8th Joint Bulgarian-American Conference: Bulgarian-American Dialogs

13-15 June, 2008, Varna, Bulgaria

The 8th successive Joint Bulgarian-American Conference, titled “Bulgarian-American Dialogs” was held June 13- 15, 2008 at the Resort Home of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on the Black Sea coast near Varna. The conference was co-organized by the Council for Bulgarian Studies Abroad at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and the Bulgarian Studies Association, and was funded by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Central Library of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The participants presented papers on traditional interdisciplinary topics in philology, anthropology, history, sociology and culture, and on issues in new fields of study. The BSA delegation was composed of scholars in Bulgarian studies from universities in the US, Germany, Norway, and Sweden, and lecturers at the American University in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian delegation consisted of scholars from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (the Institutes of Literature, Bulgarian Language, History, Balkan Studies, Folklore, and Art Studies, the Ethnographic Institute and Museum, and the Cyrillo- Methodian Research Centre), St. Kliment of Ohrid University in Sofia, the New Bulgarian University, and the Faculty of The- ology at Shumen University.

The papers dealt with a variety of fields and methodological approaches in the humanities and social sciences. The Conference was opened with an address by Academician Konstantin Kossev, Vice-President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who noted the major significance of bi- lateral meetings and expressed the conviction that they would continue to play a leading role in co-operation between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Bulgarian Studies Association. Prof. Anisava Miltenova opened the Conference with an introduction tracing the work of earlier conferences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1974), Varna (1978), Boston (1982), Smolyan (1987), Pittsburgh

(1994), Blagoevgrad (1999), and Columbus, Ohio (2003). Special attention was given to the part that these meetings have played in researchers’ achievements and support of Bulgarian studies in the world, as well as in promotion of the study of the Bulgarian language, Bulgarian literature and culture by young Bulgarian scholars. The talk noted the enormous contribution of scholars such as Prof. Thomas Butler, Prof. Donald Dyer, Prof. John Bell, Prof. Ernest Scatton, Prof. Charles Gribble, Prof. Cynthia Vakareliyska, Prof. Fredric Chary, and Prof. Kjetil Rå Hauge.

Prof. Boryana Velcheva in her paper “Meeting American Linguistics” presented interesting reminiscences of her contact and joint work with American linguists and their role in shaping her academic interests. Prof. Kjetil Rå Hauge (University of Oslo) spoke on discourse particles in translations into Bulgarian from English. Prof. Roger Gyllin and Daniela Assenova (University of Uppsala) gave a comprehensive historical presentation on the past and future of Bulgarian studies in Sweden.

The other contributions were grouped thematically, on religion, history, language and literature, ethnography and folklore, and music. Prof. Frederick Chary (University of Indiana) presented a reexamination of the issue of the saving of Jews in Bulgaria during the Second World War. Prof. Rumen Genov (New Bulgarian University) acquainted the participants with the role of American Protestant missions to Bulgaria in the history of Bulgarian and foreign studies. Assoc. Prof. Pavel Stefanov (Shumen University) dealt with the experiences of a British officer in Bulgaria during the Crimean War as a case study in cultural anthropology. Prof. Benedict De Dominicis (American University in Bulgaria) focused on the role of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Bulgarian national identity in the past and present against the background of the role of Church institutions in other Balkan countries.

Prof. Marcus Wien, also from the American University, examined Bulgarian-American economic ties from 1918 to 1944. Prof. Christopher Scarboro (King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA) presented a typology of the organization of excursions and proximate tourism over the period 1950-1985 in Bulgaria. Prof. Voin Bojinov (Institute of History BAS) presented some little-known facts about the life and work of the American ambassador in Sofia Dominic Murphy in his paper “The Bulgarian Public, the United States and the Peace (1918)”. Lobbying and public relations for Bulgarian and Bulgaria in the U.S. were the topic of a ground-breaking paper by Prof. Detelina Dineva (Institute of History, BAS).

