The sport theme excites the broad public as well as the academic community. The researches on sport are of interest to scholars from various social disciplines – sociology, political sciences, history, cultural and media studies, sociolinguistics etc.; they are suitable for the use of the interdisciplinary approach. For a long time, the ethnological and anthropological analysis of the complex phenomena related to sports have their place in the specialized literature in Bulgaria and abroad.

With this thematic issue we invite you to present your original researches on a broad range of questions:

• Sport as a specific tool in the formation and development of local, ethnic and national identities;
• Sport, migration, integration;
• Sport, gender and generations;
• Sport, politics, power;
• Sport through the fan language;
• Sport, everyday life, social change;
• Sport and employment.

We hope to receive your articles on these as well as other thematic fields in order to enrich sport studies with new researches applying the methods of ethnology and anthropology.

Issue Editor:                                                               Iva Kyurkchieva

Deadline for abstracts (up to 300 words):                  March 1, 2020

Deadline for submission of articles:                           July 1, 2020

E-mails:

Iva Kyurkchieva:                                iva.kyurkchieva@iefem.bas.bg ; ivaphilipova@yahoo.com

“Bulgarian Ethnology”:                      balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg ; bg_ethnology@abv.bg

We are looking forward to your articles and materials!

The thematic issue on historical reenactments aims at contributing to a better understanding of the processes of constructing notions about the past; of the attitudes, evaluations and experiences of the social actors that motivate the “reconstruction” of past events and modes of living as well as the aspiration for “authenticity”; of the perception and the policies of such kind of activities. The reenactments could be viewed as a form of socialization of and communication with the cultural heritage; as part of the leisure industries.

The studies are expected to shed light on various and sometimes even competing interpretations and uses of the past, on identifications and identities as well as on aspirations for the transformation of social reality projected on the field of historical reconstruction. In a broader sense, the thematic issue seeks to elucidate the historical representations and the reenactments in particular in their capacity of the laboratory of cultural memory as well as its connection with present problems and future plans.

“Bulgarian Ethnology” invites you to propose articles on the above-mentioned topics.

Issue Editors:                                                              Evgenia Troeva, Veneta Yankova

Deadline for abstracts (up to 300 words):                  January 30, 2020

Deadline for submission of articles:                           May 30, 2020

E-mails:

Evgenia Troeva:                                                         troeva@abv.bg

Veneta Yankova:                                                        veneta_yankova@abv.bg

“Bulgarian Ethnology”:                                              balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg

We are looking forward to your articles!

The thematic issue aims at creating an opportunity for considerations and discussions related to the museum interpretations and experiences – representations of specific artefacts; explanations of their different contexts; the role of the museum curators who interpret objects, images, stories; as well as the types of expectations, perceptions and experiences of the exhibition's viewers.

The processes of the intent look of the museums at themselves – of self-reflection and/or change of their representations or their commitment to dominant approaches to one’s cultural heritage – have become important in developing new policies of museum representations of the common past as important to different communities and to the society at large. It is also important to consider the development of museum activism, whose initiatives can and do influence different ways of interpreting objects, meanings and evolving public values. The dynamics of the museum interpretation often implies new forms of partnerships between the curatorial staff and the communities whose cultures are represented as well as experts in various disciplines, educators, and prospective audience members. In other words, the exhibition content is often presented by means of multiple interpretations, thus providing alternative stories and different perspectives on the same objects and images.

Museum interpretation (what, why and for who is being interpreted); various types of expectations for the museum experience (education, knowledge, entertainment, personal and communal identification, memories/historical knowledge and connection with the past, views and relations to the present); activities and actual experiences of the various types of audiences in the exhibition halls – these are all topics that attract the attention of a broad circle of researchers in the field of the humanities.

“Bulgarian Ethnology” invites you to submit articles on any of the above-mentioned topics.

