Registration now closed

The Cold War From the Margins

In Person and Online Author talk with Theodora Dragostinova

Theodora Dragostinova will discuss her book, which shows how a small socialist state, Bulgaria, used cultural diplomacy to create new partnerships, including with the USA and Ohio.

In The Cold War from the Margins, Theodora K. Dragostinova reappraises the global 1970s from the perspective of a small socialist state—Bulgaria—and its cultural engagements with the Balkans, the West, and the Third World. During this anxious decade, Bulgaria's communist leadership invested heavily in cultural diplomacy to bolster its legitimacy at home and promote its agendas abroad. Bulgarians traveled the world to open museum exhibitions, show films, perform music, and showcase the cultural heritage and future aspirations of their "ancient yet modern" country.

As Dragostinova shows, these encounters transcended the Cold War's bloc mentality: Bulgaria's relations with Greece and Austria warmed, émigrés once considered enemies were embraced, and new cultural ties were forged with India, Mexico, and Nigeria. Pursuing contact with the West and solidarity with the Global South boosted Bulgaria's authoritarian regime by securing new allies and unifying its population. Complicating familiar narratives of both the 1970s and late socialism, The Cold War from the Margins places the history of socialism in an international context and recovers alternative models of global interconnectivity along East-South lines.

In-person space is limited, masks are required, and registration is requested. Online registration is required to receive the Zoom link.

Theodora Dragostinova is an associate professor of history at The Ohio State University. Her work focuses on nationalism, migration, global history, and Cold War culture. Geographically, her research is focused on eastern Europe, with an emphasis on the Balkans and Bulgaria, but she also engages with comparative perspectives on Modern Europe in a global perspectives. She is also the author of Between the Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900-1949. 

Upcoming events