Dr. Eric C. De Sena, Director of the American Research Center in Sofia (since July 2012), is a Roman archaeologist; born in New York State, he lived/worked in Italy for 14 years. With a MA in Art History from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in Archaeological Sciences from University of Bradford, De Sena taught courses in ancient art and archaeology at several American university centers in Rome. Before coming to Sofia, he held a tenured position at John Cabot University and served four years as Chairman of Dept. of Art History and Studio Art. De Sena has conducted considerable research in Italy regarding Roman pottery and the ancient economy; since 2004, he is Co-Director of the Porolissum Forum Project in northwestern Romania. He is co-founder of the Rome, Italy Chapter of the AIA.

Todor Petev has been the Director of the US Office of the American Research Center in Sofia since the fall of 2010. He has an MA in art history from Tufts University and is about to defend his PhD dissertation at Princeton University. He specializes in the history of book illustration in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He has taught art history at Pratt Institute of Art and Seton Hall University. He has worked as a researcher at the Department of European Painting of the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the Department of Rare Books at the Princeton University Library.

Dr. Emil Nankov has been the Archaeology Program Officer of the American Research Center in Sofia since August of 2009. He has an MA in classical archaeology from Sofia University and a PhD in art history and archaeology from Cornell University. His main scholarly interests focus on the archaeology of urbanization in the Hellenistic period. He has published on the archaeology and history of Ancient Thrace. He is a co-editor of A Companion to Ancient Thrace with Wiley-Blackwell (publication date: 2014). Since 2012, he is a Director of the ARCS Archaeological Field School at Heraclea Sintica in southwestern Bulgaria. Visit Emil's academia.edu page.

Anton Kazakov has been the building manager of the American Research Center in Sofia since the beginning of 2008. His work at the center is related to the maintenance of the building, local book-keeping and dealing with government organizations and local agencies. Another important task is to assist the visiting students with the necessary documentation during their stay.

Boyana Boyanova has been an administrative assistant of the American Research Center in Sofia since the fall of 2010. She has a Bachelor degree in Library and Information Sciences from Sofia University and a Master degree in Work and Organizational Psychology at Sofia University. Her work is assisting with all aspects of administrative management, scheduling and coordinating meetings, interviews, events and other similar activities and to keep the information in the website of the Center up to date.

Elitsa Popova has been a librarian of the American Research Center in Sofia since the fall of 2010. She has a Bachelor degree in Library and Information Sciences and Master degree in Translator-editor with English from Sofia University. Her work is related to cataloguing, interlibrary loan and managing new acquisitions at ARCS library.

Gallery