The constitutive meeting for the formation of the Association was on the 8th of March in 2005 and recently it reached its 15th anniversary. It is an academic and non-political NGO, which is a rarity in our country. The aims of the founders of ADUCE were to create and to sustain an active and vivid community of people, who are studying, teaching and doing research in the broad scope of disciplines and knowledge about Antiquity (Altertumswissenschaften), and the ramifications and receptions of its heritage in the later epochs. Moreover, the ancient European Antiquity is cherished by the members of the Association as a value in itself, but also as the fundament of important cultural and spiritual processes in the history of Europe.
In the course of these 15 years since its appearance the Association unites teaching academics, students, doctoral students, researches from the institutes of the BAS (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) from different humanitarian fields: classical, Bulgarian and Slavic philology, philosophy, theology, history, old Bulgarian language and literature, Thracian studies.
Core members and often chairs of the Governing Council are academics or alumni of the bachelor’s and master’s programs in classics in the Faculty of Classical and New Philologies in the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.
The Association is governed by democratic and collegial rules and the members of the Governing Council are executing their duties for no longer period than 3 years. Successive chairs of ADUCE have been:
Assoc. Prof. Nikolai Gochev (2005-2008) http://kkf.proclassics.org/en/academic-staff/nikolay-gochev/,
Dr. Peter Rogalski (2009-2011),
Assoc. Prof. Nevena Panova (2011-2014 and 2017-2019) http://kkf.proclassics.org/en/academic-staff/nevena-panova/,
Assoc. Prof. Elia Marinova (2014-2016) http://kkf.proclassics.org/en/academic-staff/elia-marinova/.
The newly elected members of the Governing Council, who are in charge since December 2019, are:
Dr. Viara Kalfina from the department History and Theory of Culture in the Faculty of Philosophy of the Sofia University is the new chair –––––(viara.kalfina@gmail.com); She teaches various disciplines in the thematic scope of the Greek and Latin ancient culture and religion.
Assoc. Prof. Silvia Kristeva from the Southwest University in Blagoevgrad (silvia_kristeva@mail.orbitel.bg); She teaches logic – from the traditional Aristotelian to the newest logical systems.
Dr. Ivan P. Petrov from the Medical University in Plovdiv (ivan.petrov@mu-plovdiv.bg). He teaches Latin and Bulgarian to foreign students.
Ex officio their work is supported by the former chair Assoc. Prof. Nevena Panova from the Department of Classics (nevenapan@gmail.com). She teaches ancient Greek literature and has published two books on Plato. Half of the text of the translation of the Laws in Bulgarian is hers.
Secretary of the Association is Assoc. Prof. Aneta Dimitrova from the Department of Cyril and Methodius Studies in the Faculty of Slavic Studies in the SU (netanette@gmail.com).
In the first years of the Association among its most active members were colleagues from the then High Evangelical Theological Institute (supported by certain American Protestant Foundation, but non-operating currently). That’s why the two initial conferences, organized by ADUCE, were The Bible and the Classical Antiquity, February 2008; and Religion and Context, February 2009[1].
Teaching academics and students-participants in ADUCE were among the most active contributors in several important international seminars with sequels of sessions. The scope of the great international project Contextualizing Classics was extremely impressive: it included 6 sessions in the course of three years (2005-2007) and attracted tens of participants from many countries. Financially it was supported by the Higher Education Support Program of the CEU in Budapest and the main convener in the SU was the Department of Classics.
Another interesting teaching initiative was the interdisciplinary course The actual antiquity. The political thinking of the ancient world (for details see: http://dimkasdiary.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post_04.html). It was accomplished in the Faculty of Philosophy in the academic 2007/2008 year with the financial support of the Curriculum Development Centre of the Central European University in Budapest[2].
One of the regular workshops of the Southeast-European Association for Ancient Philosophy ( for more info about the SEAAP see http://www.pavel-gregoric.info/?page_id=1286) was held in the SU. We organized it in June 2011 and it was dedicated to the dialogue Epinomis ( program and participants published here: https://theepinomisofplato.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-it-happened.html). This intense international seminar was supported by Фонд научни изследвания (the Scholarly Research Fund) of the University of Sofia.
