Индивидуални проекти

The project explores how various local communities in medieval Byzantium engaged with hope through Byzantine saints’ cults, which served as a performative space of negotiating life crises, experiences of disability and illness. It examines miracle accounts as both reflections of and catalysts for the underlying discourses of hope in these communities. By illuminating the intersection between hope as an emotional practice and lived religion, via a novel methodology approaching the miraculous healings as a constantly evolving repertoire of collaborative practices between members of social-material actor networks, the project will provide fresh insights into how the Byzantines navigated their life crises, contributing, at the same time, to the broader conversation between the history of emotions, experiences, and social history.

While there is no lack of documentary and biographical literature treating the socialist period in Bulgaria, the perception of insufficiency remains, both among the specialized and the general audience. My aim is to employ creative nonfiction to tell the stories of a category of people who have rarely discussed their life experience, namely those members of the Communist Party who exhibited both ideological conviction and pragmatic life attitude but at the same time their interactions with the Zhivkov regime were far from peaceful. Their stories remain largely untold, a situation which does not entail a fuller understanding of the socialist period.

The project examines how East European Jews, a population bedeviled by grinding poverty and economic and residential restrictions, viewed another maligned population – Black Africans and African Americans – with whom they had no contact. Although most of them would not see a Black person throughout their lives, or only upon their arrival in America, East European Jews already acquired some level of information, however skewed, which served as a basis for imagining Black people as savage and primitive. This study critically revises the existing literature and provides an invaluable insight into the process of combining traditional and modern elements in the acquisition of knowledge. The project's findings are significant to the larger context of immigration history. They demonstrate how would-be immigrants have had preconceived imagery of Blacks prior to setting foot in America (same notions are true for those who stayed in the Old Country). Parallel cases of imagining people without meeting them can be shown with other ethnic groups who also hailed from areas that had no Black population, whether in Europe or Asia. Those themes are especially relevant to studying the dynamics of racism, as they expand our understanding of the genealogy of knowledge. In that respect, this study is also important to fields such as translation studies and history of science, as it examines how literature, scientific texts, and travel accounts were transformed when disseminated in a different culture.

Проектът е продължение на работата на Иво Данчев върху темата "Зад маските", където той се занимава с участието на различни етнически и социални групи в старите български кукерски обичаи със специален акцент върху ромското малцинство. Той си е поставил за цел да създаде разтърсващ и социално ангажиран визуален разказ не само за същината на кукерските маскаради, но и да допринесе към актуалния дебат за културното наследство и включването в него на различни социални групи.

Ever since the Upper Palaeolithic, communities have been making miniature figures, with a peak in figurine usage in the Balkan Neolithic - Chalcolithic (6200 – 3500 cal BC). While endlessly fascinating, these figurines remain enigmatic. The principal shift in approach has been from “What did these figurines mean?” to “What do these figurines do?” – viz., studies of performance and figurine agency. Many see figurines as vehicles for exploring people’s relationships with human bodies. Yet in the last two decades, the pendulum has swung towards agency and away from meaning, leading to a lack of integration of research results. This state of affairs offers an opportunity for new research in which context is central, performance is meaningful and human and object agencies are in dialogue. My main research question is “how were figurines embedded in domestic and mortuary performances through time and space in prehistoric Bulgaria?” I shall answer this question by studying reports on figurine assemblages and first-hand examination of some figurine collections in Bulgarian museums in order to discover the figurines’ depositional circumstances and performative roles. The output would be a chapter in an invited book in the Cambridge Elements “Archaeology and Gender” series on “Female figurines in European prehistory”.

This interdisciplinary project studies the geological exploration of the Balkan Peninsula, focusing on the descriptions and analyses of thermal water that were produced by traveling naturalists and scientists from the beginning of the sixteenth century until the end of the nineteenth. Placing the texts in their proper historical contexts and considering the authors’ agendas and the broader developments within the travel writing genre, the project examines how the exploration of the geology and thermal hydrology of the Balkans was situated in the overall study of the peninsula and what role it played in shaping the travelers’ perceptions of Balkan societies and cultures. I look into how Southeast Europe’s affinity for the healing and sacral properties of spring water informed Western travelers’ perceptions of the region as ‘other’ vis-à-vis the places they were coming from and how the study of the hydrothermal landscapes of the Balkans influenced the formation of a comprehensive image of the region. I use insights from cultural geography and anthropology to show how thermal water played an essential role in place-making in the Balkans and how its scientific exploration was ultimately linked to the study of human culture.

This research explores the dynamics of Bulgarian archaeology during the communist period and the Transition years (1944–2007), examining the profound influence of political ideologies on archaeological research, scientific interpretations and social implications. It is innovative for Bulgarian historiography, as the subject is challenging due to the difficulty of objectively assessing such a recent past. The proposed research is a multifaceted endeavour that requires a comprehensive approach. It aims to examine a wide range of issues, problems and key features, encompassing the historical background of Bulgaria during the communist period and beyond, political ideologies, state institutions and control, international relations, and the influence of political policies on the conservation and management of Bulgaria's archaeological heritage. The proposed research will be organised in several phases according to its main objectives. Using a variety of research methods, including archival studies and comparative analysis with other Eastern European countries, the study aims to stimulate scholarly discourse and inspire further research into Bulgaria's complex scientific past. Ultimately, the project will culminate in a monograph that will synthesise the findings to enrich our understanding of this fascinating historical period.