Issue Editors:                                                             Iveta Pirgova, Nikolay Nenov

Deadline for abstracts (up to 250 words):                  October 30, 2019

Deadline for submission of articles:                           December 30, 2019

E-mails:

Iveta Pirgova:                                                              ipirgova@yahoo.com

Nikolay Nenov:                                                          nenoff@abv.bg

“Bulgarian Ethnology”:                                              balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg

We are looking forward to your articles and materials!

For decades, the spatial mobility of various groups of people and the migrations caused by diverse but often intertwined political, economic, social, cultural, demographic and psychological factors are in the focus of the research interest of a number of academic disciplines. The reason for this is not so much the absolute quantity (the increasing number of people involved in such movements) but rather the relative influence and significance which the migration processes have in the contemporary world and the ways in which they impact the societies provisionally defined as sending and receiving.

Despite the various patterns of mobility and migrations in historical and contemporary aspect and the varied “fieldworks”, on the one hand, as well as the diverse research approaches, on the other, there is something that appears to be a point of interaction in the ethnological and anthropological studies of mobility and migrations. Namely, this is the aspiration for the examining and understanding of the cultural transformations caused by the movement of individuals and groups of people. This means that the emphasis should be placed on the ways in which the communities react to the various factors triggering mobility and migrations by developing their own social strategies and cultural practices; to trace out the “things” which people carry with themselves – objects, ideas, behavioural patterns, concepts and views etc.; to study the impact of mobility and migrations on the everyday life and culture, the forms of social organization and relations and the construction of identities.

IEFSEM – BAS is one of the scientific centres in Bulgaria which has a significant contribution to the study of this topic: between 2006 and 2010 the Workshop “Culture of Gurbet” was organized at the former Institute of Ethnography with Museum succeeded in 2011 by the Research Workshop “Mobility. Migrations. Culture” which continues to exist as a forum for academic discussions and a broader public debate on empirical, methodological and theoretical problems in the field of mobility, migrations and socio-cultural processes. This thematic issue of “Bulgarian Ethnology” is designed to present the work of the members of the Workshop but other colleagues who have an interest in the topic are also welcome to submit articles.

Issue Editors:                                                             Violeta Periklieva, Ivaylo Markov

Deadline for abstracts (up to 300 words):                 October 1, 2019

Deadline for submission of articles:                           December 30, 2019

E-mails:  

Violeta Periklieva:                                                    violeta.periklieva@iefem.bas.bg

Ivaylo Markov:                                                           ivaylo.markov@iefem.bas.bg

“Bulgarian Ethnology”:                                              balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg

We are looking forward to your articles and materials!

The purpose of this issue is to examine the scientific communication between ethnology in Bulgaria and the related disciplines in the Balkans, Europe, the United States, and the post-Soviet space. Passing through the terms Ethnography, Ethnology, Folklore Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Bulgarian scholars adopt new scientific paradigms and research tools and strive to maintain a dialogue with their colleagues from local, regional and global academic institutions. Bulgarian Ethnology invites authors to propose articles that investigate the achievements and obstacles to scientific communication. Possible topics could be:

- New scientific paradigms and research tools – where they come from, how they are introduced, how and to what extent they are perceived by Bulgarian scholars

- Parallel trajectories – similarities and differences between Bulgarian and Balkan ethnology and related disciplines over the last decades

- Problems of academic communication – internal contacts and dialogue (or the lack of it) between Bulgarian researchers and institutions, as well as between Bulgarian scholars and their Balkan colleagues

- Hidden and institutionalized hierarchies in the academic knowledge

- Individual trajectories – the inclusion of Bulgarian researchers with foreign diplomas in the local academic institutions; inclusion of Bulgarian researchers in foreign research centres; relations between foreign scholars and their Bulgarian colleagues.

Editor: Ilia Iliev

Deadline for submission of abstracts (up to 300 words): 20 January 2019

Deadline for submission of articles: 1 September 2019

Mailing address: balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg; iliev@ymail.com

We look forward to your articles and materials!

