Ugur Pece

Thanks to a generous Travel and Research support by CREEES I had the opportunity to study Bulgarian in Bulgaria for three weeks. Bulgarian Language and Culture program organized by St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo was held for two weeks in the historic city of Veliko Turnovo and for one week in Burgas on the Black Sea coast.

The summer program in Bulgaria brought together around eighty students from a great number of countries. Intensive language instruction and daily contacts with the local people provided me with a very good introduction to Bulgarian culture. It was also the first step in the process of acquiring language skills which will be very crucial in my PhD career in History. In addition to language classes, a number of lectures on various aspects of Bulgarian history and culture as well as free-time activities ranging from reciting Bulgarian poetry to dancing to traditional Bulgarian songs turned this three-week period into an extremely interesting, useful and unforgettable experience for me.

During my stay in Bulgaria I was also able to travel extensively in the country. Because I had no prior knowledge of the language, it was not possible to conduct any academic research in the Bulgarian archives. However, an extensive network of people I was acquainted with in Bulgaria will help me make informed visits to various archives exceptionally rich in documents related to my areas of interest.
At the moment, I am working on improving my reading skills in Bulgarian at Stanford. Bulgaria will be a major destination of research in the upcoming summers and I will be able to start my archival research in Sofia. While I will be busy searching for documents of interest in the dusty archives, I will gratefully remember the support given by CREEES with which the Bulgarian chapter in my life started.