This research project seeks to comprehensively explore the overlooked and forgotten Turkish literature produced within Communist Bulgaria from 1944 to 1968. Despite comprising approximately one hundred poetry books, long stories, and novels during this period, these Turkish texts have been largely neglected by both Bulgarian and Turkish scholars, remaining mere entries in bibliographies. The primary aim of this research is to unravel the complex interplay between Turkishness, Muslimness, socialism, and peasantism as reflected in these (selected) Turkish literary works published in Bulgaria during the Cold War era. Specifically, this research focuses on texts released by the state-sponsored publishing house, Narodna Prosveta, from 1959 to 1968, as well as contributions to the monthly magazine Yeni Hayat (New Life) (1953-60) and its literary supplement, Çağdaş (Modern). By conducting literary and sociocultural analyses within the context of ideological upheavals during the Cold War, this project aims to illuminate the unique and uneven development of minority literature in Bulgaria. Additionally, it employs archival research to enhance understanding of the relationship between socialism, nationalism, the idea of the land, and Turkish literary culture within this specific historical framework. Furthermore, by conducting a comparative examination between Bulgaria and Turkey—neighboring countries aligned with opposing ideological blocs during the Cold War—the research enriches our comprehension of the diverse trajectories of Turkish literature under contrasting ideological regimes.

Motivated by my previous and upcoming work situated at the junction of the Classics and the Medical Humanities, and inspired by recent events relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, the aim of this project is to offer a charitable reading of patient anxieties in illness narratives dating to the High Roman Empire, a pivotal period in political and medical history (ca. 1st-2nd c. CE).As a branch of ‘technical’ learning, medicine was held in high regard by the leading class in this period. Confronted with the sheer reality of illness, medical uncertainty, and the prominence of the medical art in the public sphere, numerous eminent members of learned society, including philosophers, sophists, politicians, even emperors, wrote extensively about medicine and health related topics, to the extent that some scholar contemptuously speak of an ‘Age of Hypochondria’.Within this fascinating, and still under-explored field, my interest while at CAS Sofia is in the ways in which Stoic philosophers express and deal with health related anxieties. What strategies do they propose to manage such fears? And how effective is their philosophy really when push comes to shove? How did the ancient Stoics square their high-minded philosophy with the physical reality of bodily illness and pain, which they profess to be ‘indifferents’ (indifferentia/adiaphora)?Seneca is a good case in point considering his notoriously weak physique (the man suffered from asthma, suspirium, among other such respiratory afflictions). How does this leading Stoic make sense of his bad health? How does he try to rationalise his fear and expectation of death by boldly – even cheerfully – looking it in the eye? What strategies does he claim are helpful (for himself and for his reader) to philosophically cope with existential crises? And how typical (or not) is his case? In other words, what role do such anxieties play in Stoic illness narratives more generally? What concepts and imagery are being used to capture it? And does the ‘Stoic patient’ (if indeed this is a valid category) always practice what he/his philosophy preaches in terms of mental tranquillity and medical self-management (think, e.g., of the correspondence between the emperor Marcus Aurelius, author of the Meditations, and his teacher Fronto, a prominent Roman sophist, where they complain about all kinds of localised pain)?In addressing questions like these, this project combines perspectives from the history of emotions and intellectual history (viz. ancient philosophy and medicine), with the aim of making a meaningful contribution to our understanding of the affective experience, as well as the cognitive construction, of fear/anxiety as an embodied phenomenon in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, and what relevance these ancient patient voices may still have for us today.

По-голямата част от украинците са израснали със съветската/постсъветската традиция на възпоменание на Втората световна война/„Великата отечествена война“. От десетилетия тази тема е основна за политиките на паметта и семейната история в Украйна. Всеки знае за Втората световна война, дори и онези, които не се интересуват от история. Именно този вид знание формира колективния образ на войната в Украйна. Началото на руската пълномащабна инвазия на украинска територия на 24 февруари 2022 г. доведе до реален сблъсък на хората със съвременната война. Украинците бяха принудени да участват в събитията с отредена роля - на войник, бежанец, доброволец или страничен наблюдател. С настоящия проект, д-р Шаталов ще постави редица важни въпроси за осмислянето на взаимовръзките между двете войни: Как образът на Втората световна война се припокрива с образа на войната днес? Как се променя представата за „онази война” под влиянието на продължаващата война? Как съвременната война рефлектира върху образа, паметта и възпоменанието на Втората световна война? И как образът, паметта и възпоменанието на Втората световна война влияят върху представите, паметта и възпоменанието на войната днес? Предложените изследователски въпроси ще се съсредоточат върху местното ниво в град Кривий Риг и отражението на процесите там.