Current Programmes

The project examines the development of education in Bulgarian Exarchate schools between 1878 and 1912 within the political, legal, and administrative framework of the late Ottoman Empire. This period represents a crucial phase in the transformation of Bulgarian education, marked by the coexistence of ecclesiastical traditions, emerging national institutions, and pedagogical modernization. The project seeks to demonstrate that the Bulgarian Exarchate schools shaped educational norms and influenced Bulgarian education beyond the borders of the Bulgarian state. While existing historiography has devoted considerable attention to the political and nation-building role of the Bulgarian Exarchate, the internal pedagogical dynamics of Exarchate schools have often been examined fragmentarily or mainly from an institutional perspective. This project addresses this gap by analysing Exarchate schools as pedagogical environments in which ideas were articulated through curricula, regulations, and everyday practices shaped by the Ottoman administrative context. The project further argues that, despite operating within the Ottoman Empire and outside the Bulgarian educational system, Exarchate schools functioned as transregional pedagogical spaces facilitating the circulation of teachers, textbooks, and educational models between Ottoman territories and Bulgaria. Through transfer and adaptation, Exarchate education contributed to the modernization of Bulgarian schooling and to broader debates on education in Southeastern Europe.

As the last thirty years have been a time of massive nationalization and de-Sovietization of culture in the former republcs, the institutional infrastructure and even the memory of Multinational Soviet literature (MSL) have been largely erased. In recent years, however, Slavic studies in the West have shown greater interest in MSL for both its role as a massive and influential instance of world literature and for the postcoloniality of its constituent literatures. Written in over 70 languages, over the course of over 70 years, however, MSL remains an unwieldy object of study. My book project focuses its account of it through three organizing principles: the literary magazine Friendship of the Peoples, which not only made available some of the canonical texts of MSL to the all-Soviet reader but also has the benefit of being a concrete object with an excellent archive and connections to other MSL institutions; the Künnstlerroman (the artist's novel), one of the non-Russian Soviet writers favorite literary vehicle for thematizing the uneven and combined development of MSL; and finally, the concept of social class, both of multinational Soviet writers and of their novels’ characters. The book's main argument is developed through its chronological structure: from a vehicle for imagining the community of the multinational Soviet Union, into which it was rather repressively institutionalized in the 1930s, during perestroika, MSL and its authors became major forces in the Soviet collapse.

The project conceptualizes memory mobilization as a mechanism linking interpretations of the past to contemporary democratic outcomes. It distinguishes between responsibility-based memory, which emphasizes accountability for past abuses and reinforces norms of pluralism, institutional constraints, and vigilance against concentrations of power, and glorification-based memory, centered on heroic or exclusionary narratives. Each type of memory articulates a normative understanding not only of the past but also of the present and future. When actively mobilized by states, political actors, or civic organizations and embedded in public discourse, these narratives may contribute to strengthening or weakening democratic resilience, rather than merely coexist with it. The project focuses on when and to what effect different types of memory politics (responsibility vs. glorification) and contesting discourses produce varied outcomes in democratic resilience, considering the level of institutionalization of authoritarian memory as a key condition. Using a comparative analysis of Estonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Germany, the aim is to uncover these mechanisms. Understanding when and where memory infrastructure becomes vulnerable to illiberal capture or instrumentalization has direct policy relevance for ongoing European debates on resilience and the support of democratic norms.

This project examines how contemporary women writers from Southeast Europe use the female body as a site of cultural memory and political critique in the context of post-socialist transformation and current culture wars. Focusing on the works of Bulgarian authors Rene Karabash and Yoanna Elmy, the study explores how literary representations of trauma, gendered violence, and bodily experience function as forms of “testimony in flesh.” In these texts, the body becomes an archive that records the intersections between personal suffering and broader political histories, including the legacy of socialism, democratic transition, and the resurgence of nationalist and patriarchal discourses in contemporary Bulgaria.The project places these Bulgarian narratives in dialogue with the work of Lea Ypi, whose reflections on post-socialist memory and ideological conflict offer a broader regional perspective on how individual life stories reveal the tensions of political transformation. Through comparative literary and cultural analysis, the research investigates how gendered experiences of violence and vulnerability expose the contradictions of post-socialist democracy and illuminate ongoing cultural conflicts over gender, identity, and historical memory.

The project “The Thracians in Ptolemaic Egypt” investigates the Thracian diaspora during the Hellenistic period, focusing on its mechanisms, extent and socio-cultural impact. Thracians, originally from the northern Balkans, migrated to Egypt following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the establishment of the Ptolemaic kingdom. They were involved in military service, administrative roles, and local economic life, leaving traces in different written sources as papyri, steles and ostraca. Building on the pioneering work of V. Velkov and A. Fol (1977) and incorporating recent discoveries and methodological advances, this project reassesses the social status, identity, and contributions of Thracians in Ptolemaic Egypt. Particular attention will be given to Thracian onomastics, domestic traditions, and participation in cultural and civic activities. By combining papyrological, epigraphic, and historical evidence, the study aims to provide a nuanced understanding of migration, integration, and cross-cultural interaction in the Hellenistic Mediterranean. The project will shed light on the socio-economic and cultural relations between Thrace and Egypt, revealing the impact of Thracian communities on the Alexandrian cultural milieu and offering new perspectives on ancient mobility and diaspora networks.

