Cities in Southeastern Thrace: Continuity and Transformation, edited by Daniela Stoyanova, Grigor Boykov, Ivaylo Lozanov (Sofia: Sofia University Press, 2017)

The City in history has always been a central topic in studying collective human behaviour. The idea of studying cities on the Balkan Peninsula in diachronic perspective emerged as major research-project launched by researchers from the Faculty of history at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” in 2011. Shaped as an interdisciplinary seminar “The Balkan City”, funded by the Center of Excellence in the Humanities “Alma Mater” (http://ukh.uni-sofia.bg), the project was conceived to bring together distinct methodological and theoretical approaches into a holistic and interdisciplinary one. Various themes and branches of historical studies were to contribute towards better understanding of the urban phenomenon. We were also extremely privileged to extend the academic discourse beyond our own intra-academic community in Sofia since our efforts were supported by eminent researchers from abroad who accepted our invitation and regularly delivered lectures in the seminar on specific topics within the area of their own expertise.

This volume is a direct outcome from our first travelling seminar in Eastern Thrace that took place in the Fall of 2013. Within the present volume the reader is invited to look through different sections where the papers are organised chronologically starting from the 1st millennium BC until the Ottoman period. The thematic scope is not strictly focused on material remains: it tackles questions of identification and historical geography; religious identities and self-expression; problems of relations between centre and periphery; the changing functions performed by certain cities; ethnicity and urban culture; social transformations, symbols of status and self-representation; “the other’s view” etc.

Table of contents