In 2019-2020 academic year, researchers Oliver Jens Schmitt and Sorin Radu will organize a colloquium dedicated to the modernization of Romania in the interwar era. Organizers and their guests, foreign and Romanian researchers, will analyze the process of accelerated modernization aimed at the institutional, economic and cultural uniformization of the “Greater Romania”. Discussions will tackle recent points of view regarding the perception of the interwar era, including clichés or prejudices related to this interesting historical period.

Oliver Jens Schmitt – Professor of South-Eastern European History at the University of Vienna – is an expert on Romanian history. His areas of interest include fascism in Eastern Europe with a focus on Romania, 19^th century Eastern Mediterranean urban societies, society and politics in the late Ottoman Empire, socio-cultural developments in the Albanian Balkan area, history of the maritime Empire of Venice and history of the Balkans in late Middle Ages. Since 2017 he has been the president of the Section of Philosophy and History of the Austrian Academy of Science. His most recent works on the history of Romania include Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Ascensiunea și căderea „Căpitanului” (Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. The Rise and Fall of the “Captain”, translated by Wilhelm Tauwinkl, Humanitas, 2017 and România în 100 de ani. Bilanțul unui veac de istorie (Romania in 100 years. An Overview of a Century of History), translated by Wilhelm Tauwinkl, Humanitas, 2018.