AUBG Faculty Newsletter, issue 1

January-February 2013

Volume 1, Issue 1

Dear faculty, students, staff and visitors to the AUBG website,

Welcome to the first issue of our university’s new Faculty Newsletter. The aim of this newsletter is to highlight the accomplishments of our faculty and in the process strengthen the bonds among us all through sharing and mutual inspiration. In these pages you will find news about faculty publications, presentations, collaborations, awards and distinctions that indicate clearly the vibrancy of our intellectual community. You will also find essays written by faculty and staff about teaching and other professional activities that enrich our campus experience.

Special thanks to Venera Nikolaeva from the University Relations Office for her help with formatting and posting on the website.

Filitsa Sofianou‐Mullen, Editor fmullen@aubg.bg Faculty News

Nancy Bartley, Fulbright Scholar in Journalism, has just had her book The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff: The Redemption of Herbert Nicolls Jr. published by University of Washington Press. She presented the book to the AUBG community on February 14th, in the Panitza Library. The book will be officially released on March 1st.

Michael Harris Cohen's essay, "Kafka on the Skin," has been accepted and will be published in

Sweet Lit's print anthology, Sins and Needles, a collection of personal narratives on tattoos. The book is due out sometime in 2013. His short story, "The Ex‐Court Painter, Goya and The Princess," won the 2012 Modern Grimmoire Anthology Literary Prize and will be published in the print anthology in May of 2013. His Novella, "The Eyes," won Mixer Publishing's 2012 "Sex, Violence and Satire" contest—judged by author Stephen Graham Jones. The novella, along with several short stories, will be published by Mixer as a print book in early 2013 and is being blurbed by Jones and Robert Coover. Michael is Assistant Professor of Writing and Literature.

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Sean Homer recently gave the paper “Imagining Alternative Spaces: A Critique of Lacanian Anti‐Utopianism” at Imagination Today, Second International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Cultural History of the Present, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridiski Cultural Centre, Bulgaria (Dec. 2012). Also his book Jacques Lacan, Routledge Critical Thinkers Series, (2005) will be translated into Turkish by Abdurrahman Aydin. Istanbul: Pheonix, Siyasal and Ekinoks Publishing (2013). Finally, his paper “ ‘Beginning at the Beginning Again’: Slavoj Žižek in Yugoslavia”, has been accepted for publication in Slavic Review (Forthcoming Fall 2013). Sean is Associate Professor of Writing and Literature.

Tatiana Ivanova’s result published in T. Gateva‐ Ivanovа, “Quadratic algebras, Yang‐Baxter equation, and Artin‐ Schelter regularity”, Advances in Mathematics 230 (2012) was declared Scientific Achievement of IMI BAS for 2012 by the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. A more detailed description of Tatiana’s result is included in the Annual Report of IMI BAS in Bulgarian. Tatiana is Associate Professor of Mathematics.

Lauren Kierans, Assistant Professor of Business Law, is currently working on two reports for Transparency International. The first is a Country Report for Ireland on Whistleblower Protection and the other is a Country Report for Bulgaria on Whistleblower Protection. These have both been commissioned by Transparency International as part of their research project that aims to identify and inventory whistleblower legislation and to assess them against the latest international best practice. The Irish Report will also be published in Ireland by Transparency International Ireland as a standalone report.

Diego Lucci was invited to give a talk at The College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia) on Monday, January 28, 2013. The title of his talk was “The Enlightenment and the Jews: Between State‐Making and

Еmancipation.” Diego is Associate Professor of History & Philosophy.

Filitsa Mullen’s Prophetikon, a collection of poems, has been accepted for publication in a bilingual edition by Scalino Books in Sofia. The translator into Bulgarian is colleague Lyubomir Terziev. Her work will be the first in a new series of poetry books by Scalino. Filitsa is Assistant Professor of Writing and Literature.

John Mullen gave a paper titled “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World: Imaginary Geographies in Satires of a Globalizing World” at Imagination Today, Second International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Cultural History of the Present, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridiski Cultural Centre, Bulgaria (December 7, 2012).

