Georgy Fotev

Other positions he has held include honorary professor of New Bulgarian University (2012), where he has been a member of the board of trustees since 1994, and Fulbright scholar at Duke University in the United States (1997–1998). He was member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts and in 2013, he restored the Institute of Sociology at this academy. Fotev has been a member of the editorial advisory board of the journal Polish Sociological Review since 2000, as well as of the editorial boards of other academic journals. He was vice chairman of the board of directors of American University in Bulgaria from 2000 to 2003, and has been a member of the University Council of that university from 2003. Fotev is married and has a son and daughter.

Georgy Fotev is the author of more than 250 scientific publications, many of them published abroad. His works have come out in more than 15 countries. The Senate of the European Academy of Sciences elected him active member in 1993, and he is also member of many other international scientific organizations.

Georgy Fotev (Bulgarian: Георги Фотев) (born August 24, 1941) is a Bulgarian sociologist. His scientific works are in the areas of theory and history of sociology and the disciplinary fields of modern sociology. The focus of Fotev's research interests is the nature of sociology as a multiple paradigm science. Another major theme is the dialogue as a base and horizon of multiple paradigm sociology. Georgy Fotev has publications in the fields of historical sociology, sociology of politics, ethnosociology, the crisis of legitimacy and sociology of values. His books The Long Night of Communism in Bulgaria and Bulgarian Melancholy explore the fate of the Bulgarian national society. Georgy Fotev was Minister of Education and Science (1991–1992). He is professor emeritus of New Bulgarian University, and in 2003 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the American University in Bulgaria.

Georgy Fotev was born on 24 August 1941 in the village of Dimitrovche, Svilengrad Municipality, Bulgaria. His life under the Communist regime was full of hardships. His father being a political emigrant in West Germany, he and his family were interned in 1950. After completing military service in the labour forces, for years he was prohibited from applying to study in any higher education institution. Repressed by the Communist regime, he was employed as a manual worker for several years. He eventually graduated in philosophy at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridsky in 1968 but was denied the right to do academic work on political grounds for years. In 1976, he started work as a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences(BAS). In 1989 he became a professor. In 1991 he was Minister of Science and Education. In 1992–2003 he was director of the Institute of Sociology at BAS. He is also president of the Bulgarian Sociological Association and National Program Director for the European Values Study.