Photo: Al. Badauță, Images Roumaines (Soussecretariat d’Etat de la Presse, 1932)

This research group is an interdisciplinary collaboration between three scholars who critically analyze the development of ideas about the natural landscape in Romania, the interaction between humans and nature and the relation between nature and the political, artistic and social spheres. We are interested in themes such as the interrelation between rural architectural heritage and the Carpathian landscape, the relationship between the history of nature conservation and the history of science, alpine history, the development of forestry, and the ecological history of Romania and Central and Eastern Europe, literary representations of nature and human and non-human animal encounters in Romanian literature and visual arts.

The constitution of this group is motivated by the urgency of such research considering the debates about nature exploitation in Romania (deforestation, mining projects) and the ongoing climate crisis as well as by the need to build upon the few groundbreaking research already written on environmental history in Romania. Its aim is to meet on a regular basis, at least once per month, to discuss our research, explore connections, ways in which we can develop common projects and in which we can involve other researchers with a general interest in environmental history. We will also organize open lectures, presentations of original research papers and work in progress from the members or guests at New Europe College. The ultimate aim of the research group is to define a project that is underpinned by a solid methodological approach, based on innovative theories and that will be funded by a national or international grant agency.

Recurrent link:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://uni-jena-de.zoom-x.de/j/67235962697

Meeting-ID: 672 3596 2697
Passcode: 074592

Events:

2025

– More than a Border. Forests in the Early Modern Carpathians
Dr. Kata TÓTH, University of Vienna
4 March 2025, via Zoom

– The Socialist Reeds. Transnational Plant Lives and Technologies in the Danube Delta
Professor Călin COTOI, University of Bucharest
27 January 2025, via Zoom

2024

– The Aesthetics of Atmosphere. An Ecophenomenological Perspective
Associate Professor Mădălina DIACONU, University of Vienna
19 November 2024, via Zoom

– Aquagnosis in the Heart of Modern Europe
Professor Anna BARCZ, Polish Academy of Science
17 September 2024, via Zoom

– New Europeans’ in the Carpathians, 1870s to 1920s
Professor James KORANYI, Durham University
2 July 2024, via Zoom

– The Life that Riots: Spontaneous Rewilding in Socialist Ruins
Dr. Ștefan DORONDEL, Researcher, Francisc Rainer Institute of Anthropology, Bucharest
11 June 2024, via Zoom

–What is life? And which life counts? On the human condition in Romania around 1907
Prof. Valeska BOPP FILIMONOV, Assistant Professor of Romance/Romanian Studies, Friedrich Schiller University Jena/Germany
4 June 2024, via Zoom

– Praising the Nation in Nature: A Transnational History of Nature Protection in Romania up to the 1940s
Dr. Cosmin KOSZOR-CODREA, Researcher, New Europe College
21 May 2024, via Zoom

– Historical and Natural Monuments: Architecture and Heritage Formation in Modern Romania
Dr. Cosmin MINEA, Researcher, New Europe College
7 May 2024, via Zoom