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Russian & Slavonic Studies

Dimitar Kostadinov KambourovVisiting Academic

kostadid@tcd.ie

Professional Experience

  • Associate Professor of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, Sofia University, Bulgaria (1994 to present)
  • Lector of Bulgarian Language, Culture and Literature at the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, Trinity College Dublin, (2014 to present)

Teaching

  • Bulgarian Language, Levels: Elementary, Lower Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced
  • Co-lecturing the courses: Culture of South East Europe, Postmodernist Literature in Central and Eastern Europe, Representations of the Other Europe: Cinema in Communist and Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe.
  • BA courses: Literary Theory: core course for the BA programs in Slavic Studies, Classical and Modern Studies, Philosophy, Journalism and Mass Communications.

    • It presents main schools, theories, and approaches towards literature and other discourses, as well as key concepts, authors and works in the field. It equips students with reflexive instruments to read and interpret literary and other texts, art works and social practices. The goal is to develop skills for non-naïve reading aware of its alternatives and advantages.

  • MA courses: Literature and Modernity; Postmodern Fiction: The West and the Rest; The Bulgarian Poetic Canon; Literature and Music; Literature and the Media: all taught on the Literary Studies MA Program. Men and the Balkans in the Gaze of the West: taught on the MA Program in Gender Studies (Department of Philosophy)
  • MA programs in Transatlantic Comparative Humanities, American Studies and Transatlantic Relations (Departments of History and Classical and Modern Studies).

My courses traverse a variety of discourses and aesthetic practices and cover a wide spectrum of competences; they cut through and interact with domains normally kept apart in order to develop critical and creative minds.

Leadership Positions

  • Co-director, Literary Studies MA Program

Responsible for the courses oriented towards theory, philosophy, arts and humanities. I designed the program to go beyond the philological bias of traditional literary study. Uniquely among the Slavic Studies MA programs, a third of our students come from other humanities disciplines, departments and colleges. More than a half of our MA students go on to obtain highly competitive state-funded PhD studentships.

  • Director, Research Center for Literature and Philosophy

A proven mediator between contemporary literary and philosophical approaches, I was elected to manage and develop this predominantly research-focused unit. As such, I organized an international conference under the auspices of the Center titled “Event and Immortality in Language, Literature and Philosophy”, May 7-10, 2011; the edited volume of papers from the conference is forthcoming from Sofia University Press.

Education

  • PhD in Literary Theory, Sofia University, Bulgaria, 2002. Dissertation: “Meaning Production in Poetry: Yavorov’s Canon”
  • Postgraduate specialization: How to Read Contemporary Poetry, Slavic Studies, Sofia University, 1989.
  • MA Bulgarian Studies, Slavic Studies Department, Sofia University, Sofia, 1987
  • MA Theory and History of Culture, Philosophy Department, Sofia University, Sofia, 1987
  • High School Diploma, Foreign Languages High School (specialist subjects Russian and English), Varna, 1980

Selected Publications

Books

  • Явори и клони (Sycamores and Branches), Figura Publishing, Sofia, 2003, ISBN 954998513Х.
  • Българска поетическа класика (Bulgarian Poetic Classics), Prosveta Publishing, Sofia, 2004, ISBN 954-01- 1961-0.

Edited Books

  • Men in the Global World. Integrating Post-Socialist Perspectives, eds. Irina Novikova and Dimitar Kambourov, Kikimora
  • Publications, Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki, 2003, ISBN 952-10- 1308-7
  • ProArt: АртПро, edited by Maria Vassileva and Dimitar Kambourov (Sponsored by the Swiss Cultural Program), Altera Publishing House, 2007, ISBN 9789549757064

Articles and Book Chapters in English

  • “Exile or Exodus: D. Ugresic’s The Museum of Unconditional Surrender and Iliya Troyanov’s The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner”, in Shoreless Bridges: South East European Writing in Diaspora; ed. Elka Agoston-Nikolova, Rodopi, Amsterdam-New York, 2010.
  • “Sofia - Large City, Sofia - Little Apple”, in Interface Sofia, Center for Advanced Study and Institute for Contemporary Art, Sofia, 2010.
  • “Transitions and Translations, Expenditures and Separations”, in ПроАрт: ArtPro, eds. Maria Vassileva and Dimitar Kambourov (a bilingual collection sponsored by the Swiss Cultural Program), Altera Publishing House, Sofia, 2007.
  • “Bulgaria: Men and The Balkan modernity?” in: Men and Masculinities in Europe, Whiting & Birch, UK, MMVI, 2006.
  • “The Social Exclusion of Men” in European Perspectives on Men and Masculinities: National and Transnational Approaches; eds. Jeff Hearn & Keith Pringle, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006 (Co-author with Keith Pringle and Irina Novikova of Chapter 7).
  • “The Handicapped Under Part of Europa: (En)Gendering Regional In-betweenness”, in GENDER and IDENTITY: Theories from and/or on Southeastern Europe, ATHENA - Advanced Thematic Network in Activities in Women`s Studies in Europe and Regional Network for Gender/Women’s Studies in Southeastern Europe, Belgrade, 2006.
  • “Hampton-Hungry Homemakers: Female Voices in Bulgarian Literature After 1989”; Neohelicon XXXIII (2006), 2, pp. 129-146, ISSN 0324-4652 http://bit.ly/OxqSoX
  • “When Trapped Literature Obliterates its Tail: the Fictive Imaginary and the Real-Art of Language”, in “Четенето в епохата на интернет” в чест на проф. Волфганг Изер, (Reading in the Age of Internet: homage to Prof. Wolfgang Iser) Figura Publishing House, 2005.
  • “Bulgarian Men in Transition”, in: Men and Masculinities in Europe Critical Research on Men in Europe (CROME) Network, Whiting & Birch Publishing House, UK, 2004.
  • “The Balkans as the Blackmale of Europe”, in Men in the Globalizing World: Integrating Postsocialist Perspectives, eds. Irina Novikova and Dimitar Kambourov, Kikimora Publications, Helsinki, 2003.
  • “Literary Institutions and the Institution of Literature in the Wake of Theory” in Topics in Feminism, History and Philosophy, IWM Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences, Vol. 6, eds. Dorothy Rogers, Joshua Wheeler, Marina Zavacka, and Shawna Casebier, Vienna IWM 2000.

Academic Awards and Visiting Professorships

  • Lecturer in Bulgarian Literature and Culture, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, 2007-2009
  • Research Fellow, American Studies Department, Free University, Berlin, 2006
  • Fulbright Senior Scholar, UCI, 2003-2004
  • Research Fellow, Gender and Culture Department, Central European University, Budapest, 2001
  • Research Fellow, Philosophy Department, Ioannina University, Greece, 1998-1999
  • Fellow, School of Theory of Humanities, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 1998
  • Senior Research Fellow, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Meschen, Vienna 1997-1998

Professional Memberships

  • 2009 -2012: Executive board member, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
  • 2008-present: Member of ACCL (The Academic Circle of Comparative Literature)
  • 2008 -present: Member of the Union of Journalists in Bulgaria
  • 2008-present: Member of USB (Union of Scholars in Bulgaria)
  • 2005-present: Member of BASA (Bulgarian American Studies Association)
  • 2004-2007: Chair of the Advisory Board of the Swiss Cultural Program in Bulgaria