Another panel of papers presented joint projects of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and American academic centers. Among these was the project of the Institute of Ethnography at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Center for East European Studies at the University at Pittsburgh, presented by Prof. Elya Tzaneva (Institute and Museum of Ethnography, BAS). Prof. Lilljana Simeonova (Institute of Balkan Studies, BAS) presented the results of a joint study with Rice University on the role of women medievalists in the Academy. Prof. Svetla Koeva of the Institute for Bulgarian Language analyzed results of the project Bulgarian WorldNet of the Department of Computational Linguistics, funded by the European Union (5th Framework) and Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Research. She shared her experience in the context of the international initiative WorldNet and the participation of American research centers in it. Prof. Rumjana Preshlenova (Institute of Balkan Sudies, BAS) presented the paper “Education as Communication: Bulgarian-American Traditions.” A comparative analysis of doctoral programs at the University of South Dakota, USA, and Plovdiv University presented by Plamen Miltenov and Gary Schnelert (University of South Dakota) and Galin Tzokov (Paisij Hilendarski University in Plovdiv) provoked considerable de- bate. The presentation included a direct Internet phone link with Prof. Schnelert, who answered a number of audience questions. The authors placed emphasis on bilateral projects for the academic development in both countries.

A separate series of papers focused on medieval studies. Prof. Cynthia Vakareliyska (University of Oregon) compared the calendar and commemorations of saints in the Draganov Menaion (Zograph Trephologion), dated to the late thirteenth century, with the calendars of saints in the Curzon Gospel, the Banica Gospel, and the lectionary gospel/ apostolus No. 882 (from Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia). Prof. Iskra Hristova-Shomova (Sofia University) presented a history of translations of the Old Testament Book of Job, based on a rich collection of unpublished materials from Slavic manuscripts, analyzing the different translation strategies chosen by different bookmen working in different times and cultural settings. Dr. Tatiana Nikolova-Houston (University of Texas at Austin) examined the mentality of late medieval bookmen of the 16th-17th centuries, in a report based on marginalia from manuscripts kept at the Historical Archival Institute in Sofia.

Daniela Assenova (University of Uppsala) spoke on current problems and innovational practices in the teaching of Bulgarian language and culture in the Scandinavian countries. Her contribution reflected her dedication to promoting and modernizing the teaching of Bulgarian in universities out- side Bulgarian. She noted in her paper that Prof. Roger Gyllin (University of Uppsala) had a major part in creating the on- line courses at Uppsala University, and that as a result, hun- dreds of people in Scandinavia have been drawn to studying Bulgarian. Prof. Yovka Tisheva (Department of Bulgarian, Sofia University) presented a very interesting contribution on a number of issues in the study of contemporary Bulgarian and the future of joint studies with institutions outside Bulgaria.

She identified two major tendencies in the dynamics of colloquial Bulgarian: reduction and multiplication/accumulation in lexical and grammatical categories. Researcher Elka Dimitrova-Uilis (Institute of Literature, BAS) shared her observations on Bulgarian and American poetry in the 1950s-70s.

Previously unstudied folklore issues that were presented in the papers of researchers Vihra Baeva and Svetlana Toncheva (Institute for Folklore, BAS) provoked considerable discussion. Prof. Jean M. Christensen (University of Louisville) examined patterns in traditional musical folklore vis-à-vis music by Bulgarian composers. Claire Levy’s paper “Milcho Leviev Meets Don Ellis: On the Intercultural Aspects of Jazz History” (Institute of Art Studies) was accompanied by a particularly pleasing jazz background.

The 8th Joint Bulgarian-American Conference “Bulgarian-American Dialogs” concluded with speeches by Prof. Kjetil Rå Hauge, Vice President of the Bulgarian Studies Association for Bulgarian Studies and BSA delegation head, Prof. Cynthia Vakareliyska (University of Oregon), and Prof. Anisava Miltenova. The meeting was enormously successful, both in the selection of papers presented and their scholarly contribution, and in the truly outstanding conference organization by the Council for Foreign Bulgarian Studies of the BAS.

Veska Topalova

Executive Council of Bulgarian Studies Abroad

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences