The New Festivity: Communities, Identities, and Policies in Bulgaria in the 21st century is a collaborative research project on the current dynamics in the sphere of public celebrations in Bulgaria. The project is based at the Department of History and Theory of Culture at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, and engages a team of researchers conducting extensive fieldwork in multiple sites in the country.
The project envisages an interdisciplinary research on the processes and dynamics of the continuous negotiations, (re)inventions and renovations of the models of public festivities in Bulgaria. Researchers will explore celebrations' influences upon local, group and national identities' construction. Introducing the notion of the new festivity, the project will develop various case studies throughout Bulgaria in relation to three analytic dimensions: between the conservation of tradition/authenticity and the acceptance of global models; between the national and the local; between commemorative and recreational aspects of festivity.
The research team is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Rayna Gavrilova, and consists of several faculty members and doctoral candidates. BA and MA students in Cultural Studies are also engaged through individual course projects, fieldwork activities and seminars.
This four-year project is funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund – Ministry of Education and Science (Agreement № ДН 05/7, 14.12.2016) and was launched in December 2016.
Presentation of project findings at international conferences and seminars
- 2020 -
Assist. Prof. Dr. Velislava Petrova – Current Issues around Waste in Sofia, Bulgaria Cultural History of the Category and Contemporary Transformations. Waste as a Struggle, Waste as a Festivity
16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe. Lisbon, July 2020 [online].
Assist. Prof. Dr. Niya Neykova – Virtual Bodies in Love: Digitized Norms and Rituals of Intimacy in Social Media
16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe. Lisbon, July 2020 [online].
Vladislav Petkov – The sound of populist celebrations: mobilizing cultural practices in constructing 'otherness' around gender in Bulgaria
16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe. Lisbon, July 2020 [online].
Rossitsa Bolgurova – Celebrating work in Bulgaria: how IT companies became "factories for events"
16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe. Lisbon, July 2020 [online].
Dr. Ivo Strahilov – "Where's Our Water?": Local Communities, Heritage and Civic Activism in Contemporary Bulgaria
16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe. Lisbon, July 2020 [online].
Dr. Ivo Strahilov – Heritage “Deviations”: Ethnicity, Gender and Masquerade Practices in Contemporary Bulgaria
Futures – 5th Biennial Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies. London, August 2020 [online].
Dr. Ivo Strahilov – National Pride: Cultural Heritage, Gender and Civil Rights in Bulgaria
Gender History of Eastern Europe: Methods and Perspectives Summer School. Moscow, July 2020 [online].
Rossitsa Bolgurova – Work hard, play hard: company celebrations as workplace communication
VAKKI Symposium Workplace communication III. Vaasa, February 2020.
Rossitsa Bolgurova – Post-socialist business celebrations as promotion
Complexity, hybridity, liminality: Challenges of researching contemporary promotional cultures. London, February 2020.
- 2019 -
International conference Culture as fieldwork: authentic, spectacular, (in)visible. Sofia, November 2019.
Rossitsa Bolgurova - Post-socialist economic morality in employment relations: an exploration of company celebrations in Bulgaria
The moral dimensions of economic life in Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia. Oxford, March, 2019.
Vladislav Petkov - Neo-populist Celebrations: mobilizing cultural practices in constructing ‘otherness’ around gender. The case of the Istanbul convention in Bulgaria
Media and Populisim. Lisbon, January 2019.
- 2018 -
Assoc. Prof. Daniela Koleva - Victory Day and the Politics of Emotions: The Russian "Immortal Regiment" in Bulgaria
9th InASEA Conference Emotions, Senses and Affects in the context of Southeast Europe. Zadar, September 2018.
Dr. Nia Neykova - New Codes of Love in the Media Consumption of Bulgarian Youth
9th InASEA Conference Emotions, Senses and Affects in the context of Southeast Europe. Zadar, September 2018.
Rossitsa Bolgurova - Company Celebrations: Commitment to Emotions, Emotions for Commitment
9th InASEA Conference Emotions, Senses and Affects in the context of Southeast Europe. Zadar, September 2018.
Ivo Strahilov - Performing Romani Identity through Masquerade in Postsocialist Bulgaria
6th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe. Sinj, April 2018.
- 2017 -
Prof. Rayna Gavrilova - The Sweet Smell of Holiday: Remembering Festivity Through Feasts
Food, Childhood, and Migration. Helsinki, September 2017.
Prof. Rayna Gavrilova - Beyond Elitism, Beyond Indifference. The Academic Celebrations as an Invitation to the City
UNICA “University, Culture and the City” Conference: The University as an Urban Cultural Institute. Sofia, May 2017.
Assoc. Prof. Daniela Koleva - Entangled Environments: Animals, Emotions and Creativity as Approaches to R.Urban History
Natures in Between. Environments in Areas of Contact among States, Economic Systems, Cultures and Religions. Zagreb, July 2017.
Assoc. Prof. Daniela Koleva - The Immortal Regiment and its March across Borders: Reformatting Victory Day
The Memory Studies Association Conference. Copenhagen, December 2017.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Nelly Stoeva - Cross Points between Academic Research and Informed Cultural Policies
UNICA “University, Culture and the City” Conference: The University as an Urban Cultural Institute. Sofia, May 2017.
More information about the project is available in Bulgarian here: http://www.seminar-bg.eu/projects/novata-praznichnost.html.
