The exhibition “Cultural Heritage of the Bulgarians in Migration” represents in posters the activity of the formal and informal organisations which focus on the safeguarding, transmission, and popularisation of the cultural heritage of the Bulgarian migrants in Europe and the USA in the last three decades. The materials were collected during the period between 2014 and 2017 by a team of scholars based at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who visited 80 cities in 16 countries in Europe, among which Gent and Brussels in Belgium, as well as several states in the USA. They met representatives of over 300 Bulgarian Sunday schools, dance formations, embassies and consulates, cultural institutes and centres, associations and societies, choirs, food stores and restaurants, media, as well as individual artists. This is the largest study of Bulgarian communities living abroad that has ever been done. The exhibition is a result of the project “Cultural Heritage in Migration. Models of Consolidation and Institutionalisation of the Bulgarian Communities Abroad” funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund at the Ministry of Education and Science. Exhibition: 18/02-08/03, Magnel wing, 1st floor

Emeritus professor Etiënne Vermeersch was a philosopher, ethicist, classical philologist and sceptic. He was senior full professor and vicerector at our university, at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Alumni remember him as a most gifted teacher of courses such as his “Introductions to Philosophy”, but to the public he was renowned for his powerful voice in many a social debate. He has been unequivocally influential in the legalization of abortion and euthanasia in Belgium. After the death of Semira Adamu he chaired the Vermeersch Commission in the search for a more humane asylum policy. In more recent years he entered the public debate again through his book “De ogen van de panda” (The eyes of the panda) from 1988 in which he advocates limiting births as a solution to the climate issue.

January 16th marks 50 years since the death of Czech student Jan Palach, who passed away three days after setting himself on fire to protest the occupation of Prague by Warsaw Pact troops after their crushing of the Prague Spring. His death, and the crowd who attended his funeral, are together considered to be the endpoint of the Prague Spring. Jan Palach wanted to oppose the so-called 'normalization' or silent acceptance of the lost ideals and compromises brought about by the occupation. After Palach's death, several other students used this ultimate form of sacrifice as a means of protest. In January 1989, 20 years after Palach's death, memorials were organized by Václav Havel (future President of the Czech Republic), which also served as critiques of the regime. Though these memorials were brutally suppressed, they are seen as marking the outset of the Velvet Revolution.

Poet, playwright and novelist Judith Herzberg was awarded the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch Literature Prize). The prize, which is granted every three years, is considered the most prestigious literary price in the Dutch-speaking world. Judith Herzberg is celebrated for her “heartbreaking, understated simple” poetry. COMFORT FOR ROSA

Words of comfort for the sixteen-year-old who grumbles that in that far-off land she finds so few who care to know about the sparkling of her very soul:

Discoverers go on expeditions to make discoveries not to be discovered themselves. Their soul minds their house.

Translation: Rina Vergano, 2002.