Përshëndetje! Mirë se vini në Gjirokastër! (Hello! Welcome to Gjirokastër!)

 

Defined by its castle, roads paved with chunky limestone and shale, imposing slate-roofed houses, and views of the Drino Valley, Gjirokastër, one of Albania’s two UNESCO World Heritage cities, is a magical hillside town described beautifully by Albania’s most famous author, Ismail Kadare, in Chronicle in Stone. Located in the south of Albanian near the country’s southern border with Greece, there has been a settlement in this area for 2500 years and the current city’s Old Town boasts approximately 600 monumental Ottoman-era houses that attract visitors from all over the world. For Albanians, the city is also synonymous with former dictator Enver Hoxha, who was born in Gjirokastër and ensured the city was relatively well preserved under his lengthy rule.

 

“Eqrem Çabej” University of Gjirokastër, which was founded on November 12, 1991, will serve as host for the 2026 SLGS conference. The university was named after Albanian educator, Dr. Eqrem Çabej, who played a key role in standardizing the modern Albanian (Shqip) language and assisting scholars in understanding the cultural richness and historical development of the language. Today, the university is the most important educational, scientific, and cultural institution in the Southern region of Albania.

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Western Michigan University (or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers. It was renamed Western Michigan University in 1957. WMU is one of the eight research universities in the state of Michigan and is classified among R2 Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity. The university has seven degree-granting colleges, offering approximately 147 undergraduate degree programs, 73 master’s degree programs, 1 specialist of education degree program, and 30 doctoral degree programs.