Author profile

Verena Knaus studied modern history at the University of Oxford, and international relations and economics at Johns Hopkins University. She first came to Kosovo in 2001 to set up a ‘lessons learned and analysis unit’, a joint project of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), a non-profit think tank, and the UN administration in Kosovo. After working in Turkey and enjoying a short stint at Yale University as a ‘world fellow’, she returned to Kosovo in January 2007, just in time for independence. She has led academic and biking tours across Europe for many years and is a co-author of Bradt’s Kosovo guide (now in its fourth edition). Knaus now works in a senior capacity for UNICEF, overseeing the organisation’s relationships with several European countries. Austrian by nationality, she is a passionate skier, camper, marathon runner and traveller. She speaks fluent German, Albanian, French, Italian and some Turkish.