The American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS) was established in 2004 as an organization dedicated to facilitating academic research in Bulgaria for North American scholars and collaboration between scholars from North America and countries in Southeast Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia). Cornell University is the host institution of ARCS in the United States. ARCS is registered in the United States as a not-for-profit corporation and in Bulgaria as a non-profit foundation. ARCS is exempt from Federal income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are deductible from Federal income tax.

ARCS is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers and the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria.

A principal aim of ARCS will be to foster research and collaboration between North American scholars and those in Southeast European countries, formerly deprived of access to Western scholarship. Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia share a remarkable historical heritage and strong cultural ties. Sofia is well situated intellectually and politically as host city for an international research institution; inasmuch as it has not been directly engaged in recent troubles between countries of Southeast Europe, and is relatively centrally located, it has a great potential to provide an intellectual setting for careful and unbiased assessment of Southeast Europe's past. The intellectual community thus realized should become a significant resource for overcoming some of the longstanding ethnic and national problems in the region.

The Iron Curtain prevented East-European scholars from easy access to Western research, and Western scholars have remained largely unacquainted with numerous publications by their East-European colleagues. ARCS hopes to contribute to correcting this imbalance.

Bulgaria has an especially rich history of archaeological exploration. Many sites and monuments are still unknown to the broader international community, while others are being discovered every year. To name just a few examples, there are numerous Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement mounds, which complement our knowledge of such monuments from elsewhere in the Balkans and Northwestern Asia Minor; significant remains of Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman urban centers, settlements, and temples; many thousands of Thracian tumuli; more than a hundred Thracian tombs, with remarkable architecture and artistic decoration; several gold and silver Thracian treasures among the most valuable on the Balkans; ca. 3500 Greek and 1500 Latin inscriptions (many hundreds of which are unpublished), with valuable information about the area's history, etc.

Specific goals:

• Research in the humanities and social sciences (in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, art history, epigraphy, history, philology, among others), from prehistory through the modern age.

• Research on the modern languages of Southeast Europe, in the recognition that language is essential to a full and unrefracted understanding of culture. This research will promote a better appreciation of the region's literature, recent history, and civilization and should provide a helpful stimulus to the development of Bulgarian and Southeast European studies in American universities, where relatively few programs in this field exist. Classes in the modern Balkan languages, which the Center hopes to host, will complement linguistic research at the Center.

• Very close communication with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the American Research Institute in Turkey. This should enable scholars to avail themselves more fully of the possibilities for comparative study of antiquity in Southeast Europe.

• Close contact with other American institutions dedicated to research in the humanities and social sciences in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, thus taking advantage of a vast scholarly network.

• Archaeological tours of Bulgarian antiquities for students and North American teachers.

• The staff of the Center will facilitate communication between North American, Bulgarian, and other archaeologists in the region and help promote joint excavations.

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