Mina Hristova

Mina Hristova serves as Assistant Professor at the Balkan Ethnology Department within the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with the Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, focusing on anthropological dimensions of Balkan borders and identity construction since her 2020 PhD dissertation on Serbia-Bulgaria-Macedonia tripoint regions.

Her research spans nationalism, border anthropology, urban studies, memory politics, and migration phenomena, with particular emphasis on Bulgarian border communities, diaspora experiences, and refugee integration within Bulgaria. She examines how geopolitical boundaries shape hybrid identities and social dynamics in Southeastern Europe.

Recent publications reveal concentrated scholarly attention on refugee mental health, left-behind family dynamics, Russian-speaking migrants in Bulgaria, and citizenship acquisition processes, consistently contextualizing these themes within Bulgaria's sociopolitical landscape and EU migration frameworks.

Scientific recognition includes:

• Academician Ivan Evstratiev Geshov Award for young BAS scientists (2017)
• BAS Azarya Polykarov Award for young scientists (2022) for her monograph "We are Bulgarians, but Not Quite"

Hristova actively contributes to academic discourse through editorial leadership for five collective volumes and two monographs (2020-2023) covering Bulgarian migrant communities and refugee experiences, while participating in the REFUGE-ED Consortium developing dialogic educational approaches for refugee children.