a journal of research & art
Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith
She lives alone in a smoke-filled apartment. Now and again a glass of wine may be seen–hers, or that of a casual visitor. A bird lives there too, looking out of the window for hours, indifferent, distant. One day she decides to bring some plant life into her home to freshen things up…
Interviewed by Lillian Klein
We have seen a lot of criticism being voiced against approaches to multiculturalism, especially for reinforcing cultural hierarchies.
Translated by Alex Zucker
Don’t stink and watch your weight. Those are the most important resolutions I know of. Every morning I plop myself down in front of the mirror and stare into my face, just in case it might finally tell me something I don’t know. It stares right back, as if expecting the same from me.
By Cristiana Grigore
About twenty-five years ago, I vowed that no one would ever find out that I was a Gypsy from Romania, and I remember clearly the day when, as a little girl, I fiercely decided to keep my embarrassing origins a secret. I would have never guessed that after years of denial and secrecy there would be a time when I would not only speak openly and proudly about my Roma identity, but also create a project for Roma People.
Reviewed by Georgeta Stoian Connor
Disrupted Landscapes is a valuable contribution to the study of environmental politics of Romania generally, and to an understanding of the transformations of land relations since the fall of the Golden Age era specifically. As the title suggests, we learn significant information about the workings of power in rural areas and the social and political mechanisms behind them. The volume brings together in one resource Dorondel’s impressive quantity of work on the topic of the transformation of the agrarian landscape of postsocialist Romania during the transition from collectivization to privatization.
By the EuropeNow Editorial Committee
Here are this month’s editor’s picks from Research Editorial Committee members Samantha Lomb (History), Louie Dean Valencia-García (History), Daniela Irrera (International Relations), and Hélène Ducros (Geography).
Interviewed by Lillian Klein
At that time—right after the fall of the Berlin Wall—many Bulgarians started traveling freely, and a lot of us young musicians chose to study abroad. But many of us still felt deeply connected to Bulgaria, so we started a Bulgarian concert series in New York.
Reviewed by Aleksandr Iakovlevich Gudov
Nikolai Charushin does not rank among the pantheon of famous historical figures, but this has its positive side. Charushin’s story demonstrates that the revolutionary movement in the last decades of the nineteenth century recruited new members not only from the educated strata of St. Petersburg or Moscow, but from the Russian periphery as well. This allows the reader to be able to learn a lot about the life of a provincial Russian town, of prison and exile, and about the relationship between the authorities and the revolutionaries in the periphery.
Interviewed by Cristiana Grigore
Roma communities have a very robust oral tradition, which includes stories, history, and philosophical thought. So, in addition to providing sources, the project can also work towards a broader epistemological change by elaborating a critique of Eurocentricity, avoid the politics of respectability that promote “assimilation,” and insist on the value and importance of multiple forms of knowledge.