Numan Ülkü received a prestigious award from the Central Bank of the Turkish Republic in the 2012 Research Competition for his paper “Joint Dynamics of Foreign Exchange and Stock Markets in Emerging Europe” published in Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money. He also received an 2012 outstanding reviewer award from Emerald Journals. Numan is Assistant Professor of Economics.

In December 2012, Diana Stantcheva won the 1st prize for the best Bulgarian translation in the literary translation contest held by the Goethe‐ Institute Bulgaria in celebration of the 200‐year anniversary of the Brothers Grimm. In the competition, parts of the book “Raubzüge durch die deutsche Literatur” by the German author Peter Wawerzinek were translated into Bulgarian. Diana is Assistant Professor of German.

Markus Wien, Associate Professor in History, presented a paper titled "Bulgarian State Youth Policies Before and After 1944". It was given on the panel "State Building and State Collapse in Modern Bulgaria", which he also organized.

Markus also served as discussant on the panel 2

"Nationalism, the State and Legitimacy in Populist Identity Conflicts in the 21st Century Global Economic and Security Environment", organized by our former AUBG colleague Ben DeDominicis. These presentations and discussions were part of the annual convention of the "Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies" that took place in New Orleans in mid‐November.

Emilia Zankina’s “Populism and the Construction of Political Charisma: Post‐ transition Politics in Bulgaria,” co‐authored with Boris Gurov, was published in Problems of Post Communism, Vol. 60, No. 1, January/February 2013, pp. xx‐xx. Emilia is Assistant Professor of Political Science.

What’s on Your mind?

Each academic library strives to be a vibrant center for its university. Panitza Library is no exception. Certainly, the library serves as an intellectual and scholarly center that promotes the development of its users. Modern trends define academic libraries as social spaces in which academic activities are performed. In the last few years the initiatives that the AUBG librarians have taken in this direction are quite diverse. Moving into a new library building in 2008 provided bigger opportunities for extra‐ curricular projects to unite the university community in an informal setting. Apart from the role of supporting the learning process, the Panitza library has also a social commitment.

We have the “social potential” as the library is one of the most popular places on campus. In terms of social interaction, we have the perfect physical space for it, which is comfortable and welcoming.

Panitza Library Book Presentations & Reading Series

By Nicky Ivanova‐Bell Librarian ‐ Specialist/Serials Collection and Interlibrary Loan

October 13th, 2009, Ground floor, Panitza Library. Professor Alan Hickman is reading from his new poetry book “Timer”. In between each poem gentle guitar sounds are sweeping us away in a different time, tickling our minds with poetic puzzles and leaving us wanting more.

This was our start over three years ago and, believe me, we have never been more excited and nervous at the same time. Kept thinking how it’s going to be, would people like it, did we miss anything, are people comfortable enough?

Since that first presentation, we had many others. We found out about biblical criticism, about the Bulgarian State Youth Organization “Brannik”, we learnt more on iconography, on the emancipation of the Jews, on bank behavior, on international marketing, on German model farms in Bulgaria, on the security sector governance. We watched iconic films as part of the series of Psychoanalysis and Cinema.

We exposed a spy case and enjoyed tremendously more poetry and short stories.

One of the biggest projects that were launched 3

to support our new social image was establishing the Book presentations and reading series in October 2009. The purpose that we had was to engage the community, to popularize faculties’ and students’ scholarly and artistic work. In conversations with many professors, we found out that they hardly get a chance to promote their new book or interesting research paper or the short stories that their students wrote here on campus. The Library has always received a copy of those publications and placed them proudly on a special shelf. But nothing much happens after. Unless, someone looks for it, no one else would know it’s been published.

We thought it would be a great idea to spread the word. And we started the series. These events are organized by the librarians in collaboration with the former Library Committee. Our current partner is the Academic Affairs Committee. Both committees have helped us greatly to invite and contact professors, interested in presenting their work.

in performing their meetings at the library.

Some of them are the Distinguished Poets & Writers Series, the Exchange evenings, the Literature Society, the Freakonomics club, etc.

We also have to acknowledge the AUBG student media and the University Relations and Events Office for their efforts towards increasing the visibility of our Series. For the last few years there have been several articles about the events. This is extremely valuable for us, as referrals from students are always more trustworthy. Students are present at events and covering them, shooting videos, interviewing guests and audience. They have become our mediators.

