PH.D. DISSERTATION
Albena Shkodrova. Rebellious Cooks: Practical and Hedonistic Powers of Recipes in Late Communist Bulgaria. Brussels: KUL and VUB. October 2017. Supervisors: Prof. dr. Peter Scholliers, Prof. dr. Yves Segers.
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES IN INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC JOURNALS
Shkodrova, Albena (2021) ‘“Tripe Soup for All Women!” / Transgression of Gender Boundaries as Part of Female Identity in Communist and Contemporary Bulgaria’, Soudobé Dějiny 28, no. 3: 648–75, https://doi.org/10.51134/sod.2021.050.
Shkodrova, Albena (2020) (Re)digesting Communism. Contemplating the late 20th-century East European diets. Forthcoming in Food&History.
Shkodrova, Albena (2019) “Home Cooking from ‘Slavery’ to a ‘Right’. The impact of state socialist feminism on domestic cooking practices in Bulgaria” In: Food&History. Final version accepted for publication on 01-06-2018.
Shkodrova, Albena (2018) Investigating the History of a Meaning of a Dish. An enactivist approach to the life of the Russian salad in 20th century Bulgaria. In Volkskunde 3/2018, pp. 343-366.
Shkodrova, Albena (2018) Rediscovering Europe and National Cuisine. How EU integration is shaping food tastes in Sofia and Belgrade in the 21st century. In Appetite, online since October 2018, DOI 10.1016/j.appet.2018.10.022.
Shkodrova, Albena (2018) “From Duty to Pleasure in the Cookbooks of Communist Bulgaria. Attitudes to food in the culinary literature for domestic cooking released by the state-run publishers between 1949 and 1989.” In: Food, Culture & Society, 25 June 2018. DOI: 10.1080/15528014.2018.1480647
Shkodrova, Albena (2018) “Revisiting Coca-Cola’s ‘Accidental’ Entry into Communist Europe” In: Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 18 No. 2, Summer 2018; (pp. 59-72) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2018.18.2.59
MONOGRAPHS
Shkodrova, Albena (2021) Communist Gourmet. The Curious History of Food of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. Budapest: CEU Press.
Shkodrova, Albena (2021) Rebellious Cooks and Recipe Writing in Communist Bulgaria. Bloomsbury Academic.
Shkodrova, Albena (2014). Soc Gourmet. Kurioznata istoria na kuhnyata v NRB [Communist Gourmet. The Curious History of Food of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria]. Sofia: Zhanet 45
Based on over 80 interviews and on rich variety of historical sources, the book is an Arcimboldian portrait of communist Bulgaria. It examines the impact of the communist modernization project on food by looking into the ideology, policy and management of the system, and into consumers’ experiences with the results. The book was published in November 2014 and in the following year became a §bestseller in Bulgaria, with three print runs. Currently the book expects an English edition by the Central European University Press in Budapest, due in 2019.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Shkodrova, Albena (2016) “In and Out of the Network. Food under Bulgarian communism, as remembered by fifteen North-American visitors”. In: Food in Central and Eastern Europe. Past-Present-Memory. Eds. A. Drzał-Sierocka and M.Tomaszewska-Bolałek, Gdansk: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Katedra, pp. 43-56.
INVITED BOOK REVIEWS
Shkodrova, Albena (2019) Book review: Geyzen, Anneke. De smaak van thuis. Erfgoed en voeding in Vlaanderen tussen 1945 en 2000 [The taste of home. Heritage and food in Flanders between 1945 and 2000]. (Universitaire Pers Leuven) In: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis. University of Leiden, 132.2, pp. 331-333.
Shkodrova, Albena (2015) Book review: Marc Verhaert (red.) 25 Jaar Romeense Revolutie. Verhalen met een Belgisch Tintje. In: Mededelingenblad van de Belgische Vereniging voor Nieuwste Gerschiedenis, 2015, Issue 2, pp. 21-23.
ACCEPTED CONFERENCE PAPERS
Albena Shkodrova (2018) “Contesting gender rights over a bowl of tripe soup. The road of shkembe chorba, a century-old treat for Bulgarian bohemians and workers, towards a unifier of classes and a macho symbol”. Published in the proceedings of the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium, 29-30 May 2018.
Albena Shkodrova. (2018) “Cookbooks as a historical source: a proposal for a comprehensive and structured approach.” To be presented at the Forth International Conference on Food History and Food Studies, Tours, June 2018.
Albena Shkodrova. (2016) “Social Meanings of Writing Recipes in Communist Bulgaria”. Presented at the Second International Conference on Food History and Food Studies, Tours, May 2016.
Albena Shkodrova. (2016) “In and Out of the Network. Food under Bulgarian communism, as remembered by fifteen North-American visitors”. Presented at Food in Central Europe: Culture and Business, Warsaw, 19-20 May 2016. The special volume with the conference papers is expected to be published before the end of 2018.
Albena Shkodrova. (2015) “The Forbidden Pleasure of Home Cooking. Evolution of domestic foodways in communist Bulgaria.” Presented at the First International Conference on Food History and Food Studies, Tours, May 2015.
PAPERS AS A CONFERENCE ORGANIZER
Albena Shkodrova and Astra Spalvena. (2018) “Soviet and national in the communist cookbooks of Latvia and Bulgaria”. Presented at the conference Food and Drink in Communist Europe, organised by VUB (FOST) and ICAG-KUL in Brussels, 19-20 April 2018.
De Jaegher, Hanne and Albena Shkodrova (2019) PRISMA Reflex: systematically unfolding the interaction of the oral history interview. PRISMA Reflex workshop at FARO. (Flemish interface centre for cultural heritage) in Brussels, 28 February 2019.
INVITED PUBLIC TALKS AND DEBATES
Shkodrova, Albena (2019) Food and Politics. Introductory presentation at Mélange, International seminar on culinary narratives, representations, and discourses, Bangalore, India, 8-9 March 2019.
Food - a history of European encounters and exchanges. 8 May 2018, The House of European History, Brussels. With Peter Scholliers, Loïc Bienassis and Vintila Mihailescu.
REACHING OUT
Shkodrova, Albena. 'В България маслото от слънчоглед е антицивилизационен избор’ [In Bugaria, sunflower oil is rather an anti-civilizational choice]. 24 Chasa. (19 March 2022), Sofia: Economedia.
Shkodrova, Albena. “Panta rhei в кухнята на емигранта" [Panta Rhei in the Immigrant's Kitchen]. Bacchus. (July 2021), Sofia: Economedia.
Shkodrova, Albena. “Шкембе-чорбата: обединител на нацията или ‘само за мъже’? [Tripe soup between nation unifier and ‘for men only’]. Dnevnik. (20 July 2018), Sofia: Economedia.
Shkodrova, Albena. “Въпреки изключителните времена готви се само с масло и свинска мас” [“Despite the extreme times, we cook only with butter and pork fat”]. Dnevnik. (18 June 2017), Sofia: Economedia.
Shkodrova, Albena. “The Surreal Power of the Communist Waiter”. IWM Post. Vienna N. 116 Fall/Winter (2015).
EDITED VOLUMES
Shkodrova, A., P. Scholliers and Y. Segers (2020) Food and Drink in Communist Europe. Special issue of Food&History, forthcoming.