Maria B. Olujic, Ph.D. is an anthropologist and writer who served as Croatia’s Deputy Minister of Science and Technology during the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia. Her memoir-in-progress, Fields of Lavender, Rivers of Fire: A Memoir of War, Survival, and the Search for Peace, weaves her experiences of war and displacement, focusing on the roles of women during the conflict, both those in power and those who were victims. She lives in the Bay Area.