Hans Christian Andersen Centre for Research and Information
The Hans Christian Andersen Centre for Research and Information, the first of its kind outside Denmark, is part of the activity of Scandinavian Studies, Department of German and Scandinavian Studies at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. It was founded in 2008 with the support of Embassy of Denmark in Bulgaria, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, and the Hans Christian Andersen Centre at the same university.
The Centre has a considerable fund of books in Bulgarian, Danish, French, English, German, Russian and other languages, which are part of the Nordica library, subsidiary to the University of Sofia.
The centre encourages the interest in Hans Christian Andersen’s life and work, and carries out various initiatives and activities, which aim at researching, popularizing and teaching in different fields of Danish language, literature and culture.
The main target groups of these activities consist of students, who learn Danish language, literature and culture at Scandinavian Studies and the Department for German and Scandinavian Studies, Faculty of Classical and Modern Languages, Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’, pupils in schools in Bulgaria and the general public.
The Hans Christian Andersen Centre for Research and Information organises and carries out research work, conferences, seminars, lectures, workshops, presentations, discussions, meetings and competitions. It supports the teaching-learning process in the Scandinavian Studies and 19th ‘Elin Pelin’ Secondary School in Sofia, specialized in teaching of Danish and Norwegian. It also maintains a specialised library, publishes scientific papers and gives consultations in the field of Danish language, literature and culture. Another aspect of its activity is to maintain contacts with similar scientific and educational institutions in Bulgaria and abroad and cooperate with them in the fulfilment of different national and international projects, as well as to support the translation, publication and presentation of Danish literature in Bulgaria, as well as literary works by and about Hans Christian Andersen.
Partners of the Centre in different initiatives are the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Embassy of Denmark in Bulgaria, Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen and Lektoratsordningen in Denmark, Sofia City Library, 19th ‘Elin Pelin’ Secondary School in Sofia, as well as a number of educational institutions and publishing houses in Bulgaria
