American Research Center in Bulgaria Inc.

“Arc in sofia foundation 75 vasil petleschkov st., sofia, bulgaria 117,116 0 1510 0”

“Expenses advertising and promotion 142 131 public events 870 travel 788 total 1,931”

“The purposes for which arcb, inc. Has been organized are charitable, educational and scientific. In carrying out these purposes the organization may provide support to: (1) american research center in sofia, a non-profit foundation organized, registered and operating under the laws of bulgaria; (2) american scholars and academic researchers in the field of the humanities and social sciences in bulgaria; (3) collaboration and cooperation between scholars from north america, bulgaria and countries from southeast europe (including romania, greece, albania, kosovo, macedonia, serbia and montenegro, and turkey).”

“Arcs pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships during the 2015 academic year, arcs hosted a total of 4 pre-doctoral fellows: three nine-month fellows, one three-month spring, and one three- month fall fellows. The arcs pre-doctoral fellows received free housing and 30 hours of language training per semester. They pursued their own research projects, participated in all public events at arcs, and took language courses in bulgarian or another language of the balkans. For the second year, arcs also hosted a postdoctoral fellow between september-november 2014 and may-july 2015 with a stipend of 2,000 per month. The fellow took part in the academic program and the trips; he also organized a conference at arcs in addition to conducting research in bulgaria.”

“Conferences: may 7-8, 2015. "town and country in the byzantine world: social and economic perspectives." organized by the arcs postdoctoral fellow, dr. Pavel murdzhev (santa fe college), the conference brought together a group of leading scholars from bulgaria, the republic of macedonia, greece, georgia, poland, hungary, the czech republic, germany, great britain, and the usa to discuss the latest trends in the field of byzantine studies. October 2-4, 2015. "the 9th symposium 'tsar shishmanov days' in samokov." the conference was organized by the "ongal" association, hosted by the samokov municipality, bulgaria, and co-sponsored by arcs”

“Public events: april 24, 2015. The american research center in sofia celebrated its 10th anniversary among friends and supporters at the national palace of culture. The event was heralded by a public lecture, "western values twenty-five years after the fall of the wall," by dr. Philip dimitrov, prime minister of the republic of bulgaria in 1991-1992, bulgarian ambassador to the usa in 1998-2002, and ambassador of the european union to the republic of georgia in 2010-2014. Many dignitaries, including the president of bulgaria and the deputy prime minister, endorsed the event. May 11, 2015. Prof. Florin curta (university of florida) delivered a public lecture on "the making of the slavs - 14 years later. New remarks on the history and archaeology of the early slavs in the balkans, sixth to seventh century ad." the event took place at arcs and was attended by local scholars. June 14, 2015. Arcb organized the official opening of its new website, "the immigrant's suitcase. Virtual museum of the bulgarians in north america" for the bulgarian community in chicago" (www.immigrant.bg). The event was entitled "with memory for the past and hope for the future. Shared heritage." october 15, 2015. Arcb held an event at the general consulate of the republic of bulgaria in new york, entitled "memory and future - shared heritage." the event included a presentation in memory of arcs' celebrated author dr. Zvi keren and ended with the presentation of the "the immigrant's suitcase. Virtual museum of the bulgarians in north america" for the bulgarian community in new york. November 19, 2015. Arcb sponsored a reception at the annual meeting of the association for slavic, east european, and eurasian studies (aseees, november 19-22, 2015) in philadelphia, pa. Arcs also organized two sessions. The first was entitled, "communist legacy and post-communist reality - historical memory and political culture,- and the second was called "studying and musealizing state socialism in bulgaria. Debates and interpretations." november 20, 2015. Arcb provided logistical and financial support to the chicago concert by the bulgarian ethno-music group balkanski, led by the famous flute player teodosii spassov. The group performed in chicago on november 20 as a part of their 2015 north american tour.”

“Publications: anthropology: journal for socio-cultural anthropology, volume 2, 2015, special guest editor dr. Cristofer scarboro. The papers from this special edition of anthropology emerged from a conference held at the american research center last june, entitled "living after the fall (?): past- present in southeastern europe," organized by dr. Scarboro in his capacity as the center's inaugural postdoctoral fellow in 2014. Book subsidy for typology and chronology of late bronze age and early iron age bronze socketed spearheads in southeastern europe, by lyuben leshtakov, ate ? Ars et technica explicatus, sofia, 2015 (in bulgarian with english summaries). Book subsidy for a new translation of antigone of sophocles, by kiril merjanski, sofia, 2015. This edition presents antigone of sophocles in a new poetic translation into bulgarian - the work of kiril merjanski, the historian and longtime professor at ngdek (the national lyceum for ancient languages and cultures). A companion to ancient thrace, published by wiley-blackwell on may 19, 2015. The companion was first conceived in early fall 2010 by denver graninger (arcs director, 2010-2012), emil nankov (arcs archaeology program officer, 2009-present), and julia valeva (institute of art studies, bas). Websites: the american research center in sofia unveiled an online museum in may 2015 called, "the immigrant's suitcase. Virtual museum of bulgarians in north america" (www.immigrant.bg). The site's main idea is to build a virtual museum that will collect the personal stories of bulgarians who have immigrated to the united states and canada and allow them to share their life experiences through a virtual platform. Since november 2009, the names and biographies of all known victims of communism in bulgaria have been collected and published on the virtual memorial "victims of communism in bulgarian territory" (www.victimsofcommunism.bg), both in bulgarian and in english. In 2015 our team made improvements to the website, such as continuing the synchronization of the english and bulgarian versions of the site; upgrading the existing technical platform of the site with a content management system (cms) that allows the research team to upload materials to the website more independently from the web specialists. Archaeological program: arcs field school and summer archaeology program the program took place at the roman town of parthicopolis near sandanski in june 2015. Arcs hosted three undergraduate and graduate students from the usa and three graduate students from bulgaria. As a spin-off from the program, the american research center in sofia, the archaeological museum in sandanski, and the municipality of sandanski are organizing a conference, "sandanski and its territory during prehistory, antiquity and middle ages: current trends in archaeological research," that took place september 17-20, 2015, in sandanski.”