Associate Professor from Western Carolina University

visiting Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria

as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar

Fulbright International Seminar

This weekend I attended the three-day Fulbright International Seminar 2021, entitled “Strategies for Strengthening Democracy: The Crisis of Representation”. It is not my research area, but the topics are thought-provoking on various aspects of democracy...

The tail end of summer

Since I came to Sofia on Aug 1, the air gets cooler after each rain, some leaves have turned yellow, and some autumn flowers start to blossom. There can still be some hot days occasionally, and before the tail end of summer slips away, I want to mention a few...

Plovdiv

Sozopol boasts 7000 years of history with an exhibit of ancient pottery and gold leafs even at the entrance of a grocery store, then I can’t help imagining Plovdiv saying, “hold my beer”, or, “hold my rhyton”, as there has been 8000 years of civilization in Plovdiv...

The Linden tree

In my first week in Sofia, my colleague had already pointed out the Linden tree to me. I was told that the Linden tree blossoms smelled really good in spring. It is easy to identify a Linden tree as the stems of the seeds are connected to the center of a leaf-like...

The first day of K-12 schools

September 15th is the day when all the K-12 schools start their winter semesters. Although I knew the date, I didn’t expect what this date meant. On my way to my office on September 15th (I didn’t even notice what date it was), I could immediately tell...