Naoum Kaytchev is Associate Professor in Modern and Contemporary Balkan History at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohrdiski” in Bulgaria and Vice President of the Macedonian Scientific Institute. He has been Deputy Chairman of the Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia since 2018. His main research interests include the late modern and contemporary history of Macedonia and the nineteenth century intellectual and social history of Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, with a focus on problems of nation-building and the role of education. His books include “Illyria from Varna to Villach: Croatian National Revival, Serbs and Bulgarians (until 1848)” (2015) and the co-authored monograph “Masks down! Nationalism on the Balkans in the Twentieth Century” (2018). Naoum Kaytchev also served as consul general in Toronto, Canada from 1999 to 2002 and in Bitola, North Macedonia from 2007 to 2010.