IMIR - International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations

Expert Councils

EC on History and Political Sciences

  1. Vera Mutafchieva – Chairperson
  2. Hristo Matanov
  3. Nadya Danova
  4. Antonina Zhelyazkova
  5. Vasilka Tankova
  6. Ekaterina Nikova

The Council supports research on national, religious and linguistic minority communities covering the periods from formation of ethnic self-identity to the present day. Numerous studies have been devoted to contacts and relations between religious (above all Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam) and ethnic communities. Some of these projects deal with the so-called “Regeneration Process” – the forced assimilation and re-naming of Bulgaria’s Muslims, followed by forced and voluntary emigration to Turkey. Support has been provided also to projects on the history of the various ethnic and religious communities living in Bulgaria, as well as for the studies, dealing with the wider Balkan region.


EC on Anthropology, Sociology and Philosophy

  1. Tsvetana Georgieva – Chairperson
  2. Yordan Peev
  3. Rachko Popov
  4. Aleksey Pamporov
  5. Ilona Tomova
  6. Pavel Pavlovich

The Council supports the ethnological and anthropological studies of processes related to ethnic, religious and cultural identification in Bulgaria and the Balkans, and of problems of traditional culture and its place in the modern world of globalization. The Council also supports more general studies on topical social issues in Bulgaria (e.g. the attitudes of the majority population towards the Roma and vice versa, formation of xenophobic attitudes among a part of Bulgaria’s youth, formation of a culture of peace among youth from different ethno-religious communities). The results of the studies approved by the Expert Council are often presented to state and public institutions.


Interdisciplinary and Balkan projects

  1. Antonina Zhelyazkova – Chairperson
  2. Valeri Grigorov
  3. Veselin Tepavicharov
  4. Tanya Mangalakova
  5. Donka Dimitrova
  6. Alma Chaushi

The importance of this council has been constantly increasing because the interdisciplinary approach proved to be most effective for dealing with most of the problems, related to intercultural relations in the Balkans. The Center has supported field studies in Bulgaria, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo. The main method used in these studies is the urgent anthropology, an interdisciplinary research method developed by Dr. Zhelyazkova.


Scholarship Program

  1. Donka Dimitrova – chairperson
  2. Myumyun Isov
  3. Tsvetana Georgieva
  4. Yashar Shaban
  5. Violeta Angelova
  6. Maya Kosseva

This Program was launched in 1994. Initially the program supported university students from all minorities in Bulgaria. Many former students, who received IMIR’s scholarship, have graduated and are now working as physicians, teachers, employees in the state and municipal administrations, etc. Since in the course of years other organizations started similar scholarship programs, we have been gradually switching our program to schoolchildren because the completion of secondary education is a grave financial problem for families from the highland regions. The priority of the program in the recent years were the children from the Rhodopi mountain. Scholarships are awarded to children with good success in schools and who are coming from poor families, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. They are selected by the Scholarship Council after completing seventh or eight grade of primary education and demonstrating that they will continue their education in a secondary school located outside their place of residence. Scholarships are also given to children, living in homes for children deprived of parental care. IMIR’s scholarship program has been made possible through a generous support of the "SOLON" Foundation, Switzerland.

Researchers and participants in IMIR’s projects and activities:

    © 2006 IMIR - International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations