Biography
Simeon
Evstatiev holds a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic
History (1999) from St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia where he
currently
studies and teaches Middle Eastern History and Islam at the Centre for
Oriental
Studies. In 2000 he specialized in Spain, where he worked on a project devoted to
Christian-Muslim relations as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas) in Madrid. Currently, Simeon Evstatiev is working on his
International Policy Fellowship (IPF) Project entitled “Islam, the
Balkans and
the European ‘Neighbourhood Project’” at the Open Society Institute
(OSI) and
the Center for Policy Studies (CPS) affiliated with the Central European University
in Budapest.
Besides, his main areas of
interest include Arabic religio-historical
thought, religious and political movements in the Muslim-majority world
as well
as Christian-Muslim relations. He has numerous publications on these
topics.
Simeon Evstatiev has directed and participated in different research
and
educational projects on national and international level. He visited
and gave
papers and lectures at various academic forums in Great Britain, The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary,
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium
and Kuwait, India,
Poland and USA. Within his research projects he visited also Turkey, Lebanon
and Syria, Macedonia and Kosovo. Since 2003 Simeon Evstatiev is also
Research Director of the academy-based Center for Intercultural Studies
and
Partnership (CISP) in Sofia.
The international memberships of Simeon
Evstatiev
include: Union Eurpéenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI),
The European
Association for Middle Eastern Studies (EURAMES), Deutsche
Morgenländische
Gesellschaft (DMG), Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient
für
gegenwartsbeyogene Forschung und Dokumentation (DAVO). Since 2004
Simeon Evstatiev is also National
Representative of Bulgaria and Coordinator for South
East Europe at the UEAI as
well as Contact Person of EURAMES in Bulgaria and the
Balkans.
