Transferring Knowledge: Bulgarian Female Scientists in Bulgarian-German Scientific Networks (1920s–1950s)

Abstract

This article deals with the scientific relationships between female Bulgarian scientists (those affiliated with academic institutions and those not) and their colleagues in Germany from the 1920s up to the beginning of the 1950s. The main objective is to examine the participation of these women scientists in the scientific networks that arose between Germany and the Balkans with regard to the transfer of knowledge and their respective positions relative to academic power. The article analyzes the activities of these women in Germany: their doctoral and postgraduate studies, their participation in various scientific forums, their publications in German periodicals, and their affiliations with both the German scientific institutions and the established research networks of the time. This article is largely based on unpublished archival documents found in personal collections or the collections of institutions. Other primary sources are memoirs, biographies, bibliographies, encyclopedias, and reference books. This article uses two main theoretical approaches. The first is based on gender theory, according to which “power networks” and power hierarchies exist in institutions of knowledge. The second approach is social exchange theory and the theory of social networks. The main methods that allow for exploring data sources are drawn from prosopographical and social network analysis (SNA).