CAS Vision 2008-2015

presented by CAS Director, Prof. Diana Mishkova,
and endorsed by CAS Board at its meeting in May 2008

A vision may mean rather different things. One is about what you are not, perhaps cannot be, but you want to be. This is the utopian vision. Another is about what you are, and you want to stay the way you are. This is the self-complacent vision. Yet another is the realization that the way you are is a transient condition anyway, so what is actually at stake is your ability to control change without losing identity. This is the reflexive vision.

The vision hereunder is of the third type. It seeks to build on the strong features and achievements of the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia during its founding phase but at the same time spearhead adjustment to and creative integration into international scholarship under considerably changed conditions. It is neither futuristic nor “dreamy” but functional, aimed to help the Centre take the right decisions in a situation of strongly devaluated intellectual stakes, scholarly de-motivation and disorientation, and a largely market-oriented science. It wants to be ambitious and bold but in a focused way, concentrating on fields and directions where it has proven its strengths, ingenuity and capacity for growth. Its visionary verve is, for all this, not cracked down on some grand (outreaching but abstract) socio-political impact but projected on the (down-to-earth yet daring) goals of its science policy and values.

The qualities I wish to see as continuing to define the profile of the Centre in the near future are those of a vibrant and flexible institution with strong international and interdisciplinary orientation which sustains academic independence and freedom of research, scholarly excellence, and intellectual creativity. The Centre will seek to foster this profile by combining independent research and collaborative cross-cultural enquiries. In cultivating its distinctive profile it will strive to fuse stability and vigour, coherence and openness to new fields. While aiming to diffuse innovative knowledge and high research standards across the national academic environment, it will buttress its international embedding, scholarly and institutional network-building as well as its working partnerships within the NetIAS.

The Centre could enhance further its reputation of a place for alternative thinking and intellectual insight, emitting constant challenge to the scholarly establishment and nurturing critical reflection – a place “where things happen”. At a time of increasing economization of academia when market-driven incentives, pragmatism and “monetization of research” strongly prevail, CAS will continue to lend space and esteem for the free pursuit of knowledge, opening up of horizons, non-conformist thinking and challenging of conventional truths. Its academic eminence should be associated with the recognition it bestows on excellence, ingenuity and talent. All this is ultimately intended to converge on propelling the standards of academic performance and public awareness. This means that CAS will seek to carry out a double transmitting function: between (high quality) research and education and between new knowledge and the broader public. This however entails first of all concentration on the sustained cultivation of intellectual agency capable to generate and radiate such knowledge.

For the immediate future the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia will retain its human and social science profile. The general state of these scientific areas, the social demands for their improvement and improved applications, and the underprivileged conditions which they face in terms of public science policy-making do not induce us to pursue a major change of strategy in this respect. Having established itself as an important platform for high-level exploration in these areas, the Centre will concentrate on enhancing its outreach and intensifying its impact on the quality of knowledge produced as well as on the diffusion and the application of this knowledge.

With the European inclusion, East European scholars are being increasingly confronted with rising international competition over intellectual and material resources. CAS can continue to spearhead the effective participation of local and regional academia in modern scholarship by refining the three pillars of its research strategy: interdisciplinarity, internationalization, and comparative approach. Our understanding and practicing of these features of knowledge are both distinguishable and challenging.

We see interdisciplinarity above all as a requisite for innovation in our constituent disciplines, creation of new or redirection of older fields, and conceptual improvement. Such an understanding is not limited to an exposure to different disciplinary perspectives. We are led by the awareness that interdisciplinarity raises fundamental questions about the nature of knowledge itself. CAS thereby aims to contribute to the interrogating of the foundations of discrete disciplines and the fostering of scientific communities as an alternative to the disciplinary structuring of knowledge. The Centre will reinforce its role of a protected space for this kind of research, especially for young scholars. Cultivating interdisciplinary expertise in dealing with regional and cross-regional topics will remain a task of utmost importance.

Getting away from the East-West dichotomy underscores CAS’ orientation towards collaborative international work informed by both rigorous theoretical and systematic empirical work. The need for de-provincialization of Western Europe and for institutions studying Europe “from its margins” seems obvious. At this backdrop CAS sees its great and unique strength in that its departure point has been and will, in the foreseeable future, remain regional, extending from East-Central Europe and the Balkans to the Black Sea zone and the Near East, and defined by intersecting cultural-historical legacies and contemporary experiences. Certain “comparative advantages” derive from the availability of regional expertise in some fields, such as Byzantine, Jewish, and Muslim studies, and they can serve to re-establish the scholarly agency of the local research community on a European scale. This regional approach is intended to provide the base for effective international cooperation beyond the region and bring about a more encompassing “general European” and “global” perspective.

Related to this is the Centre’s emphasis on cross-national and cross-regional comparativism. Building upon its accumulated experience in intraregional research CAS should now expand towards comparisons with other regions of Europe - Scandinavia, Iberia (including Morocco), the British Isles – and beyond (the Caucuses, the Near East). Eight years ago CAS enquiries began with the question: what frames the discussion of the Balkans beyond the fears of instability and insecurity for Europe? In 2008 CAS can face up to the ambition to contribute to the rethinking of the fundamental categories of contemporary human and social sciences by effectively incorporating “local knowledges” into comparative analysis. A large variety of possible themes and differentiating approaches is thus likely to emerge which will draw on a pan-European base and expand the pool of potential solutions for common problems. Partaking in methodological advances on this level should prepare us for venturing, at a later stage, into much broader comparative studies.

