American Research Center in Sofia

Fall 2012 Program

Sept. 11, 5:30 p.m. Prof. Glenn Bugh (Virginia Tech University) – Inaugural lecture, “ARCS: Not Just About Thracians”

Sept. 13, 6:00 p.m. Dr. Margarit Damyanov (National Institute of Archaeology with Museum - BAS), “Greeks and Thracians on the Western Pontic Shores”

Sept. 25, 6:00 p.m. Prof. Maya Vassileva (New Bulgarian University), “Thracian Megalithic Monuments: Old Questions and New Approaches”

Sept. 26, 6:00 p.m. Dr. Anitra Thorhaug, ecologist and research professor at Yale University, will present a lecture, “Western Hemisphere and Critical Accidents on Natural Resources”; this will be followed at 6:40 p.m. by American poet Andrew H. Oerke who will read new poems about language and Africa based upon his personal experience.

Sept. 27, 6:00 p.m. Dilyana Ivanova (The Field Museum, Chicago), “Memory about Public Entertainment during Socialism”

Oct. 2, 6:00 p.m. Prof. Rossitsa Gradeva (American University in Bulgaria and Institute for Balkan Studies with Centre for Thracology), “Christians, Muslims, and Jews in an Ottoman Balkan city: Glimpses from Sofia in the Pre-Tanzimat Period”

Oct. 4, 6:00 p.m. Prof. Dorothea Valentinova (Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"), "Iustitia versus Corruptio: Corruption Practices and Anti-corruption Legislation in Ancient Rome"

Oct. 18, 6:00 p.m. Prof. Alexander Nikolov (Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"), " Bulgarian diaspora in Early Medieval Italy: The case of Alzeco"

Oct. 23, 6:00 p.m. Prof. Bogdan Athanassov (New Bulgarian University), “Mobile Lifeways in the Eastern Balkan Late Bronze Age”

Oct. 25-26 CONFERENCE – Communication and Commerce in the Balkans from Alexander the Great to Alexander Battenberg, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Oct. 30, 6:00 p.m. Prof. Vesselina Vachkova (National Academy of Arts, Sofia and National Lyceum of Classic Languages St. Constantine Cyril the Philosopher), “Why Constantine the Great used to say ‘Serdica is my Rome’”

Nov. 1, 6:00 p.m. Dr. Eric De Sena (American Research Center in Sofia), "The Porolissum Forum Project: archaeology on the fringes of the Roman Empire"

Nov. 6, 6:00 p.m. Dr. Petar Zidarov (New Bulgarian University), “Beneath the surface: Latest results from remote sensing surveys at neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Bulgaria”

Nov. 8, 4:00 p.m. ARCS Fellows Lectures I:

Cengis Haksoz (University of Pittsburg), The Pomaks across the Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish Borders

Max Holleran (New York University), On the Coast: Tourism and Urbanization in post-Socialist Bulgaria

Nov. 8, 6:00 p.m. Prof. Elissaveta Moussakova (National Library of the Republic of Bulgaria “St. Cyril and Methodius), “Byzantine Manuscripts: South Slavonic traditions”

Nov. 10, 1:30 p.m. Seminar and demonstration of Medieval European swordsmanship - lectures and demonstration by MOTUS School of Medieval Swordsmanship

Nov. 19,  Prof. Jordan Baev and Prof. Kostadin Grozev (Center of Military History, G.S. Rakovski National Defense College), 5:30 p.m., "The Cuban Missile Crisis: 50 years later” 

Nov. 20, 4:00 p.m. ARCS Fellows Lectures II, (3 presentations):

Andriy Fomin (Rutgers University), How Dio wrote History: Dio Cassius Historical, Literary and Intellectual Techniques

Stefan Peychev (University of Illinois, Urbana) Public Baths and Urban Space: the Case of Ottoman Sofia

Caroline Wisler (University of Illinois, Urbana) Conflict Transformation and Peace building in the Balkans

Nov. 21, 4.30 p.m.  REPORTS BY ARCS/ABF/FIELD MUSEUM SITE PRESERVATION AND MUSEUM ENHANCEMENT GRANTEES 

Associate Professor Nicolay Nenov (RIM-Ruse) "Episcopal residence of the late Middle Ages - archaeology, education and tourism"; Meglena Parvin (IM "Iskra" - Kazanlak) "Protecting and improving the antiquity fund in the Museum of History "Iskra", Kazanlak"

Dec. 10, 5:00 p.m. Prof. Catherine Horel (Research Director at the CNRS, France and IRICE, Paris I University) The Multicultural Cities of the Habsburg Empire 1880-1914 

Lectures and conference are open to the public at no charge. Additional events may be posted.