Roumen Dontchev Daskalov, born in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, in 1958. Ph.D. from Sofia University. Associate Professor at the History Department at the Central European University, Budapest.
Visiting Grant Scholar (1 October 2004 – 31 December 2004)
THE MOUNTAIN, THE ROAD, THE RIVER, THE SEA: STUDIES IN THE SYMBOLIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE BALKANS
At NIAS, I did research on a recently started project: “The Mountain, the Road, the River: Studies in the Symbolic Geography of the Balkans”. I made substantial progress, mostly in accumulating and reading relevant materials – primary sources, theoretical works on the topic. I now find myself at an intermediary stage in this project, with still work to be done but clearer and better focused ideas. I also did the final editing of my two-volume work on the social history of Bulgaria under the title: “Bulgarian Society, 1878-1939”. This is a comprehensive structural history (along the lines of the German Gesellschaftsgeschichte) in several dimensions: demography, politics, economy, society and culture. I have been working on it for more than ten years and to my greatest satisfaction (and relief), I was able to bring it to completion. Symbolically, it was started at IAS – Princeton and completed at NIAS Wassenaar. I also gave a talk on “Images of Europe from the Periphery” at a Conference of the Akademie fuer Politische Ausbildung in Tutzing, Germany. I consider my stay at NIAS to have been extremely useful and productive.