I see the above three pillars as implying and complementing each other and, most importantly, as bearing upon the character of knowledge CAS is seeking to bring about. That knowledge would not draw its reputation and legitimacy from proficiency in local exoticism but would aspire to partake substantially and fruitfully in the advancement of contemporary internationalized social and human sciences.

The individuality of CAS among the other Institutes for advanced study obtains largely from the above research philosophy. Building upon a momentum already gathered, CAS will continue to act as an essentially outreaching IAS bringing together various regions, countries, and academic traditions, creating stronger relations among its constituent disciplines and communities. The core strength of the Centre to build and streamline broadly international scholarly networks – a capacity that mainly accounts for its dynamic character and growing outreach - is a distinguishable one that must be maintained and cultivated in the future. For, what initially stood as a potential liability – the relatively small size of the national scholarly community, CAS has succeeded to turn into an advantage: it has opened up most widely towards the outside world thus largely eliminating the space for parochialism and national self-centeredness. It is here that I see an important aspect of the future mission of the Centre. Much as nationalism and ethnocentrism have become defamed bêtes noires in the social and the human sciences, scholars throughout the world continue to focus and confer privilege on the study of their own societies and national cultures. Current organizational and political infrastructures also work mainly to augment the parochialization and compartmentalization of knowledge. This means that the generation of comparative, interdisciplinary and international knowledge is inhibited. A key objective of institutions such as CAS is to counteract this inhibition.

Over the years, the Centre has been increasingly acknowledged as an institution accumulating scholarly competence at the highest level in certain thematic fields through building upon scholarly networks, expertise and human capital. Its institutional-memory building is thus community- and knowledge-based. So far the Centre’s fields of enquiry have been distinguished by uninterrupted continuity and accretion of proficiency and human commitment. Successive generations of scholars thus become involved with the ongoing work of the institute ensuring the stable growth and renewal of its cultural capital. Its focus-group research has been instrumental in the creation and broader diffusion of a distinctive culture of intellectual socialization and intensive interaction, particularly among scholars of the younger generations, which has become a brand mark of CAS Sofia.

We believe that this repository of institutional memory is an extremely valuable distinguishing asset of the Centre that should serve as a model for its long-term development as new research fields add to its current thematic profile. In the future, therefore, CAS will continue to build a name for itself as an important place for ground-breaking study in certain fields and for sustaining a working community of leading scholars in these fields.

Broad thematic continuities notwithstanding, openness to new fields and disciplinary diversification of research should be among our priorities. Thus a balance should be achieved between stability and openness as regards old and new fields, between deepening CAS’ proficiency in certain areas and careful expansion towards others. Expanding the interdisciplinary and the thematic scope will proceed gradually, building upon the expertise which CAS has already developed in certain fields and which is part of its identity. Closer interaction between academic associates and the Academic Advisory Council should help ensure the proper balance. Critical in this respect is the composition of the CAS academic associated body: it should include energetic high-level scholars with vision and initiative, representing the balance of ‘old’ and ‘new’ areas.

Ideally, CAS research infrastructure will be built out of three major components:
- Independent (individual) fellowships for prominent Bulgarian and foreign scholars; International projects encouraging multidisciplinary approach to a common topic; Focus-group platforms stimulating interdisciplinary synthesis, the creation of new fields and conceptual change.

In the context of Bulgaria’s EU membership CAS will enhance its role of a bridge between and a meeting spot for regional and European scholarship. CAS will extend the regional base for its operation to include the Black Sea area (Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine) while prioritizing comparative and/or broadly international research involving other regions in Europe and beyond. For countries such as Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia CAS can and should remain a major focal spot for regionally-oriented research and academic interaction between regions. It is thus hoped that CAS will not have to “lure” Western scholars to come to the region as an intrinsically comparative perspective should provide shared incentives and greater parity.

As to its relations with local academia, the Centre will be up-keeping its institutional independence while diversifying its academic contacts and joint initiatives. While it seems impractical to involve whole universities in such partnerships, it is beyond doubt that CAS has much to gain in terms of its mission from establishing working relations with cutting-edge, high-profile research units or institutions.

Emphasis on younger scholars will persist. The biography of the institute attests to its ability to adjust gainfully to the expectations of up-and-coming academics and, with the radical internationalization of high education and academic promotion in Europe, this ability ought to be continually and attentively fine-tuned. We see gifted junior scholars as the most reliable vehicle for short-circuiting research and education. An illustration of this is the professional career of the Identity Reader research team.

In terms of diffusion of its upstream study the Centre could do better in the future. So far its various attending activities and events (discussion series, public lectures or seminars, guest-lecture series, etc.) have been instrumental in this respect and will be continued, thus also providing platform for its alumni to both contribute to and profit from the “cultural capital” of the institution. In this respect a stronger emphasis on publication of research results, both electronically and in printed form, is expected to improve scholarly dissemination and reward. While we do not, and will not, expect a wide public visibility as a result, the combination of good quality research and a smart publicity strategy for its dissemination should be enough to secure CAS high visibility among those to whom it is addressed.

The Centre will fervently uphold its academic independence with respect to funders by asserting its freedom of research, of methods, and of dissemination of findings. It will strive to counter the pressure towards “marketization of research” whereby agendas are shaped by the prospects for attracting funds rather than by local needs or intellectual concerns. Diversification of funding will be a major instrument in upholding both CAS’ autonomy and financial stability.

Material conditions can, of course, bear strongly upon visionary scale. Improving the Centre’s infrastructural capacities will be among our priorities in the immediate future as a pre-requisite for the Centre’s sustainability, public visibility and capacity to carry out its mission.

Diana Mishkova
CAS Sofia, May 2008