The Panitza Library has turned into a center of campus educational, social, and cultural activities (lecture series, charity events, exhibitions, book sales, meetings, receptions, and workshops). Many events have been performed here, which has definitely contributed for the “community feel” among our patrons. AUBG is a small campus and good partnerships are great to have.

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By Jeremy Cripps, Professor of Accounting

The themes are very different and enjoy good attendance. We usually schedule 4‐5 events for each semester and take care of the logistics – making posters, sending emails, organizing small receptions. The interesting thing is that not only professors, but also students and staff have expressed the wish to present their work.

Outside visitors, too.

So far, so good; we had 26 presentations and we are pleased that those special events have been popular. As a positive influence other campus organizations have also shown interest

The media would have us believe there is danger in travelling to Iraq and certainly the route appears a little bit obscure. Starting from Sofia I flew Air Niki to Vienna and then on Tyrolean Airways to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq. Upon arrival you notice immediately that staff and officials are Kurds and they are so polite and helpful and you at this stage media trained to think they are watching you. AT first you may have to go to a separate building by bus before you can take a taxi but if your host has arranged for you to stay in certain hotels then they will have been 4

generous and arranged for you to be picked up at the airport itself and you begin to feel a bit special.

The police are helpful as in Britain, there are no beggars; hospitals and schools are pointed out with pride unprompted and in broken English by my taxi driver. At the hotel there is a welcome duty free shop for visitors and then inside my fellow guests and we dine at one of several theme restaurants at modest prices. We agree that many good values are to be found in Erbil and the translators and the workshop participants are already making arrangements to ensure traditional hospitality after our workshop sessions for the week.

The drive to the hotel is intriguingly tidy.

Building sites abound in the new oil rich city but building sites are first surrounded with walls and railings and trees and bushes and you might be reminded of Oman where a similar military tidiness is so much in evidence. At your hotel you are greeted as if you were a frequent visitor and someone who speaks your language makes sure you get to your room and are satisfied with not just the room but the 5 star features in it.

It is afternoon and now for many of the good reasons for going to Iraq. Hesitant I take a taxi downtown to see the Citadel. I am in Irbil, capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq. By taxi you drive to the Citadel, the ancient center of the oldest inhabited city on our earth. 6,000 years of inhabitants and now the Citadel is undergoing restoration as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Citadel is at the center of a sprawling bustling modern City just recently unleashed from the grip of Sadam Hussain, fostered by the development of the oil fields which surround the city and with a busy and yet so tidy souk where those who get lost as I did are proudly directed to the beautiful fountains which now adorn an entrancing square below the entrance to the Citadel.

We begin our workshops in the nurturing atmosphere you can expect when the participants are women who have survived the changes all have undergone as Iraq has become independent.

These ladies have worked with the Central Bank for many years and they are adjusting from traditional accounting systems to International Financial Reporting Standards. Their Big‐4 auditors have identified a number of issues which are considered sufficiently important for these senior department directors to have the opportunity to discuss and better understand.

These are taken gently one by one and thoroughly examined and considered. As in a Controllers department, or a Masters classroom, a mish‐mash of issues is made clear or at least less opaque and the notion of “fair value” provides stimulating debate.

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After each day’s sessions comes time to explore the souk with expert guidance. There is the delight of Manna. There is more than one variety and the best comes from the plan between Irbil and Salamaniyah or Elim and the desert of Sim as Exodus 16 tells us. Heaven is continually benevolent and now packed in starch and beautifully presented and our hosts insist on gifting this delight.

Dining each night on strange but tasteful messe and traditional fare we can only appreciate our good fortune in being invited to such a Holy City. We have time to view some of the largest parks in this part of the world and recognize the extraordinary changes which the government of the Kurdish people manages by their people, for their people ensuring a new birth for freedom in the region.

At the weekend we travel to the airport through careful security with a Kurdish TSA who are models of smiles and politeness and help almost a new airport experience and then back to Sofia via Vienna hoping for the opportunity one day to return.

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