M. Drinov Center for Bulgarian and Balkan Studies

The Center was founded in 2005 with the support of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and M. Drinov Kharkiv Society of Bulgarian Culture.

The Center’s activity is aimed at addressing the following goals and objectives: to maintain the traditions of scientific Bulgarian Studies at the University through developing the priority areas, in particular the study of history and culture of the Bulgarian community in Ukraine; to coordinate research activity and focus efforts on topical areas of Balkan and Byzantine studies in Ukraine; to hold conferences, symposia, seminars, readings, roundtables on topical issues of Bulgaristics, Balkanistics, and Byzantine Studies; to send faculty members, doctoral, postgraduate, and undergraduate students to Bulgaria and other countries of South-Eastern Europe to conduct research; to help students and other interested persons in learning and mastering the Bulgarian and Greek languages; to amass a research library, an archive and a database in Bulgaristics and Balkanistics; to establish direct contacts with humanitarian universities and academic institutions in Bulgaria and other countries of the region to implement joint projects.

The Scientific Council of the Center, headed by Doctor of History M. Stanchev, comprises more than 25 doctors of sciences and PhDs.

The main research forum of the Center is the Drinov Readings (2006, 2007, 2010, 2013), and its printed edition is the "Drinov Collection", which is also a body of the Commission of Ukrainian and Bulgarian Historians. During 2007-2010, the Center focused its attention on implementing three international projects with the Institute of History and the Institute of Balkanistics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: “Marin Drinov’s Epistolary Heritage”; “Bulgaria and Ukraine: from Eurasian Empires to the European Union (mid 18th – early 21st centuries)”; “The Caucasus – the Crimea – the Balkans: between Islam and Christianity (late 18th – early 21st centuries)”. Fruitful academic contacts are also maintained with scholars from the University of Sofia "St. Kliment Ohridski", the St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo, the University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria), the State Universities of Belgrade and Novi Pazar (Serbia).

Since 2007, quarterly research seminars have been held, and also — from time to time — presentations of new monographs with the participation of authors, and international symposia "The Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829 and the Balkans" (February 2009), "Kharkiv University and the Serbs" (September 2009), “Homo Byzantinus: Among Ideas and Things” (July 2010), “Proto-Bulgarians in Ethnosocial and Political Structures of the Middle Ages” (November 2010), and others. Every year, the Center participates in the International Conference of Young Researchers “Cyril and Methodius Readings” held on the eve of the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture.The Center has a rich library of Bulgarian and Serbian scientific literature (more than 4,000 volumes), a record library of Balkan melodies.