Bio note

Michel De Dobbeleer was born in Aalst, Belgium in 1978. He is a Slavist - with knowledge in Russian, Bulgarian, Old Church Slavic, Classicist and Italianist. His PhD dissertation in East European Languages and Cultures at Ghent University dealt with medieval Slavic accounts of the 1453 fall of Constantinople. In 2020 he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Dutch Linguistics and Literature. He has numerous academic publications. He took part in the Bulgarian-Russian-Belgian SESDiva project.

At Ghent University and KU Leuven he has taught, among others, courses on Russian literature and history, Medieval Slavic language, literature and art history, East-Central European literatures and cultures. At KU Leuven, he has also led translation workshops from Russian into Dutch. He has been preparing and teaching introductory Russian language and Balkan and Russian history courses in Flemish secondary schools and adult education. In 2007, he co-adapted a course on Bulgarian language. Since 2019 he has been editing and writing many posts in Dutch and English for the Balkan blog Kibik.

Residency goals

While in Sofia, Michel will be doing research, visiting libraries and interviewing translators for his Bulgaria-related contribution to the Bloomsbury book publication 'Socialist Transnationality and Dutch-Language Literature: The Reception of Dutch and Flemish Literature in Translation in East Central Europe and the Balkans in the Period 1945-1990'. The book is in the scope of the ‘'Tolerant' Literature in 'Totalitarian' Countries’ project led by Prof. Dr. Wilken Engelbrecht at Palacký University Olomouc in the Czech Republic.