Teaching Ethnography at the Sofia University "St. Kliment of Ohridski" (1888-1988)

Abstract

The article by Ivanichka Georgieva presents a comprehensive overview of the development of ethnographic teaching at Sofia University “St Kliment Ohridski” over a hundred-year period (1888–1988). It traces the institutional and methodological formation of ethnography as an academic discipline and its relationship to other fields within the humanities and social sciences.

From its beginnings in the late nineteenth century, ethnography was taught through general Slavic ethnography courses by Aleksandar Teodorov-Balan and Dimitar Marinov within the Faculty of History and Philology. In the early twentieth century, Lyubomir Miletich and Stoyan Romanski shaped the scientific foundations of Bulgarian ethnography, organizing seminars, publishing in the Proceedings of the Seminar of Slavic Philology, and mentoring the first generations of ethnographers.

By the interwar and postwar periods, ethnography gradually gained autonomy and adopted modern methodological frameworks influenced by anthropogeography and historical approaches. During the 1950s–1980s, it evolved into a structured university programme, expanding to include courses on Bulgarian and Slavic ethnography, material and spiritual culture, ethnomuseology, ethnosociology, and cultural anthropology.

The independent Department of Ethnography was formally established in 1980 under the leadership of Tsvetana Georgieva, Ivanichka Georgieva, and Tanya Boneva, developing strong collaboration with the Ethnographic Institute and Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The department launched student expeditions, fieldwork projects, and integrated curricula modeled after major European universities.

Georgieva concludes that ethnography at Sofia University has become a key centre for ethnological education and research in Bulgaria, preserving national traditions while embracing contemporary anthropological perspectives and international academic exchange.