Many other smaller seminars took place in the Sofia University as well, sometimes every week or once in a fortnignt, some of them being part of the curriculum of the bachelor’s program in Classical philology or of the master’s program in Ancient literature and culture. These seminars or optional courses for the students attracted larger audience and were frequented by guest-lecturers and guest-discussants from other universities and institutes of the BAS.
The anniversary of Aristotle, 2400 years since his birth, in 2016 received special attention. The ADUCE initiated and received assistance by the three philosophical departments in the Faculty of Philosophy for the organization of a big conference: The challenge: Aristotle[3]. It gathered 60 contributors from 12 Bulgarian and foreign heigher education institutions on the 28th, 29th and the 30th of November 2016. More info about it in English available here: https://aristotlesofia.wordpress.com/english/, ( and in Bulgarian: <https://aristotlesofia.wordpress.com/>). It gave also inspiration to 58 pupils from secondary schools, who sent their essays in the competition My Aristotle[4]. The best among the youngest philosophers received awards in the opening ceremony of the conference.
Last, but not least: many members of the Association successfully continue their academic development, graduating with excellent texts for different academic degrees – from the master’s theses and PhD-theses to habilitation writings and second doctorate (which is still available as option here.) Many original books and fundamental translations, done by members of ADUCE, reached the readers in these 15 years and for the welcoming of almost all of them special events were organized. Some of them are recorded and available on the thematic chanel in YouTube Класически изследвания: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_dB8rzihRc&t=157s
All these gave confidence to us, the members of the Association, that we not only could, but should convene once a year certain academic forum, with papers focused on a special topic or text, but with a Varia panel as well.
The first Readings (held on the 15th of December 2017) were inspired by the anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia and the title was Utopia. The political philosophizing and phantasies from Antiquity to the New times.
The second Readings were held again in the middle of December 2018 and they were dedicated to the joined anniversary – 130 years since the foundation of the High school in Sofia, our present day University; and 130 years since the first Bulgarian translation of a dialogue of Plato, namely Crito. The title was Thinking and acting and the motto was a quotation from 54 d: καὶ πράττωμεν ταύτῃ, ἐπειδὴ ταύτῃ ὁ θεὸς ὑφηγεῖται. The volume with some of the papers was recently submitted to the University Publishing House.
The third Readings, held the previous December, discussed mainly De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii and the motto from the book of Martianus Capella was: Artes…disciplinas annotabunt sobrias…nec uetabunt ludicra. (Mart. Cap. II, 220)
The forthcoming regular December conference will be multifaceted and the title is Logos, dogma, phahtasia. We hope to organize it well, in person, and pray for better conditions in our country and all over the world. Unfortunately, in the last years the only financial income of ADUCE are the membership-fees, which are symbolic especially for the students and that’s why we could not afford to invite foreign colleagues as guests.
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The conference Logos, dogma, phantasia was planned for December 2020, but the lockdown forced its postponement. It was held on the 2nd and 3rd of April 2021 in a hybrid form with 22 participants.
This year we were lucky to have a real in person conference at the end of May.
On the 27th and 28th of May 2022 21 papers were discussed. The thematic scope was huge: Hermeneutical labyrinths. Myth, name, history. An enormous volume (approximately 500 pages) containing enlarged versions of some papers, delivered at the last two conferences, is on the way in the University Press St. Kliment Ohridski.
[1] Some of the papers delivered then are published in Класически и модерни измерения на религиозното откровение*Classical and modern dimensions of the religious revelation. S., 2009, АDUCE, ed. By N. Gochev, P. Rogalski and Chavdar Hadjiev.
[2] Papers by some of the participants in the course can be found in: Политическото мислене на европейското „минало“ (The Political Thinking of the European “Past”). Ed. by Dimka Gocheva, Nevena Panova and Iglika Milusheva. С., УИ „Св. Климент Охридски“, 2010.
[3] A huge volume with 42 papers was published in 2018 by the University Publishing House, entitled likewise Предизвикателството: Аристотел.The Challenge: Aristotle. Eds. D. Gocheva, Ivan Kolev and Harry Panitzidis. (Authors and titles of their papers: http://knigabg.com/index.php?page=book&id=48397)
АРУКО 