Balkan Summer School on Religion and Public Life
July 4-18, 2011, Sofia, Plovdiv, and the Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria
The 2011 ISSRPL, held in Bulgaria, was devoted to the different types of margins that we encounter in our social lives. We looked at people, places, families, ethnicities, religions, and practices–all from the perspective of our received notions of society's centers and its margins. Together we explored issues related to poverty, including its role in the marginalization of certain populations. Through our unique combination of lectures and experiential learning, we learned about the situation of the Roma; Bulgarian Pomaks (ethnic Bulgarians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman period); Catholic and Jewish communities in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; and both traditional and emergent Muslim communities.