On May 15, 2025, the Institute of Balkan Studies & Centrе оf Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences organized a public lecture of Professor Peter Schreiner, a visiting foreign scholar in Bulgarian studies. Professor Schreiner is a world-renowned expert in the field of Byzantine and European medieval studies, doctor honoris causa of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and of Veliko Tarnovo University St. St. Cyril and Methodius. For his exceptional merits in the study of medieval Bulgarian history and the past of Samuil's Bulgaria, on October 3, 2024, he was awarded an honorary badge by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Professor Schreiner is author of many books and over 1,000 studies, articles and reviews. With his numerous publications, he convincingly demonstrates the exceptional role of Medieval Bulgaria and the Bulgarians in the history and culture of the European Southeast. For many years, he has been the president of the International Association for Byzantine Studies and editor-in-chief of the prestigious journal Byzantinische Zeitschrift.

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We are pleased to invite you to the official opening of the exhibition "Tracking the Dog Echoes from Ancient Thrace" on May 17, 2025 (Saturday) at 16:30 at the Paleontological Museum "Dimitar Kovachev" - Asenovgrad (A branch of the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). The event is part of the museum's program in the "European Night of Museums 2025" and will present the relationship between the dog and man in Ancient Thrace, exploring data from written sources, iconographic monuments and archaeozoological remains. Visitors will be able to view finds of dogs from Antiquity, discovered during archaeological research in different parts of the country.

The exhibition is organized in implementation of the project of the Institute of Balkan Studies with Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences "Corpus Animalium Thracicorum: a digital corpus of the Thracian land’s fauna (1000 BC - AD 500)", funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria under contract No. KП-06-M90/2 of 10.12.2024.

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The Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is pleased to invite you to the public lecture-discussion on the topic “The Polish public and cultural policy: А conversation about strategic approach, tools and backstage”. It will be held on May 19, 2025 (Monday) at 15:00 in the Ivan Geshov Hall in the central building of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1, 15 November Street, 1000 Sofia). Special guests and lecturers will be Mrs. Małgorzata Hejduk-Gromek, Minister-counsellor, Head of Consular and Polish Diaspora Section, Embassy of Poland in Bulgaria and Mrs. Iwona Jakuszko-Dudka, Director of the Polish Institute in Sofia.

The event is organized in institutional partnership with the State Institute for Culture to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria. It is part of a series of public lecture-discussions dedicated to cultural diplomacy in Bulgaria and the Balkans.

We look forward to welcoming you!

This initiative is implemented as part of the Project “Cultural diplomacy in the Balkans in the 20th and 21st centuries: Achievements, challenges, and the way forward”, funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria, contract No. КП-06-Н80/4 dated 07.12.2023.

The Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBSCT-BAS) is pleased to invite you to the public lecture of Prof. PhD Dr. Honoris Causa Peter Schreiner from the University of Cologne, titled "John Skylitzes and Bulgaria". The event will take place on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 18:00 at the University Club "Yaytseto".

The lecture is in implementation of the National Scientific Program "Development and Promotion of Bulgarian Studies Abroad" and is organized in co-operation with the Faculty of History of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.

We look forward to welcoming you.

The Institute for Balkan Studies and Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBSCT–BAS) is pleased to invite you to the NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THRACOLOGY. The event will be held on the 14th–15th of May 2025 in Hall 19 of Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM–BAS) Prof. Roumiana Preshlenova, PhD, Director of IBSCT–BAS and Assoc. Prof. Mila Maeva, PhD, Director of IEFSEM–BAS will officially open the event on the 14th of May 2025 (Wednesday) at 9:15.

The conference will be attended by both established and young scholars, as well as doctoral students from various scientific institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Universities and Museums in the country and abroad.The event will be held in hybrid format - live at Hall No. 19 of IEFSEM–BAS (6A, Moskovska Str., Sofia), and remotely via ZOOM (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/ 89688254113, password: 906453).

Programme

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Third Round Table of "The Obscured Balkans" project – "IN THE BEGINNING WAS WATER", which will be held on November 27-28, 2025 in hybrid form at the building of IBSCT-BAS at 45 Moskovska Street and via Zoom.

Until September 15, 2025, you can send participation requests. The round tables are inextricably linked to the electronic series "The Obscured Balkans", in which the extended papers of the participants are published. The deadline for submitting articles is March 2026.

The round tables and the electronic series are part of "The Obscured Balkans", a project of the Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBSCT-BAS) under the "Creation and development of "Heritage BG" Centre of Excellence".

More information about the participation and thematic circles is available here.

We are pleased to invite you to the public lecture at the University of Groningen, Kingdom of the Netherlands by PhD student Stella Nikolova, member of the project team of the Institute of Balkan Studies with the Center for Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences "Corpus Animalium Thracicorum: a digital corpus of the Thracian land’s fauna (1000 BC - AD 500)", funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria under contract No. KП-06-M90/2 of 10.12.2024.

The scientific event is dedicated to the “Animal Economy in Late Iron Age Bulgaria: New Data from the Thracian Site of Pistiros” and will be held on May 6, 2025 (Tuesday) at 16:00 at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA), University of Groningen.

