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DEPARTMENT HEAD INSPECTOR

Prof. Boyan Znepolski, PhD

Sofia 1113,

125 Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd., bl. 4

Room No 401

e-mail:bznepolski@phls.uni-sofia.bg

Antoaneta Dimitrova

Sofia 1113,

125 Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd., bl. 4

Room No 402

phone. (+359 2) 80 05 256

e-mail: dimitrovab@phls.uni-sofia.bg

The Department of Sociology at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” is not only the first sociological department in the history of the Bulgarian higher education; it is also the department that enjoys the highest evaluation and the highest academic prestige in the field of the sociological education in Bulgaria. Since 2012, the Department of Sociology has taken irreversibly the first place in the rating system of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science. Meanwhile, in 2015, the National Agency of Evaluation and Accreditation evaluated the quality of education and the scientific achievements of the academic staff with a grade close to the maximum. During the last couple of years, sociology is among the disciplines, which are the most desired by aspiring students not only in the Faculty of Philosophy, but in the framework of whole University of Sofia.

The foundation of the Department of Sociology in 1979 is a key point in the process of institutionalization of the sociological science in Bulgaria. This process was preceded by the appearance in 1968 of a specialization in sociology as a part of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Sofia. Its graduates were also the first professors at the Department. More than a few alumni in sociology are at present a part of the Department’s staff or of other Departments at the University of Sofia. Since the day it was created, the Department has pursued a consistent policy of attracting young specialists and researchers.

In 2005, the Social Sciences Research Centre was founded at the Department. It works on numerous research projects. Department’s professors are major experts in various sociological fields and have been involved in numerous national and international research, teaching and policy-oriented projects. The portfolio of scientific and research partnerships includes participation in the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth EU Framework Programmes.

The popularity and the achievements of the Department of Sociology are undoubtedly related to the systematic character and the scope of the academic programs and the educational process. The sociological courses that the Department offers embrace all three stages of the higher education - bachelor, MA, doctoral. They also cover the more general as well as a lot of more specific subject fields of the sociological knowledge; they provide students with detailed information about the quantitative and the qualitative methods of scientific research. The academic programs articulate successfully the theoretical and the empirical levels of sociology - the in-depth presentation of the history of the discipline and of the most contemporary social theories goes hand in hand with an educational process focused on the realization of particular empirical researches.

A basic factor explaining the excellent performance of the Department of Sociology is the tight relationship between education and scientific research. The theoretical knowledge and the research competences offered by the Department are constantly renewed as a result from the permanent, individual and collective, research achievements of the academic staff. The academics at the Department are prominent specialists in different domains of the sociological research who regularly organize and participate in national and international scientific forums, publish articles in prestigious Bulgarian and foreign academic journals. It is namely the productive articulation between the professionally presented basic sociological knowledge required for the formation of qualified sociologists and the incessantly evolving scientific interests and methodological perspectives of the academic staff that makes sociology taught at the Department of Sociology a dynamic, viable and promising discipline.