Goran Stefanovski (1952-2018)

Academic Career

Dramatist and screenwriter Goran Stefanovski was born in what was then Yugoslavia and is now the Republic of North Macedonia in 1952. He worked in Yugoslavia as one of the leading theatre professionals until the late 90s, when he moved to the UK.  He had a permanent appointment lecturing in screenwriting at Canterbury Christ Church University for sixteen years until his death in 2018.

In 1986 he founded the playwriting department at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje, where he was a full professor until 1998. In 1990 he spent six months as Outstanding Artist Fulbright Scholar at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Between 1998 and 2000 he was a visiting professor at the Dramatic Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.  He joined Canterbury Christ Church University in 2002 and died in post in 2018.

He was actively involved in research in the methodology and theory of scriptwriting, practice-based research of scriptwriting, as well as research in issues of identity and cultural history, politics and policies.  

Goran Stefanovski has written extensively for the stage, TV and cinema. His plays and essays have had numerous translations and publications. See full CV.

In 2007 Goran was awarded the Vilenica International Literary Prize, presented by an international jury to an author from Central Europe for outstanding achievement in the field of literary creativity and essay writing.  In 2009 he received the Golden Award for Lifetime Achievement in Playwriting from the International Theatre Festival Sterijino Pozorje in Novi Sad, Serbia.

In 2006 he was elected member of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP), a forum for outstanding artists, thinkers and cultural personalities from Europe. In 2009 he was elected member of the European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR) a distinguished think-tank consisting of former prime ministers, presidents, European commissioners, current and former parliamentarians and ministers, public intellectuals, business leaders, activists and cultural figures from the EU member states and candidate countries. 

In July 2018 Goran Stefanovski gave the keynote speech, “The Spark Which Escapes”, at the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) Conference at The University of the Arts, Belgrade, Serbia and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, just one month before his untimely death.