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.

Sorin Radu is the Rector of the Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, and Professor of Contemporary History at the Department of History and Heritage. His areas of interest include the history of Romania in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, history of political parties and doctrines, political culture and modernization in modern and contemporary Romania, history of electoral systems in Central and South-Eastern Europe, history of the communist regime in Romania. His recent works on the topic of the colloquium include The Countryside and Communism in Eastern Europe: Perceptions, Attitudes, Propaganda, LIT Verlag, Wien, Zürich, Münster, 2016 (edited in cooperation with Cosmin Budeancă); Politics and Peasants in Interwar Romania: Perceptions, Mentalities, Propaganda, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2017 (edited in cooperation with Oliver Jens Schmitt).