Shaban Darakchi

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (primary) / University of Antwerp (affiliated)

Based on an ethnographic research in a Muslim town in Bulgaria, this study provides a comparative analysis, exploring the modernization of sex and sexuality within three generations of Pomaks (Slavic Muslims). Although the modernization of sexuality was “postponed” by the repression against Muslims in Bulgaria during the communism known as “Rebirth...

During the past few years the so-called “anti-gender campaigns” in Bulgaria have revitalized the polemics surrounding the development of non-heterosexual identities claiming that these identities are “imported” by “Western” politics and discourses in order to “weaken” and transform national cultural and political models. Analyzing 63 semi-structure...

Based on 27 in-depth interviews, web platforms analysis, and participatory observations this study investigates (a) the emergence and the development of the Bulgarian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex (LGBTQI) movement; and (b) the activists' motivation for engagement with the movement. Challenging the new social m...

The abolishment of women’s and LGBTQ rights has become one of the main goals of the so-called “anti-gender campaigns” emerging on a global scale. This study investigates discourses and notions that reject the concepts of “gender” and “gender-based violence” in times of “anti-gender campaigns” in Bulgaria. Based on discourse analysis and data from s...

Based on ethnographic data, this study investigates the changes in the notions of marriage within three generations in a Muslim Pomak community in Bulgaria. The main goal of the study is to revisit the concepts of the detraditionalization and retraditionalization of marriage, taking into account the communist past and the repressions against Muslim...

Nowadays, homosexuality is among the most controversial topics in public debates. In times of rapid globalization and social media, certain new global discourses have emerged. These often approach homosexuality as a homogenous and one-sided phenomenon, not taking into account specific local realities regarding homosexual minorities. Based on a cont...

This article explores the development of LGBTQ studies and scholarship in Bulgaria. In part, it brings to the forefront the personal experiences of some of the first Bulgarian scholars working on LGBTQ studies. The personal is interpreted in part through explorations of Bourdieu’s concept of “symbolic violence.” Elaborating on the challenges regard...