The International University Seminar for Balkan Studies and Specializations was established by a resolution of the Academic Council of South-West University “Neofit Rilski” in 1990. Its founder is Prof. DSc Ilia Konev. Currently, the Chair of the Governing Board is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iliya Nedin.
Members of the International Coordinating Council:
Members of the Governing Board:
- Assoc. Prof. Iliya Nedin, PhD – Chairman
- Assoc. Prof. Snezhana Dimitrova, PhD – Deputy Chairman
- Prof. Stilian Stoyanov, PhD
- Prof. Valentin Kitanov, PhD
- Assoc. Prof. Diana Ivanova, PhD
- Assoc. Prof. Roman Hadzhikosev, PhD
- Chief Assist. Prof. Nataliya Sotirova, PhD
- Chief Assist. Prof. Yanko Hristov, PhD
- Assist. Prof. Pavlina Solachka, PhD
Prof. Iliya Konev, Ph.D., was born in the town of Petrich in 1928. He graduated with a degree in Bulgarian Philology from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.” He pursued specialized studies in Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Russia, and Germany. His professional career has spanned some of the most prestigious academic institutions—the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Balkan Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Veliko Tarnovo University, and Neofit Rilski South-West University in Blagoevgrad.
At Neofit Rilski South-West University, he is a full professor of Bulgarian National Revival literature, head of the Department of Literature, and served as the university’s rector (1989–1991).
Prof. Iliya Konev, Ph.D., is the founder and first chair of the International University Seminar on Balkan Studies and Specializations. Prof. Konev has also served as a visiting lecturer in Bulgarian language and literature at the universities of Leipzig (Germany), Göttingen (Germany), and Marburg (Germany).
He is the author of over 500 scholarly articles, studies, and reviews in Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, German, Russian, Ukrainian, French, and Croatian, as well as numerous monographs in the fields of Balkan studies, Slavic studies, and Bulgarian studies. He has lectured at universities in Bucharest, Belgrade, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, Leipzig, Göttingen, Marburg, Munich, and Aachen. He has participated in numerous conferences on Balkan and Slavic studies, as well as in many national academic forums.
Iliya Konev played an active role in the country’s public and political life as a member of the Grand National Assembly and as Minister of Science and Higher Education.
Prof. Iliya Konev, Ph.D., is one of the leading figures in contemporary scholarship on the Bulgarian National Revival. His theoretical ideas have strongly influenced the scholarly paradigm of the Revival in the last decades of the 20th century. His scholarly work is well known not only in Bulgaria but also in Austria, Germany, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Ukraine, France, Russia, and Croatia, where numerous reviews of his research have been published.
