Gutgsell Endowed Chair: Maria Todorova

Maria Todorova teaches and researches the history of Eastern Europe, in particular the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire in the modern period. A graduate of the University of Sofia (Bulgaria), she previously taught at the Universities of Sofia and Florida, and has held visiting appointments at Harvard University, Rice University, the Universities of Maryland-College Park, California-Irvine, University of Graz (Austria), Bosphorus University, Istanbul, and the European University Institute in Florence. Her publications include "Bones of Contention: The Living Archive of Vasil Levski" (2008), "Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory" (2004), "Imagining the Balkans" (1997, translated into 12 languages), "Balkan Family Structure and the European Pattern: Demographic Developments in Ottoman Bulgaria" (1993,2006; 2002 Bulgarian), "English Travelers' Accounts on the Balkans (16th-19th c.)" (1987), "England, Russia, and the Tanzimat" (1980 Bulgarian,1983 Russian), "Historians on History" (1988), "Selected Sources for Balkan History" (1977), and several edited volumes, as well as some 140 articles and essays on social and cultural history, historical demography, and historiography of the Balkans in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her current research revolves around problems of nationalism, especially the symbology of nationalism, national memory and national heroes, as well as the history of communism and postcommunism. She leads at present an international interdisciplinary project on "Remembering Communism" funded by the VolkswagenStiftung in Germany (2006-2009). The member of numerous advisory and editorial boards, she has given some 200 guest lectures and conference presentations. Her awards include, among others, John Simon Guggenheim Fellow(2001-02), Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2004-05), Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1988, 1994-95), Fulbright Professorship (1989-90), Mellon Distinguished Professorship (1990-92), National Humanities Center Fellowship (2000), Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna, 2001), and  Doctor Honoris Causa, Sofia University (2004) and the European University in Florence (2006).