Zhylien Kaja is a doctoral research assistant at the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Communication and European Studies from Fulda University of Applied Sciences and a Bachelor’s degree in British and American Studies from the University of Tirana. Kaja has contributed to several international research projects, including Theorising the EU's Crisis, Debating Europe with Its Citizens, Practising Transnational Politics – Collaboration Lviv, and Transnational Governance and Human Rights at the Centre of Transnational Governance. He is currently involved in the projects Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "Europe in the World" and Resilient Social Contracts for Democratic Societies.

His academic and research interests center on European integration, civil society, democracy, and the Western Balkans. His Ph.D. research examines the role of civil society in political transformation in the Western Balkans, with a particular focus on how civil society actors perceive certain political changes as key to accelerating EU accession and advancing democratic consolidation in Albania, Kosovo, and Serbia.

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