As a Director of the National Student House under the Ministry of Education, I am in charge of the overall operations of the institution (www.studenthouse.bg) – a governmental body, established in 1933 and headquartered at 10 National Assembly Sq., Sofia. The National Student House (NSH) is part of the executive branch of the Government of Republic of Bulgaria, reporting directly to the Minister of Education and Science. NSH is supporting the implementation of the state policy towards the students’ community in the country and abroad.
If a formula should be outlined, regarding my directorship, it is Traditions + Innovation. While I strive to renovate the building and its role as a leading academic venue for cultural and social activities and projects, I also strive to innovate by providing new services and value to our target audience. The most recent project of mine is the ‘‘Student Tribune” podcast (available on Spotify and Anchor.FM), which can be explained as a streaming academic journal, serving as a tribune for undergraduate and graduate students to promote their research works that are worth sharing with the broader non-academic audience. This is the first such academic podcast, addressing the fact that very few young people beyond the academic world are actually reading publications, printed in academic journals. In the same time, more and more people get hooked on listening to Spotify podcasts, which brings up the question – can we transform the academic journal online and stream the readings, instead of print them?
As a starter, within the podcast you will find a few pilot episodes, which are recordings of academic works of mine in the field of Economics, Business Management and Public Governance (local, national and EU institutions). 90% of the works are in Bulgarian and their intent is solely to kick-start the open radio journal, which content would preferrably span across different fields of research – social sciences, but also natural sciences, engineering, arts. Information on my current research (in English) you can find here.
It should be underlined, however, that the works recorded are early versions – they are not necessarily peer-reviewed and some of them remain unpublished in actual journals due to the above. I am making these research works widely available as podcast episodes (and also in print) under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license so that many more students can look into them, while searching for good research ideas to work on and consequentially – to publish or record and share their knowledge with the world.
Last, but not least, a few words about the title of the podcast. ”Student Tribune” was the name of a newspaper, printed for decades within the Student House – from 1957 to 1991 (originally published from 1927 to 1930). Naming the innovative academic project this way, serves as a way to continue its traditions, though in a different, digital environment.
The National Student House building, located on Parliament Sq. №10
“Student Tribune” is also available on the following platforms:
Hristian @ Daskalov.info 