The purpose of this issue is to examine the problems of old age and aging in Bulgarian and Balkan societies from the perspective of ethnology, anthropology and social history. Elderly people already represent a significant part of the contemporary Bulgarian society, and the demographic trends indicate that their share will increase over the next decades. However, in the field of ethnology and related disciplines the number of investigations on age and aging is small. Bulgarian Ethnology invites authors to propose articles on the following topics:

- Social construction of old age in contemporary and traditional Bulgarian society, including ethnic minorities
- Old age varieties – male and female, active and contemplative, young retirees and deep old age
- Role of the elderly people in the family, intergenerational relations, solidarity between young and the elder, problems of inheritance 
- Care for the elderly – institutions and family, local and religious communities, moral norms and practices
- The role of the elderly people in the family economy (pension and additional income, childcare and housekeeping), local communities’ economy (care for common spaces, control and negotiation of moral norms, neighbourhood services and neighbourhood craftsmen), Bulgarian society economy in general (working pensioners)
- Social solidarity and daily communication – forms of mutual help and organizations of the elderly, social contacts and isolation.

Editor: Ilia Iliev
Deadline for submission of abstracts (up to 300 words): 20 December 2018
Deadline for submission of articles: 20 June 2019
Mailing address: balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg; iliev@ymail.com

We look forward to your articles and materials!

In different historical periods, young people and their cultural practices have been defined and labelled differently, as sub-normal, dysfunctional, delinquent, rebellious or consumerist. Youth studies start from the urban micro-research of the early Chicago School, whose authors were interested in the cultural and social context of youth deviant behaviour, and end up with the contemporary postsubcultural theories, in which the individual consumer choices become crucial for the construction of identity. The ‘youth question’ and the concept of subculture have always been part of the research field of sociology and criminology, but at the same time are subject to analysis in the field of cultural studies, anthropology, psychology and psychoanalysis. Contemporary youth studies look at subcultures in terms of identity, engagement, autonomy, communication, and culture, and increasingly put in use the qualitative methods of ethnography.

The purpose of this issue is to unite authors from various scientific disciplines who are tempted by the problem of the youth group and individual identity and its social, ethnic and gender aspects. The issue will provide a forum for discussion and analysis of cultural practices and forms of communication of young people in contemporary urban environments. The spectrum of topics is wide and remains open: from the pop culture consumers, through the street art of graffiti writers and musicians to the social activism of various youth movements; from subculture to the underground scene and neo-tribes; from the closed space of the teenage room to the schoolyard and the outdoor festivals and face control nightclubs.

Editor: Vihra Barova

Deadline for submission of abstracts (up to 300 words): 31 December 2018

Deadline for submission of articles: 31 March 2019

Mailing address: balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg; vihra.barova@iefem.bas.bg

We look forward to your articles and materials!

Recently there is an increasing tendency to study clothing in its relation to a particular historical period and/or cultural context. Especially interesting is the study and interpretation of archival documents revealing how the clothes were made and worn and how they were discussed among the representatives of different social strata. This thematic issue of Bulgarian Ethnology with the working title “Local Production, Clothes and Language Treasure” is intended for publishing in 2019 and will present and interpret archival data concerning:

• the production of different types of clothes;
• peculiarities of the words used to designate particular clothes and their parts;
• social differentiation on the basis of clothes, and the discourse related to those differentiations.

The starting point of the issue will be a group of articles based on the analysis of an ill-studied massif of archival documents from 1888 and 1889 preserved in the Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The massif concerns the population on the territory of the country with its respective clothing at the end of the 19^th century. The data from the handwritten descriptions and illustrative photographs represents in a synchronous way the villages and the cities, as well as the clothes of the Orthodox Bulgarians, Catholic Bulgarians and some other ethnic and religious groups on the territory of the country at that period.

The main idea is to use the analysis of the archival documents and of some other sources to outline both the stable and the variable components of particular identities, as well as to reconstruct relations between cultural and linguistic stereotypes and practices.

We invite all colleagues interested in clothing, as well as in the discourse about it from the end of the 19^th century to the present, to submit their texts.

