title: Albena Bakratcheva
text: # Albena Bakratcheva
  
  Albena Bakratcheva (Bulgarian: Албена Бакрачева) born in Sofia on July 3, 1961, is Bulgarian Americanist, best known for her work on American Transcendentalism. She is Professor of American Studies at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, New Bulgarian University, Sofia.
  
  ## Education
  
  Albena Bakratcheva received her master's degree in Bulgarian and English literature from the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia in 1984. She defended her PhD thesis on 18th century British Novel and late 19th century Bulgarian Fiction in 1995, and in 2007 was awarded a higher doctorate (D.Litt.) for her dissertation on The Artistic Discourse of American Transcendentalism.
  
  ## Career
  
  Bakratcheva has taught at the Department of English, American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), Blagoevgrad (1995–1996), the Department of Theory of Literature, University of Sofia (1995–1996), the Department of Foreign Languages, South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Blagoevgrad (1997–2002), and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, New Bulgarian University, Sofia (2002-current). She has specialized at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies. Freie Universität Berlin (1992), the State University of New York Geneseo (1993–94) as a Fulbright fellow, and the 1999 Summer Institute on Contemporary American Literature. University of Louisville, Kentucky.
  
  Since 2008, Bakratcheva is Erasmus-Lecturer of American Literature at the Dipartimento di Lingue e letterature moderne. Università degli studi di Macerata, Italia.
  
  Since 2002, Bakratcheva is Chair of the American and British Studies Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, New Bulgarian University.
  
  