The ARCS team, consisting of Acting Academic Director Dr. Emil Nankov; Chief Administrator Dr. Dilyana Ivanova; our newest member, Balkan Studies Officer Cynthia Lintz; and the Co-President of the ARCS Foundation Dr. Nora Dimitrova Clinton, attended the 8th Symposium "Tsar Shishmanov Days" organized by the “Ongal” Association, hosted by the Samokov Municipality, and co-sponsored by the American Research Center in Sofia. The ARCS representatives discussed the Center's mission and activities at the official opening ceremony at the Samokov Museum of History. Dr. Nora Clinton thanked the Mayor of Samokov, Vladimir Georgiev, the Director of the Museum of History, Nina Hristoska, and the “Ongal” Association President, Dr. Rosen Malchev for their hospitality and the opportunity to participate in a symposium of such academic significance and thematic diversity, and emphasized the role of the American Research Center for stimulating Bulgarian-American academic and cultural contacts and supporting American scholars to do research in Bulgaria and the Balkans. She expressed her enthusiasm about the fledgling but very promising cooperation with the “Ongal” Association and the Municipality of Samokov, a town with a long tradition of American educational and cultural presence.

Dr. Dilyana Ivanova, who recently published her ARCS series monograph entitled Memories of Everyday Life during Socialism in the Town of Rousse, Bulgaria, presented her book to the audience and also discussed the other publications of the Center. At the end of the opening ceremony, Cynthia Lintz was introduced to as our Balkan Studies Officer and gave a brief presentation in Bulgarian, which was greatly appreciated by the audience.

In the evening of October 10, ARCS hosted a reception for the conference participants, at which Dr. Nora Clinton presented the leaders of the “Ongal” Association Dr. Rosen Malchev, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Konstantin Rangochev, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nikolay Nenov with several of ARCS’ recent publications. During the gala dinner held on October 11, the leadership of the Association donated a number of their conference proceedings to the Library of ARCS.

       
 
Finally, the Rousse Regional Museum of History documentary film "A Journey along the Roman Danube Limes" was officially announced as the first prize recipient at the Balkan Cultural Film Festival. This video of the Rousse Museum was part of a Site Preservation and Museum Enhancement Project of the Museum funded by the America for Bulgaria Foundation and the American Research Center in Sofia.