Editor: Miglena Ivanova

Declaration of interest (summary – up to 300 words): 15 September 2018

Submission of the articles: 15 November 2018

Mailing address: balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg;

bg_ethnology@abv.bg;miglenadi@gmail.com;

miglena.ivanova@iefem.bas.bg

Looking forward to your articles and materials!

Most of the people perceive photography as a ‘realistic’ narrative; part of the ethnologists and anthropologists understand in the same way visual ethnography usually carried out in the field and then involved in the process of analysis. To some extent, photography could be understood indeed as a tool for preserving and studying culture. But on the other hand, we should keep in mind the postmodern critique towards documentary photography, in which it is argued that the meaning of photography and the photographs is constructed by both their creator and the one who observes them. From this point of view, it is quite possible and even necessary to pay attention not just to the images that create visual narratives, but also to the very process of taking pictures, and to the ways photography is interpreted. Starting from the idea that the connection between humanities and social sciences and the photographic image (picture, film, or video) is problematic and in need of discussion, Bulgarian Ethnology invites authors who are interested in the uses of photography in ethnology and vice versa – of ethnology in photography, to propose their articles for publication in this special issue. It is common idea that pictures (and visual images in general) can replace a great number of words. We would like to focus the attention on both the power of the images to create narratives and on the ethical side of working with them.

Editors: Dobrinka Parusheva, Elka Mincheva

Declaration of interest (summary – up to 300 words): April 30, 2018

Submission of the articles: September 30, 2018

Mailing address: balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg; elka.mincheva@abv.bg; dobrinka.parusheva@gmail.com

We look forward to your articles and materials! 

 The incredibly increased interest in food and nutrition on a global scale raises a number of new research questions. Of particular interest is the somewhat surprising return of the importance of nutrition as a social event that is well-known to researchers of both traditional cultures (e.g. kurban, potlach) and modern ones (e.g. banquet, dispatching a soldier, celebrations of secular events, such as Women’s day). In recent years, we have witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number and popularity of events such as:

• celebrations of different kinds of food (e.g. beans, potatoes, pepper relish – lyutenitsa);
• reconstructions of historical feeding practices (e.g. Thracian food, Medieval feasts, Bulgarian traditional cuisine);
• new forms of celebrations such as culinary festivals, organized in different cities, that combine offering of food and drinks and musical performances (e.g. Bankya mezi, Tabiet, beer fests);
• presentations of food and drinks as marketing strategies (e.g. tastings, restaurants weeks);
• introduction of marginal practices in the range of the acceptable (e.g. eating contests) and many others.

The abundance of food and nutrition events in the public space signals an encounter between the expectations of the public and everyone who tries to update and manage culture.

The proposed issue of Bulgarian Ethnology will provide an opportunity for identification and analysis of these new forms of public life as well as the trends they mark. Parallels with similar culinary events and occasions in other cultures will be made, which would allow identifying the features of the contemporary social, cultural and communicative situation.

Editor: Rayna Gavrilova

Deadline for submission of abstracts (up to 300 words): 30 November 2017

Deadline for submission of articles: 15 September 2018

Mailing address: balgarska_etnologia@abv.bg; bg_ethnology@abv.bg; rayna.gavrilova@gmail.com

 We look forward to your articles and materials!

 In 2017 the journal will prepared an issue "The road" with editior Ekaterina Anastasova.

 In 2017 "Bulgarian ethnology" will make an issue related to the ethnoographic archive between two centuries with editor Anni Kirilova. 

In 2016, our journal is going to publish the following thematic issues:

1. Cultures of Protest (issue editors Daniela Koleva and Mila Maeva);

2. Ethnology of the City (issue editor Nikolay Nenov);

3. Gift, Gift Giving, Philanthropy (issue editor Elya Tsaneva);

4. Bessarabian Bulgarians (issue editors Petko Hristov);

5. Heroic Culture (issue editor Nikolai Vukov).

We welcome your ideas and researches!