Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
June 28-July 11, 2021
For much of their histories, the countries that today make up the Balkan Peninsula have shared a past; certainly of religion (or rather religions), usually of empire, often of conflict, always of migration, and just as constantly of trade, tastes in food (and drink), as well as of folk practices. Different ancestors – Thracians, Scythians, Romans, Greeks, Illyrians, proto-Bulgars, Vlacs, Slavs, and so on – all contributed to a mix of peoples and practices that, for all their differences, nevertheless present a recognizable cultural form; at least to outsiders. Not only a cultural form, but a grammatical substantive: "balkanization"…
The 2021 BSSRPL will thus convene an engaging two-week experiential school aimed at understanding the dynamics of contested pasts in the making of our shared future. Over the course of the program, we will focus our attention on how ethnic, religious, and national differences have led to different and contrasting historical narratives. Listening to the voice of our "others" will allow participants to appreciate the challenge of a newly confrontational politics of citizenship and the necessity of difference in living together.
The BSSRPL is an affiliate of CEDAR (www.cedarnetwork.org/), whose programs combine pluralistic perspectives on religious thought with social scientific research on tolerance and civil society, and an open, dialogic, approach to pedagogic practice. Its goal is to transform both the theoretical models and concrete practices through which religious orientations and secular models of politics and society engage one another. As with other CEDAR affiliates, the BSSRPL program combines academic courses with intensive group-building processes and the construction of working relationships across religious and ethnic identities. Its didactic goals are both social and cognitive.
April 15, 2021, is the deadline for receiving applications. All application material and questions should be send to
More information: Call to Fellows 2021 and Application 2021
The Balkan Summer School on Religion and Public Life
has been organized with the support of:
Plovdiv 2019 Municipal Foundation
CEDAR - Communities Engaging with Difference and Religion
National Scientific Program "Cultural and Historical Heritage, National Memory and Social Development", Ministry of Education and Science, Bulgaria
The Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv