Directory

The social battles I fight today started in my late teens, facing a world that expected me to fail and sought to isolate me for embracing my true self. But I chose to carve my own path, embrace my identity, and defy societal expectations. My journey has always been about ensuring that marginalized communities don’t endure the same struggles I faced. With relentless determination, I graduated as valedictorian in college, earned the Humanitarian and the Dean’s Distinguished Leadership Awards at UChicago, was named an Obama Scholar, and earned numerous other accolades—now hanging on the wall of my childhood home in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Through Gender Rights Watch (GRW), the organization I co-founded, I continue to advocate and conduct research to improve the lives of millions. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship opens yet another chapter in my mission for justice and equality. My PhD research, focused on the Economics of Gender, explores the determinants and consequences of labor market exclusion for trans and queer communities in South Asia. I dedicate this scholarship to my late Amajan (grandmother), who served as a motivation throughout my journey, and to the oppressed minorities I aim to uplift through this prestigious platform.

Previous Education

University of Chicago Public Policy
University of Chicago Social Sector Leadership

The main field of my PhD research was second language acquisition, i.e. the study of how non-native languages are learned. This is one of the subjects that I now teach and continue to research. I am mostly interested in how the different languages a person speaks affect each other.
Since the end of my PhD, I have worked at the University of Belgrade and the University of Bologna (which is my current institution). I am also active in a Serbia-based association that promotes empirical approaches to languages, called Regional Linguistic Data Initiative (ReLDI).

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil (English and Applied Linguistics) 2004
University of Belgrade BA (Italian Language and Literature) 2001

Links

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/maja.milicevic2/en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maja-milicevic-9b826045