Bulgaria and other Southeast European countries-Albania, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro-share a remarkable historical heritage and strong cultural ties. However, the Iron Curtain rendered access to Western research difficult for East-European scholars, while Western scholars remained largely unacquainted with numerous publications by their East-European colleagues. The American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS), founded in 2004 with the primary purpose of facilitating academic research in Bulgaria for North American scholars in the humanities and social sciences, hopes to contribute to correcting this longstanding imbalance. Sofia is well situated intellectually and politically as host city for an international research institution; inasmuch as it has not been directly engaged in recent troubles between countries of Southeast Europe, and is relatively centrally located, it has great potential to provide an intellectual setting for careful and unbiased assessment of Southeast Europe's past. It is hoped that the intellectual community thus realized will become a significant resource for reconciling some of the enduring ethnic and national controversies in the region.

ARCS is dedicated to research in the humanities and social sciences, with a special emphasis on the rich ancient, mediaeval, and more recent history of the region. It aims at fostering collaboration between North American, Bulgarian, and other Southeast-European scholars and promoting joint research in these academic areas. ARCS develops a library, provides fellowships for research and language study, organizes conferences and tours of significant archaeological, historical and cultural sites, and maintains close communication and collaboration with other American Overseas Research Centers.