On July 1, 2003, the Romania and Bulgaria
program merged into one administrative and programmatic unit. Like other CEP sub-regional
programs, we hope that this move will lead to increased cooperation, new academic
networks, work in discipline clusters and professional development activities between the
two countries. The first joint event will be the
Romania/Bulgaria orientation, which will take place from September 17 to September 22.
Liliana Popescu is the program director for the Romania/Bulgaria program and works in
collaboration with Tsvetelina Popova, program coordinator for Bulgaria and Lucian
Sarbeanu, program coordinator for Romania.
The new joint program has forty-three Fellows for academic year
2003–04, including twenty-one Local Faculty Fellows, seventeen Teaching Development
Program Fellows and five Visiting Faculty Fellows. One of the Visiting Faculty Fellows
will serve as a Resource Fellow, a senior academic who mentors local scholars from his or
her home country and travels to Bulgaria periodically to conduct trainings. Depending on
its success, this pilot scheme may be replicated in other programs. Academic exchanges and
cooperation will continue, especially with Moldova, which in the future may join the
Romania/ Bulgaria program.
