Romanian-Moldovan Studies at UCL SSEES

Upcoming Events

• 18th February 2011, Romanian-Moldovan Studies Day

The first session of the Romanian and Moldovan Studies Research Group took place on 26th January 2007 at SSEES. The second session took place on Friday 11th May 2007 at Wadham College, Oxford. A third session took place at UCL SSEES on the 14-15th February 2008 and a conference entitled New Perspectives on Modern Romania was held in Cluj on the 10th-11th July 2008. [Conference Report]

The group intends to be a forum bringing together Graduate students from the UK, Western Europe, Romania and Moldova and its aim is to assess how far Romania has come since 1990 in terms of a synchronization of behaviour and an acceptance of shared European values, which are implicit in respect for the acquis communautaire. The Republic of Moldova, which aspires to join the EU, will form the object of a similar analysis. Romania's membership of the EU will act as a magnet to the Republic of Moldova, given the linguistic - and in part, cultural - identity that the majority of Moldovans share with the Romanians.

The proposed series of seminars is conceived as an in-depth examination of Romanian identity and seeks to challenge the ethno-centric narratives that permeate the discussion of Romania's past and present by counter-balancing them with studies of minorities in Romania and border areas. In this respect the position of the Roma minority, the largest of its kind in Europe with an estimated population of 2.2 millions, that of the Hungarians of Transylvania and of the Csangos will also be addressed.

The group intends to invite scholars researching Moldova's past and its peoples to consider the validity of the concept of a Moldovan identity and to examine to what degree the debate over this has contributed to the division of the Republic with the secession of the territory self-styled Transdnestr (Transnistria).

The seminars will take place within an interdisciplinary framework, spanning history, literature, the social sciences and cultural studies. They will promote the study of Romania and the Republic of Moldova and the multiple perspectives coexisting within them rather than unilateral analyses of a state or group.

The Romanian-Moldovan Research Group is open to any postgraduate students working on Romanian or Moldovan issues. For further information please contact Raul Carstocea: r.carstocea@ucl.ac.uk

Current Research Students

• Alex BOICAN
• Raul CARSTOCEA
• Andreea GAVRILIU
• Liz MELLISH
• Raluca MUŞAT

Previous Events

• 19th November 2010, Roundtable: Nowhere at Home - East European Roma, from Discrimination to Expulsions

• 10th March - 16.30, Room 432, 16 Taviton Street, London

  A lecture to mark the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Romania

  Andrei Capuşan
  (Diplomat and Historian, Romanian Ministry for Foreign Affairs)

  "Friends and Allies: Romanians and the British Throughout History"

  Organized by the Embassy of Romania in the UK and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies

  
  
  

• 23rd March - 17.00, Room 432, 16 Taviton Street, London

  Roundtable Discussion of the Romanian Presidential Election and the aftermath.

  Romanian Presidential Elections 2009: Where to Next?

  Speakers:

  Professor Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (Hertie School of Governance)
  Professor Alan Smith (SSEES)
  Ed Maxfield (Sussex)
  Radu Cinpoe (Kingston)
  John Gledhill (LSE)

  Chair: Professor Dennis Deletant

For more information about either event, contact d.deletant@ssees.ucl.ac.uk

• Study Day: 30 January 2009

• History of Romanian Studies in the UK

This page last modified Tuesday 15 February 2011.