Awardees will conduct research and writing at a two-week interdisciplinary residency in Bulgaria hosted by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia.
Stanford Global Studies is proud to announce that Jovana Lazić, associate director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, will participate in the 2026 Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe (SISECSE), convened by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS).
Lazić is one of fourteen talented scholars from Eastern Europe and North America convening for a two-week residency hosted by the American University in Bulgaria from June 3-19, 2026 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. SISECSE participants will have the opportunity to dedicate time to their own research and writing in a collaborative and interdisciplinary setting. During the institute participants will also engage in a series of group discussions exploring the topic “Autonomy, Institutions, and Transnational Networks.”
Lazić’s research explores comparatively military occupations during the Balkan Wars and First World War, from 1912-1918—a formative period in both Balkan and global history. It combines an analysis of imperial and national occupying regimes—Habsburg, Serbian, Bulgarian—with a microhistorical study of everyday life under occupation, drawing on a wide range of state and local archival sources. It integrates this central Balkan experience into the broader history of the war and positions the Balkans as a crucial laboratory for the conduct and experience of modern military occupation, showing the region's fundamental importance for understanding global war studies.
“The Summer Institute offers scholars from Eastern Europe and the United States a great opportunity to meet face-to-face, learn from one another’s perspectives, develop their networks, and make progress on their own research projects,” said ACLS Program Officer Mark Silver. “ACLS is grateful to the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia for their partnership in convening leading scholars of East Central and Southeastern Europe in Bulgaria.”
The Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe is made possible by a generous donation from Carl and Betty Pforzheimer. The program builds on a long history of ACLS support for humanistic scholars and scholarship in Eastern Europe including the ACLS Humanities Program in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine (1999-2010).