,” Zečević examines the transformation of Montenegrin political emigration after the loss of statehood. Focusing on competing émigré groups and their claims to political representation, the paper explores how émigré actors used passports, consular practices, diplomatic symbols, international lobbying, and media activity to preserve and project political authority across borders.

The conference brought together scholars working on political exile, intellectual networks, diaspora activism, and transnational politics in Southeast Europe.

✨📢 It is our honour to welcome distinguished scholar Christo Lombaard from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, who will deliver a visiting lecture at our INStitute:

Health-and-Faith/Medicine-and-Spirituality
Terminology and Method in the Context of Religious Realism

What do we mean when we speak of health and faith, or medicine and spirituality? These pairings raise questions about how we understand the relationship between religious life and human well-being, and how the language we choose shapes the ways we study that relationship.

In his lecture, Christo Lombaard will examine these terminological and methodological questions within the emerging international cultural framework of Religious Realism. Drawing on his research into post-secularity and spirituality, he will consider the conceptual challenges involved in bringing these fields into dialogue. The lecture will provide an opportunity for discussion and exchange with the audience.

Christo Lombaard is Professor and Head of the Department of Practical Theology and Mission Studies at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Theology and Religion. He previously spent 15 years at the University of South Africa, where he served as Research Professor of Christian Spirituality. His research specialisms include post-secularity and biblical spirituality, particularly their relationship to concrete religious practices.

He holds two doctorates: a PhD in Communication Studies from North-West University, specialising in religious communications, and a doctorate in Theology from the University of Pretoria, specialising in Old Testament studies. His book 'The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality' (Society of Biblical Literature, 2012) received the 2013 Krister Stendahl Medal in Biblical Studies from the Graduate Theological Foundation in the United States.

📅 September 11, at 11:00 h
📍 INS Conference Room
(NTP building, 2nd floor, Room 11)

📣 We are pleased to announce that our Research Fellow Anton Markoč will deliver a lecture tomorrow (8 September) at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (IFDT), University of Belgrade, entitled:

“A Cry Is Not a Complaint: On the Quasi-Legal Character of Contractualism”

In his lecture, Anton will offer a phenomenological critique of T. M. Scanlon’s contractualism, drawing on Simone Weil’s critique of rights-based theories. Focusing on the lived experience of subjugation and the perspective of the victim, he will examine the limits of contractualism’s quasi-legal framework and question whether interpersonal morality can be adequately understood solely through the comparison and justification of competing complaints.

The lecture will take place at 12:00 at IFDT in Belgrade and will also be recorded and made available on IFDT’s Engaged Thought YouTube channel.

The lecture was organised as part of the project “Beyond Ethnification: Post-Nationalist Perspectives on Montenegrin Identity,” supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation of Montenegro. 🇲🇪📚

More information is available via the link in the comments.

📢 We are proud to share that Maša Ždralević, Research Fellow at our INStitute, has co-authored a new scientific paper published in RNA Biology, an internationally recognised Q1 journal indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE).

The study, entitled “Conserved miRNA regulators of PD-1/PD-L1 in glioblastoma and colorectal cancer,” investigates the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in regulating the PD-1/PD-L1/PD-L2 immune checkpoint axis in glioblastoma (GBM) and colorectal cancer (CRC).

Although immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed cancer therapy, their effectiveness remains limited in GBM and highly variable in CRC, underscoring the need to better understand immune checkpoint regulation. The researchers identified five conserved miRNAs — miR-106a-5p, miR-106b-5p, miR-20a-5p, miR-20b-5p and miR-138-5p — consistently dysregulated in both cancers. Their associations with patient survival and key immune checkpoint genes point to their potential as regulators and biomarkers of tumour biology. Notably, miR-20a-5p and miR-20b-5p were preferentially expressed in microsatellite-stable (MSS) colorectal cancer, a subgroup in which current immune checkpoint therapies remain of limited benefit.

The publication is an outcome of the ongoing bilateral scientific research project between Montenegro and Slovenia, focused on translational oncology and precision medicine.

The article is open access and available through PubMed. The link is available in the comments below.

📢 We are delighted to share that our Research Associate Nikola Zečević has published a new academic article in Europe-Asia Studies, a Q1-ranked international journal in the field of Area Studies.

The article, entitled “The Montenegrin Government in Exile and Yugoslav Unification: A Losing Battle in the League of Nations, 1920–1922,” examines the diplomatic campaign of the Montenegrin government in exile following the abolition of Montenegrin statehood and the creation of the Yugoslav kingdom.

Drawing on recently digitised archival correspondence between the Montenegrin government in exile and the League of Nations, the article explores how its political strategy evolved—from advocating a confederal arrangement within Yugoslavia to demanding the restoration of Montenegro’s independence. It also places these efforts within the broader international context, with particular attention to the policies of Serbia and the Great Powers.

Further information and access to the article are available via the link in the comments.

Congratulations to our colleague Nikola!