Eric C. De Sena (Executive Director of AISEES) is a classical archaeologist who teaches classical studies and art history for Purchase College (SUNY) and Manhattan College. Previously, he served as Dept. Chair of Art History and Studio Arts at John Cabot University, where he taught courses in ancient art and archaeology. Between 2000-2008, he was the Archaeological Associate/Curator of the American Academy in Rome. A National Geographic Explorer, De Sena has participated on archaeological projects in Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia Antica. He co-directed the Porolissum Forum Project (northwestern Romania) with Alexandru Matei and Robert Wanner 2006-2011. Prior to his return to the USA in 2018, De Sena served a 3-year term as Director of the American Research Center in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Maria Baramova (AISEES Regional Director for Bulgaria) is the president of the AISEES Bulgarian Centre, located in Sofia, Bulgaria. Maria is an Associate Professor in Modern Balkan History at the Department of “Byzantine and Balkan Studies” within the Faculty of History, Sofia University. Since 2023, she has been Chair of the Department. Her research interests include the history of Habsburg-Ottoman relations, geopolitics and regional and military history, and peace treaties in the Early Modern period; Digital Humanities. From 2003 to 2004, she was a Herder-Prize Fellow at the University of Vienna and, from 2011 to 2012, a research fellow at the Leibniz-Institutе for European History, Mainz. She has also specialized in Munich, Cologne, Hamburg and Wolfenbüttel. She is the author of articles and monographs and editor of volumes on the history of Southeastern Europe in the Pre-Modern era. In 2021 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria Baramova received the Academy Prize of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities for outstanding scientific achievements.
Lucian Mircea Muresan (AISEES Regional Director for Romania) is the president of the “Istros” Society for Historical Sciences, a Romanian NGO that promotes the history and cultural heritage of the western Black Sea region within academia and among the general public. Lucian is a Roman historian and archaeologist, whose research focused upon the relation between Barbaricum and the Roman world in the Middle and Lower Danube region. With degrees in both Classical Antiquity and Jurisprudence, his more recent studies are related to ancient Roman law, especially in the former Empire’s provinces in South-Eastern Europe.