Prof. Joanna Spassova-Dikova, PhD, is a theatre scholar at the Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

From 2020 she is lecturer in South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Blagoevgrad. She defended her doctoral thesis at the St. Petersburg State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography (1992), and later specialized in Oxford, Great Britain, and at the Netherland Institute for Advanced Studies. She became an associate professor in 2006. She has been a professor since 2017. From 2013 to 2021 she held the position of Scientific Secretary of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences – Social Sciences and Humanities. Her publications include the books About Two Actors’ Constellations (2004), The Bulgarian Theatre between the Two World Wars in the 20^th Century. Volume 4 (co-authored, 2011), Melpomene behind the Iron Curtain. Part I. National Theatre: Canons and Resistances (2015), (the last two were awarded for best critical text with the Icarus Prize of the Union of Bulgarian Artists) , The Bulgarian 20^th Century in Arts and Culture (co-authored, 2019), The Actor and Memory (co-authored, 2020). She teaches at various Bulgarian universities. For two years she was a visiting professor at the Theater Institute at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are focused on cultural practices not only in Bulgaria, Europe, but also in America and Asia. She is author of numerous studies and articles on Bulgarian, European and world performing arts and culture in specialized encyclopedias and periodicals at home and abroad. She is a leader and coordinator of research projects in the country and abroad.