Roumiana Preshlenova holds a Ph.D. in Balkan History from the Institute of Balkan Studies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Doctor Honoris Causa from the Democritus University of Thrace in Komotini, Greece. She is professor at the Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and its director since 2018. Prof. Preshlenova teaches at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. She is author of two monographs (in Bulgarian) and twelve exhibitions as well as editor of more than ten collected volumes (in Bulgarian, German and English). Prof. Preshlenova translated the collective History of Southeast Europe from Late Antiquity to the Present from German into Bulgarian. She participated also in many international projects, congresses and conferences in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, USA.
Stamenka Antonova holds a Ph.D. in History of Christianity from Columbia University and she is currently appointed as an historian at the Institute for Balkan Studies with Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is the author of Barbarian or Greek? The Charge of Barbarism and Early Christian Apologetics (Brill, 2018) and has published a number of articles on Eastern Christianity, including several articles in the Blackwell-Wiley Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Oxford, 2010). Dr. Antonova is also on the faculty at the School of Theology of Missional University, where she offers courses on the history of Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, western civilization, and western religions. Her areas of specialization include Eastern Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, and religious art.
Michael G. Azar holds a PhD in New Testament from Fordham University (2013) and an MA in theology from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (2005). He is the author of Exegeting the Jews: The Early Reception of the Johannine “Jews” (Brill, 2016), and his current book project focuses on ancient and modern Christian-Jewish interaction, particularly in light of Orthodox Christian hermeneutics and historic presence in the Holy Land (tentatively titled, The Table and the Empty Seat: Orthodox Christianity and Jewish-Christian Relations). He is currently a special advisor to the Orthodox Chair of the Orthodox Christian-Jewish dialogue, as well as a member of the dialogue’s planning committee.
Joseph Benatov holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches Hebrew. He has written on competing national narratives of the saving of the Bulgarian Jews during World War II and on the sensationalism of U.S. representations of life behind the Iron Curtain. He has translated fiction, poetry, and drama, including several plays staged to wide acclaim in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is also the English translator of the contemporary Bulgarian novel
Zift. He is originally from Bulgaria and a member of Sofia’s Jewish community. Dr. Benatov has over 20 years of experience leading travelers across the Balkans, including UNESCO representatives, 92nd Street Y visitors, JDC board members, and Anti-Defamation League officials. Every summer Dr. Benatov leads Jewish heritage tours to the Sephardic Balkans. You can find out more at
https://sephardicbalkans.com/