Meet Our Research Team

The core research team includes four specialists in Balkan history, who complement each other in terms of professional expertise, such as in-depth knowledge of individual Balkan national histories/historiographies, and regional language proficiencies. Another four to six scholars will be involved with contributions to the two collective volumes and with articles in peer-reviewed journals resulting from the project. All participating researchers have considerable international experience and respectable publication record and are established and internationally recognized scholars.

Prof. Roumen Daskalov

New Bulgarian University, SofiaProf. Roumen Daskalov started his academic career as Max Weber scholar with a PhD on his historical sociology, awarded from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. After 1989 he turned to reassessment of the communist past and issues of the post-communist transition. Later on, he did extensive research and published in the field of the social history of Bulgaria. He also published on modernization processes in the Balkans in the framework of theories of under/development. During the last two decades years he has been researching and publishing in the history of historiography, especially Bulgarian historiography on the medieval and the modern period. He also conducted research on the entangled history of the Balkans. He has extensive teaching experience at Sofia University, the Central European University-Budapest, the New Bulgarian University and (as guest lecturer) at the University of California-Berkeley. He was awarded fellowship from the European University Institute, the Institute for Advanced Study - Princeton, Fulbright fellowship, Humboldt fellowship, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), “Imre Kertész” Kolleg – Jena, Gerda Henkel Foundation, an Advanced grant of the European Research Council, and currently he is the leader of the research project “Balkan historiography wars” funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund. All in all, he has authored eleven books, edited six volumes and published some sixty articles in different languages.

CV | Publications

Prof. Diana Mishkova

Centre for Advanced Study, SofiaProf. Diana Mishkova is the founder and Director of the Center of Advanced Study in Sofia with extensive teaching experience at a number of universities. She graduated history at “St. Kliment Ohridski” University in Sofia and obtained her PhD degree from the same university in 1988. She was awarded fellowships from the European University Institute in Florence, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menshen (Vienna), Collegium Budapest and most recently at Imre Kertesz College (Jena). She was visiting professor at the University of Copenhagen, the University of Uppsala (Sweden), the Central European University (Budapest), the University of Minnesota, George Washington University and Pittsburg University, the University of Athens, Sabanci University (Turkey) and Fribourg University (Switzerland). She has authored three books, some forty peer-reviewed articles and twenty-six book chapters in various languages, and edited eight volumes (six of them international). She is a Foreign Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Doctor Honoris Causa of Södertörn University in Stockholm, and holder of the Danubius Award of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research for achievements in science and research in and for the Danube region and of the Konstantin Jireček Medal of the German Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft for outstanding contributions to and achievements in international research on Southeast Europe.

CV | Publications

Dr. Tchavdar Marinov

Bulgarian Academy of SciencesDr. Tchavdar Marinov is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He graduated philosophy from “St. Kliment Ohridski” University in Sofia and obtained his MA degree from the same university (in 1999) and another one from Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris (in 2000). He earned his PhD degree in History and Civilizations from Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris (in 2006) with a thesis on the construction of national identity in Macedonia and the Bulgarian-Macedonian history- and language disputes. He received fellowships from the New Europe College in Bucharest, the Center for Advanced Study in Sofia, Collegium Budapest, the Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (Istanbul) as well as a Marie-Curie fellowship from the European Commission. Most recently he was a fellow at the French School at Athens. He is fluent in French, English and Russian and uses German, Rumanian, Greek as well as Latin and ancient Greek. He is the author of two books in French, co-editor of other three collective volumes and published a number of articles and book chapters in several languages.

CV | Publications

Dr. Alexander Vezenkov

Independent scholarDr. Alexander Vezenkov graduated history from “St. Kliment Ohridski” University of Sofia, earned his M.A. degree from the Central European University - Budapest (in 1998) and his PhD degree from “St. Kliment Ohridski” University – Sofia (in 2001) with a thesis on the urbanization and demography in socialist Bulgaria. He specialized at Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris and held fellowships and research grants from several institutions, such as the Center for Advanced Study in Sofia, Collegium Budapest, New Europe College in Bucharest, and the Instutut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna. He has excellent language training: fluency in English, French and Rumanian and active usage of German, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, and Albanian. His publications include two books, one co-edited volume and twenty-five articles in several languages.

CV | Publications