Browsing by Subject "Bulgaria"
Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Bulgarian brain drain : the flight of human capital from the “world’s fastest-shrinking” nation(2018-06-19) Deegan, Michael James; Neuburger, Mary, 1966-; Redei, LorincBulgaria is in the midst of a demographic crisis which is, in part, due to an annual net population loss from emigration. Many of these emigrants are highly-educated, highly-skilled, or are students that that attend universities abroad and do not return after graduation. Compared to other post-communist Eastern European countries, Bulgaria has showed the slowest growth in GDP after 1989 and is the poorest country in the EU. As these educated migrants leave to become productive members of other societies, Bulgaria loses the value that they would otherwise be bringing to their home country. This thesis explores the personal factors that influence Bulgarians in making migration decisions. With a focused-examination of a sample of alumni from a single private high school in Bulgaria, I argue that leaving Bulgaria has become a norm for young educated Bulgarians. I also find that for this sample, Bulgarians that have chosen to live outside of Bulgaria are nearly as satisfied with their lives as those who have decided to live in their home country.Item Bulgarian bulge : jazz, subjectivity, and modernity in Bulgaria(2011-08) McCormack, Ryan Sawyer; Seeman, Sonia Tamar, 1958-; Erlmann, Veit; Moore, Robin; Neuburger, Mary; Stewart, KathleenThis dissertation investigates various issues at play in the development and perpetuation of jazz in Bulgaria from the early-20th century until the present. In particular, I explore jazz’s emergence within the conceptualization of subjective experience unique to modern Bulgaria. In this way I move away from the relatively static notion of a “transcendent” subjectivity centered on the “improviser” that constitutes a great deal of jazz historiography and discourse. Through an examination of jazz musicians, listeners, and government critics in different periods of Bulgarian history, I seek two broad but not mutually exclusive goals. The first is trace how “jazz” was conceptualized in different quarters of Bulgarian society and how those conceptualizations factored into the composition, recording, and patronage of music. This second is to posit alternatives to a subjectivity of “transcendence” in jazz performance, using the Bulgarian case as an example. Throughout the dissertation, I use “fascination” and “boredom” as the two concepts through which to ground a historically and materially-bound subjectivity that better takes into account social, cultural, and economic factors unique to Bulgaria. Ultimately, these concepts feature prominently in understanding jazz’s role in framing the fractured subjectivities of Bulgarians within modernity, as well as the constant historical struggle by Bulgarians to center senses of self and place within a changing Bulgaria, a changing Europe, and a changing world.Item Empire and nation in the city : Christians, Muslims and Jews in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Ruse, 1864-1885(2015-12-04) Celik, Mehmet, Ph. D.; Neuburger, Mary, 1966-; Marcus, Abraham; Wynn, Charters; Matysik, Tracie; Gawrych, GeorgeMy dissertation explores how people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds experienced the transition from Ottoman rule to Bulgarian nation state in the city of Ruse, in present-day northern Bulgaria. It examines the transformative effects of the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms (1864-1876), the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-8, the Russian provisional government and the early years of a Bulgarian national government. It argues Bulgarian nationalism was not a uniform and deterministic ideology but was rather a complex and contested phenomenon that left room for multiple loyalties and self-definitions. Through various reform programs, the Ottoman Empire also put together its own alternative to Bulgarian nationalism—secular Ottomanism—, which was progressive and open to different perspectives and integrated Bulgarian Christians into the Ottoman political system. After Ottoman withdrawal, the transfer of power to Bulgarian Christians and the marginalization and disenfranchisement of Muslims was not drastic or immediate, but rather a gradual process. Residents of Ruse’s diverse urban environment responded to these political changes through a complex interplay of urban dynamics, political and religious loyalties, and self-interest, rather than inflexible nationalist or imperial ideology.Item Explaining ethnopolitical mobilization : ethnic incorporation and mobilization patterns in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Turkey, and beyond(2014-05) Alptekin, Huseyin; Madrid, Raúl L.Why do some ethnic groups mobilize in violent ways whereas some others mobilize by using peaceful methods? And why do some ethnic groups seek integration while some others pursue separatist goals? This dissertation proposes a theoretical framework to answer these questions. It suggests that a state’s ethnic incorporation policies shape both why (centripetal or centrifugal aims) and how (peaceful or violent methods) ethnic groups mobilize. It argues that (1) consocitionalism recognizes ethnic groups and grants a degree of political autonomy to them, yet limits individuals’ political participation via non-ethnic channels of political participation; and, therefore, it leads to peaceful and moderately centrifugal ethnic mobilizations; (2) liberal multiculturalism recognizes ethnic groups, grants a degree of political autonomy to them, and allows individuals to participate in politics via non-ethnic channels; and, therefore, it