The talk will present the latest data on faunal remains from Iron Age sites in Bulgaria. It will start with a recap on the period, introducing some historical data on the ancient Thracian tribes, who inhabited these lands and their interaction with the Ancient Greek merchants and colonies of the Black Sea and Aegean coast. The main case study of the presentation will be the site of Pistiros. Located in the Thracian valley of central Bulgaria, Pistiros is a unique site which was established by ancient Greek merchants from several places (including  island of Thasos, the polis of Apolonia and Maronia all in modern-day Northern Greece). It served as a trading port (or emporium) for exchanging goods with the local Thracian population and was active in the course of the 5th – 3rd centuries BC. The site’s excavations started in 1989 and have since uncovered over 50 000 fragments of faunal remains of mammals, birds, fish and molluscs, making it the largest deposit for this time period. This enormous deposit allows us to tackle human-animal interactions from several aspects: animal husbandry, importing new species, hunting, fishing, butchery practices, and a contextual analysis of deposit formation.

We are pleased to invite you to join a discussion about the concept of marriage, which will be held on June 9, 2025, at 13:00.

The event will be hosted live in the "Acad. Ivan Evstratiev Geshov" Hall at the central building of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1, 15 Novembre Str.), and remotely via ZOOM (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81339988213).

The event is organized as part of the activities of the "Historical Chameleons" project, implemented by the Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the scientific infrastructure CLADA.BG. More about the event and the project can be found at https://historical-chameleons.clada-bg.com/marriage-discussion/

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The Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBSCT-BAS) is pleased to invite you to the presentation of the monograph of Assist. Prof. Dr. Elmira Vasileva (IBSCT-BAS) "Protestant missions in the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The activities of the American Board of Commissioners of Missions Abroad (19th century - until the First World War)". The event will be held on May 13, 2025 (Tuesday) at 15:30 in the IBSCTC-BAS (45 Moskovska Street, 1000 Sofia).

The monograph presents Protestant missions in the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the period from the 1820s to the First World War. It is dedicated to the activities of the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners of Missions Abroad, an organization of the Congregationalist (Congregational) Church, and provides a comprehensive view of their work, referring to broader sources and reflecting the local specificities. This study aims to clarify the essence of the Protestant missions missionary initiatives and the reasons for their flourishing in the period under consideration.

We look forward to welcoming you!

On April 11, 2025, a discussion was held at the Retro Café of RΗM-Sofia, dedicated to the film “Heights”, based on the novel of the same name by Milen Ruskov and adapted for the big screen by Viktor Bozhinov. The event was a continuation of the discussion of the literary work, which took place on April 4, 2025. The moderator of the event was Assoc. Prof. Gergana Doncheva, PhD (IBSCT-BAS). Those present had the opportunity and pleasure to talk with the performer of the leading role - Alexander Alexiev - one of the iconic figures of Bulgarian cinema today, who shared his work impressions in connection with the film and answered the numerous questions and comments with interest. The focus of the discussion were issues such as the influence that the film “Heights” has on Bulgarian society, its place and role as a historical film for the formation of a national and civic position, the possibilities for rethinking historical reality through the prism of cinematography, etc.

The event part of the activities of the Institute for Balkans Studies with Centre for Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, organized by the “Obscured Balkans” project, implemented jointly with the Regional History Museum - Sofia within the framework of their partnership in the initiative “Heritage BG” Centre of Excellence”.

A team from the Institute of Balkan Studies with the Center for Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, part the project "Obscured Balkans: On the Historical Novel", is organizing a discussion dedicated to the movie "Vazvishenie" by Victor Bozhinov.

The event is a continuation of a previous discussion dedicated to novel of the same name by Milen Ruskov, from which the adaptation was made and is part of a series that aims to draw public attention to the historical novel and its influence on modern society.

Moderator of the discussion will be Assoc. Prof. Gergana Doncheva, PhD (IBCT-BAS), and the film producers, as well as actors, together with prominent historians, specialists in the field of the Bulgarian National Revival, ethnologists and writers, will participate.

The discussion will be held on April 11, 2025 (Friday) at the Retro Café of the Regional Museum of History - Sofia, 1 Banski Square at 17:30.

The event part of the activities of the Institute for Balkans Studies with Centre for Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, organized by the "Obscured Balkans" project, implemented jointly with the Regional History Museum - Sofia within the framework of their partnership in the "Heritage BG" Centre of Excellence".

On April 8, 2025, a public lecture-discussion on the topic “Slovenian Culture Through My Eyes: A Personal Perspective on Cultural Diplomacy” was held in the Ivan Geshov Hall of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It is part of the series of events dedicated to cultural diplomacy in Bulgaria and the Balkans, organized by the Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBSCT-BAS) in partnership with the State Institute for Culture to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria (DKI). The initiative is implemented as part of the Project “Cultural diplomacy in the Balkans in the 20th and 21st centuries: Achievements, challenges, and the way forward”, funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The public lecture-discussion was opened by the Project Manager, Assist. Prof. Dr. Alexandra Milanova, Scientific Coordinator of the IBSCT-BAS. The Director of DKI Ms. Snezhana Yoveva-Dimitrova welcomed the attendees and highlighted the fruitful cooperation between the institute she leads and the Slovenian Embassy. She drew special attention to the Bulgarian-Slovenian exhibition "Bridges" presented in 2022 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Slovenia.

Special guest and lecturer was H.E. Nataša Bergelj, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to Bulgaria. She talked about the role of the Slovenian language and literature in the country's foreign policy, presented the most important cultural events held in Bulgaria since the beginning of her mandate, and emphasized the importance of the European Capital of Culture in 2025, which for the first time unites cities in two countries - Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and Gorizia (Italy).

Ambassador Bergel's presentation sparked a lively discussion, in which journalists, scholars, university professors, doctoral candidates, and students participated.

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