Academic Career
Education
1974 - MA from the Universiry of Sofia "St. Kliment Ohridski"; Master Thesis on Arabian Elements in the Work of Abdurrahman Sheref "Tārīh-i Devlet-i Oṯmāniyye" (‘History of the Ottoman State’); Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Boris Nedkov
1978-1982 - Regular graduate student at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
1982 - PhD degree magna cum laude, Humboldt University of Berlin. Doctor Thesis on The Rise and Development of the Ottoman-Turkish Paleography and Diplomatics. A Scientific-Historical Examination under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. György Hazai, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Academic Employment
1982-1991 - Research Associate at the Institute of History, BAS.
1991 - Habilitation (Assoc. Prof.) for History after having submitted the research work Diplomatics of the Mediaeval Sources. Documents of Rulers.
1991 - Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of History, BAS.
1992-2020 - Head, "Auxiliary Sciences of History and Informatics" Department of the Institute of History, BAS.
1993-2012 - Deputy Director of the Institute of History, BAS.
2004 - Visiting Professor for the summer term at the Vienna University, Institute for East European History (Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte an der Universität Wien).
Academic Qualification
Academic degree and position
2004 - D.Sc. degree after defended a Dissertation on Cumanology. An Attempt at a Historiographical-Receiptivistical Analysis of the Researches on one Disappeared People.
2005 - Full Professor at the Institute of History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Membership in scientific bodies and societies
1992 - Member of the Specialized Council for New and Modern History at the Supreme Testimonial Committee of the Council of Ministers (1992-1995, 1998-2004).
1993 - Member of the Scientific Council at the Institute for Historical Research, BAS (to date).
1995-2004 - Board Member of the Humboldt-Union in Bulgaria as Head of the Humanities Section; Vice-President of the Union in 2000-2001.
2002 - Member of the Commission for South-Eastern European History at the "Pro-Oriente" Foundation, Vienna. (to date)
2005 - Chairman of the Bulgarian part of the Bulgarian-Hungarian Joint History Commission (to date).
2006 - Member of the Bulgarian Historical Society (to date).
2006-2009 - Vice-President of the Scholarly Commission in Historical Sciences of the Supreme Testimonial Committee of the Council of Ministers.
2009-2011 - Chairman of the Publishing Council of the National Endowment Fund "13 Centuries of Bulgaria".
2010-2011 - President of the Scholarly Commission in Historical Sciences of the Supreme Testimonial Committee of the Council of Ministers.
2021 - Chairman of the "Humanities and Social Sciences" section of the Humboldt Union in Bulgaria (continued).
Member of the editoral boards of the following periodicals
- Bulgarian Historical Review, Sofia
- Historical Archive, Sofia
- National Security, Sofia
- Bibliographic Bulletin: Publications on Bulgarian History, Sofia
- Bibliographic Bulletin: Bibliobulgarica, Sofia
- Österreichische Osthefte, Wien
Fellowships in Foreign Countries
1989-1990 - Ruhr University of Bochum, West Germany, 14 months with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship.
1994 - Vienna, Austria, 1 month with 'Constantin Jireček' Fellowship of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research.
1995 - Vienna, Austria, 2 months via the Austrian Institute of East and Southeast European Studies.
1998 - Vienna, Austria, 2 months via the Austrian Institute of East and Southeast European Studies.
2001-2002 - Eastern Europe Institute at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, 9 months with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship.
Research Projects
- Elaboration of methods and criteria for an individual evaluation of scholars at the Institute of History - BAS (Sofia, 1994).
- 50 Years Institute of History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia, 1996-1998).
- Society and Confession in South-Eastern Europe, 1989-1997: The Moslems in Bulgaria (Vienna, 1998-2001).
- Studia in Honorem Professoris Verae Mutafčievae (Sofia, 2000-2001).
- Project Turk (Ankara, 2002).
- Project, graphical arrangement and construction of the new Web Site of the Institute of History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia, 2005-2006, 2010).
- Bulgaria on the Road: Church - State - Society (Graz-Sofia, 2007-2008).
- From National State to the European Union: Bulgaria and Hungary during the 20th Century. A Project of the Institute of History and the Institute of Political Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia - Budapest, 2007-2009).
- Cumanology: Historiographical Sketches (Sofia, 2009-2010).
- Remaking Eastern Borders in Europe: a net-work exploring social, moral and material relocations of Europe's eastern peripheries (European Science Foundation, COST Action IS0803, Management Committee Member, Brussels, 2009-2012).
- Central and South-East Europe in the 19th-21st Century: Regions, Borders, Societies, Identities. A Project of the Institute for Historical Studies at the BAS and the Institute of History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia - Budapest, 2010-2012).
- Valeristica Polyhistorica. Selected Contributions to Border Studies of History (Sofia, 2011-2012).
- Project, graphical arrangement and construction of a Personal Web Site (2012).
- Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe: New Sources, New Approaches. A Project of the Institute for Historical Studies at the BAS and the Institute of History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. (Sofia - Budapest, 2013-2015).
- Proto-Bulgarica Digitalis: Homeland and Origin. Problems of Identification of the Bulgarians in the Context of the Eurasian Ethno-Cultural Processes. Digitalization of Research Works and Development of an Online Database (2014-2015).
- Connected Histories: Sources for Building History in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th - 21st Centuries. A Project of the Institute for Historical Studies at the BAS and the Institute of History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia - Budapest, 2016-2018).
- Project, graphical arrangement and construction of a Web Site of the "Auxiliary Sciences of History and Informatics" Department (2016-2017).
- Project, graphical arrangement and construction of a Web Site of the "Bulgarian Historical Review" Periodical (2017-2018).
- Project, graphical arrangement and construction of a Web Site of the "Historical Review" Periodical (2017-2018).
- Project, graphical arrangement and construction of the new personal Web Site "Valeristica" (2018).
- Project, graphical arrangement and construction of Web Site for publications on history "ClioMania" (2021)
Fields of Scholarly Interests
- Auxiliary Sciences of History (Paleography and Diplomatics); History and Theory of the Script and the Writing Systems; Onomastics (Ethnonymics and Anthroponymics); Chronology.
- History, Historical Ethnology and Anthropology; Border Studies.
- Ottoman and Turkic Studies; Altaic and [Proto]Bulgarian Studies; Medieval Equestrian Peoples; Cumanology.
- Central Asia and Eurasia; East and South-Eastern Europe; Balkans.
- Nations and Minorities - Identification and Integration Problems; European Muslims.
Teaching Experience
1990-1998 - High Islamic Institute, Sofia. Lectures on "General History" (Theoretical Problems; Prehistory; History of the Ancient East).
2004 - University of Vienna / Universität Wien:
- Lectures on "National and Minority Problems in the Balkans in the 19th-20th Centuries";
- Course on "Minorities in the Balkans in the 20th Century";
- Course on "Problems of the Integration of Muslims in the European Society".
- Seminar on "History of Bulgaria in Modern Times".
2005 - St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Center for Eastern Languages and Cultures. Lectures on "Fundamentals of the Cumanology".
2012 - St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Faculty of History. Lectures on "Contemporary Islam in the Balkans".
From 2016 - "Islamic Aspects of the Nationalism on the Balkans"
Languages
Bulgarian; German, Russian; English; Turkish