leads to peaceful and moderately centripetal mobilizations; (3) civic assimilationism neither recognizes ethnic groups nor grants a degree of political autonomy to them, yet allows individuals to participate in politics via non-ethnic channels; and therefore it leads to peaceful and centripetal mobilizations of groups which lack pre-existing ethnic mobilization; but it leads to moderately violent and centrifugal mobilizations of groups which have strong pre-existing ethnic mobilizations; and (4) ethnocracies neither recognize ethnic groups nor grant a degree of political autonomy to them, and they also limit individuals’ political participation via non-ethnic channels. Therefore, they lead to centrifugal and violent ethnic mobilizations. The dissertation uses a mixed method research design. The hypotheses are tested based on the Minorities at Risk data as well as the case studies of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria and Cyprus, and Kurds and the Roma in Turkey. The case studies benefit from an extensive field research in Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Turkey using original interviews with former and current guerillas, guerilla families, political activists, and politicians from each ethnic group under scrutiny and archival research on newspapers and legal documents. The findings indicate that politics of ethnic accommodation are not only an explanation for the causes of different ethnic mobilization patterns, but also a feasible remedy for ethnic disputes spanning all over the world.Item Letter to H.B. Stenzel from Vladimir L. Shopov on 1966-01-18(1966-01-18) Shopov, Vladimir L.Item Letter to Vladimir L. Shopov from H.B. Stenzel on 1967-02-10(1967-02-10) Stenzel, Henryk B.Item Mediating metamodernity in Bulgarian cultural production : an exploratory case study of Klaxon Press Collective(2015-05) Von Essen, Ellen Terry; Straubhaar, Joseph D.; Stein, LauraThis exploratory case study will examine the way in which Klaxon Press Collective, a new independent media producer in Bulgaria, is reflexively re-presenting and re-imagining the identity of their local community during a period of socio-political flux. The study strives to gain a preliminary understanding of the characteristics of the Collective's imagined "metamodern" Bulgarian identity as they are manifested both in Klaxon’s material cultural production as well as the organization's structure, goals, collaborations, and live events. A non-profit art collective and small press, Klaxon positions itself as part of a larger cultural transformation taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria. This process of transformation is evidenced by the country's admittance to the EU in 2007 and the extensive 2013 protests and national political instability. While explicitly placing themselves within this politicized context, Klaxon Press Collective has come together to further art as a business and the development of a creative community within the Bulgarian capital. The organization's espoused goal, to serve as a distribution platform for young Bulgarian and International artists, and more broadly, to support the promotion of a progressive mode of thought that they dub "metamodernism" within Bulgarian society suggests a unique connection between the imagination of communal identity, social transformation, and artistic media production. It is this connection between context, cultural identity, and artistic production that this interdisciplinary study seeks to investigate through the study of KPC's extant web content and premiere publication via the application of multiple methodological approaches including document, organizational, and literary analysis.Item Picturing the peasant : nation and modernity in 20th century Bulgaria(2013-05) Hillhouse, Emily Anne; Neuburger, Mary, 1966-This dissertation examines representations of the Bulgarian peasant in order to explore how nationalist, agrarian and ultimately communist governments attempted to negotiate the meaning of "modernity" in predominantly rural Bulgaria. This work is not intended as a survey of displays of folk culture in the 20th century, but instead focuses each chapter on an important person, movement or organization which best seems to articulate Bulgaria's evolving sense of itself and its place on the edge of Europe. Beginning with a background chapter on the 1878-1917 period, I trace the foundation and development of ethnographic display, representations of peasants in the interwar educational press, campaigns to improve village hygiene and culture, alpine tourism, and the ever-changing image of peasants in propaganda from the years of agrarian rule in the 1920s through the early decades of communism. My dissertation explores the contested meanings of peasant images in Bulgaria's changing political and social milieu. Bulgaria's acceptance into first Europe and later the Soviet sphere of influence was for many nation-builders predicated upon her ability to attain European and later Soviet-style modernity. However, these modernities were based upon ideas of industrialization and urbanization. In the middle of the 20th century, however, Bulgaria's economy was still overwhelmingly agricultural. This represented a problem for Bulgaria's nation builders. Confronted with these seeming contradictions, different regimes attempted to incorporate the rural population into their visions of a modern Bulgaria. The changing nature of this imagined Bulgaria can be best elucidated through images of the Bulgarian peasantry. At one moment incorporated and at another excluded, modern and backward, embraced and reviled, the imagined peasantry reveals the anxieties and aspirations of Bulgarian state builders in the 20th century.