The project explores Buddhist-Christian interactions between Tibet, Italy, and Bulgaria by examining the depiction of the Wheel of Life (Skt. bhāvacakra; Tib. srid pa'i 'khor lo) in the Alphabetum Tibetanum (1762) and its possible influence on Zahari Zograf’s mural at the Transfiguration Monastery (1849–1850). The Alphabetum Tibetanum, a comprehensive study of the Tibetan language and culture authored by the Italian Jesuit missionary and scholar Antonio Agostino Giorgi (1711–1797), contains one of the earliest European representations of the bhāvacakra. An engraving of the bhāvacakra from the Alphabetum Tibetanum became part of Zahari Zograf’s collection and is believed to have influenced the creation of the iconic Wheel of Life mural at the Transfiguration Monastery, a landmark in Bulgarian art. This research investigates the transmission of theological and visual motifs related to the Wheel of Life from its Tibetan origins through the Alphabetum Tibetanum to Eastern Orthodox Christian art, focusing on how Zograf’s mural may reflect Buddhist cosmological concepts. Through an interdisciplinary approach that combines historical, theological, and iconographical analysis with comparative study, the project examines the role of missionary scholarship and cross-cultural artistic exchanges in shaping religious iconography. By tracing these interactions, the study aims to provide new insights into the diffusion of Buddhist imagery within Christian contexts and the broader intellectual exchanges between Tibet, Catholic Europe, and Orthodox Bulgaria in the 18th and 19th centuries. Furthermore, by enhancing the understanding of Buddhist-Christian interactions in theology and art, the research will contribute to interreligious dialogue.

This project aims to investigate the position of New Religious Movements (NRMs) within Bulgaria’s power-imbalanced religious field, with a focus on their public portrayal. I argue that, in a post-secular situation emphatically dominated by a single law-protected religion, examining those in a minority position is essential for critically assessing the prospects for pluralism of faiths. Globally, NRMs frequently encounter tension with both established religious institutions and prevailing social norms due to their unconventional spiritual practices and ways of living. Investigating their perceived otherness—often reinforced by negative media labelling and discursive stigmatisation by the dominant religious milieu—provides valuable insight into broader societal attitudes towards religious diversity and tolerance. Accordingly, the study examines how NRMs are portrayed within Orthodox and secular media discourse in Bulgaria, particularly through the use of derogatory labels such as ‘sect’ and ‘cult’, and how these practices of othering affect their subjects. Employing a qualitative approach, the research combines a multimodal analysis of public representations with participant observations and semi-structured interviews with followers of selected NRMs to explore their lived experiences from a comparative perspective. It also offers a theoretical contribution by developing an empirically grounded typology of otherness, shedding light on stratifications and boundaries within the local religious field.

This project investigates the gender wage gap in Bulgarian industry during the first half of the twentieth century. The study examines the evolution of wage differentials between men and women in industrial employment, exploring the factors that contributed to the convergence of their wages over time. Drawing on extensive statistical data, archival and printed materials the project analyses how wars, economic shifts, technological changes, and political transformations influenced gender wage disparities. It also addresses the evolving discourse around gender wage justice and equal pay, considering the role of labour and social movements, collective agreements, state policies, and international labour standards. The project’s approach combines quantitative methods with historical analysis, shedding light on both the economic and social aspects of the gendered history of wages during a critical period in Bulgarian history. By focusing on a relatively underexplored intersection of labour history and women’s history in Bulgaria, this research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the gendered nature of industrial labour, the political, economic, and social forces that shaped the labour market and the role of women in  it.

The proposed research project aims at exploring the ways in which nature in urban settings has been constructed as wild for the purpose of its’ protection in the case of two post-socialist cities in Southeastern Europe. Contemporary environmental discourse increasingly recognizes nature as an equal partner to the built environment in fostering climate-adaptive and ecologically sustainable urban settlements. Focusing on Sofia and Bucharest, the research critically assess the processes of “renaturalisation” and “rewilding” of the urban. The Boyana Marsh in Sofia, a natural wetland under pressure from private development, and Văcărești Nature Park in Bucharest, a wetland emerging from an abandoned socialist-era artificial lake project, share distinct physical histories yet have converging meanings as unique urban wildlands in the city, important for sustainable development and refuge for non-human species. The study is using critical cultural and urban studies approaches, such as oral history and discourse analysis to challenge the dominant narrative of “wild” post-socialist cities. It situates these processes within the broader context of Bulgaria's and Romania’s socialist legacies and their transitions to market economies and  democratic governance. The study hypothesizes that examining these cases jointly can reveal how discourses of climate change shape contemporary urban nature's construction and contestation.

The delegitimisation of foreign rulers plays a central role in Neo-Assyrian propaganda. In Assyrian texts, foreign rulers were characterised as blood-thirsty villains, who even killed their closest relatives, and as treaty-breakers, who ignored the warnings of gods and wise people. Thereby, the Assyrians had to intervene to restore a just world order. Even after defeating their enemies, the Assyrian propaganda continued ridiculing the foreign rulers. While the justification of the expansionistic policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–609 B.C.) has been studied in detail, no detailed study of the description and delegitimisation of foreign rulers has been conducted so far. The project will study the Neo-Assyrian narratives about and representations of foreign rulers and their authority. The research on Neo-Assyrian strategies of delegitimisation not only contributes to the field of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, but also to the fields of empire studies, political sciences, studies on propaganda, and the current discussion on hybrid warfare.