Maria Bucur

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Maria Bucur (born 2 September 1968 in Bucharest, Romania) is an American-Romanian historian of modern Eastern Europe and gender in the twentieth century. [1] She has written on the history of eugenics in Eastern Europe, memory and war in twentieth-century Romania, gender and modernism, and gender and citizenship. She teaches history and gender studies at Indiana University Bloomington, where she holds the John W. Hill Professorship. Between 2011 and 2014 she served as founding Associate Dean of the School of Global and International Studies and helped inaugurate the first SGIS graduating class in 2014. [2]

Contents

Education and professional biography

After attending Georgetown University as an undergraduate in the School of Foreign Service (1987–91) [3] [ self-published source? ] and spending a year at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London (1989–90), she obtained graduate degrees (MA and PhD) in history from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1996). [4] There she worked under the guidance of Keith Hitchins and Sonya Michel. She has been working at Indiana University, Bloomington, since 1996, where she holds the John W. Hill Chair in East European History. [5] Since 2016 she has also been a professor of Gender Studies. [6]

At Indiana University she served as Chair of Gender Studies (2008–09), [7] Director of the Russian and East European Institute (2006–07 [8] and 2009–11), Co-Director of the European Union Center for Excellence (2006–07), and founding Associate Dean of the School of Global and International Studies (2011–14). [2]

She has worked for several publications: [3] [ self-published source? ] Associate editor of The American Historical Review (2003–06), co-editor for the Aspasia Yearbook of Gender and Women's History (2005–12), board member for Gender & History, Journal of Women's History, Archiva Moldaviae, Cogent Arts and Humanities, and Integru.org .

She has served as President of the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (2009–11), [9] as Coordinator of the Gender and Women's History Network for the European Social Science History Conference (2006–10), [10] and as Chair of the Committee on Women Historians for the American Historical Association (2014–16). [11]

In addition, she has served on the General Council as well as the History Committee of the National Council for Accreditation of University Titles, Diplomas, and Certificates, Ministry of Education and Research, Romania (2016–18). [12]

Research and publications

Bucur has published eight volumes, three of them as a single author, and the rest as co-author or editor. Her first monograph, Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania (2002), examined the intellectual debates and policy-making activities of a group of doctors, lawyers, biologists, anthropologists, and politicians who used eugenicist ideas to propel Romanian society and institutions to a level of modernization in social engineering akin to attempts made in Germany and other West European states during the same period. [13] Her second monograph, Heroes and Victims: Remembering War in Twentieth-Century Romania (2009), offered a close examination of various forms of remembering and commemorating the two world wars from 1918 onwards, with a focus on the tensions between grassroots and individual efforts (autobiographical writing, funerary monuments, commemorative plaques) and state-initiated commemorations (military cemeteries, official remembrance day commemorations, films). [14] With a focus on the different meanings embodied in these various efforts, Bucur illuminates the important role played by such contestations in shaping the meaning of heroism, patriotism, and self-sacrifice along gender, regional, and ethno-religious lines. More recently, she has published Gendering Modernism: A Historical Reappraisal of the Canon (2017), which asks readers to reconsider the revolutionary aspects of modernism from the perspective gender norms. [15]

In 2018, she published two books. The Century of Women: How Women Have Transformed the World Since 1900 was a bold overview of recent history from a feminist humanist perspective, placing women's historical empowerment at the heart of understanding recent changes in politics, economics, demography, culture, and knowledge making. Karen Offen, of Stanford University, called it a book that "should find a place on every intelligent person's reading list." [16] With the political philosopher Mihaela Miroiu, Bucur published Birth of Democratic Citizenship: Women in Modern Romania in November 2018 with Indiana University Press. Her latest book is The Nation's Gratitude: War and Citizenship in Romania after World War I, published with Routledge in 2022.

In addition to these monographs and other co-edited volumes, she has published over seventy articles and chapters in a variety of outlets, including The American Historical Review, The Times Literary Supplement , Project Syndicate and Public Seminar. [17] She has had dozens of media appearances and interviews in the press, from the History Channel to Al-Jazeera. [3] [ self-published source? ]

Romanian studies

A passionate promoter of culture and history from her native country, Bucur has helped organize eleven conferences on Romanian Studies (2007–2017) at Indiana University. [18] Together with her colleague Christina Zarifopol-Illias, she worked to establish the first Romanian Studies graduate fellowship in the United States at Indiana University. [19] She has worked with various partners in Romania. At Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, together with a team of scholars from Indiana University and the Central European University, she helped launch the Oral History Center in 1997. [20] She has worked with colleagues at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest on several research and publication projects, and also taught several graduate workshops. [21] She has collaborated with Transylvania University in Brașov and the Aspera foundation on two oral history workshops. [22] In addition to these academic events, she has worked with artists and musicians to promote visibility for Romanian culture. [23]

Awards and honors

Bucur is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, among them two National Endowment for the Humanities research grants, a research fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, and a fellowship from the American Association of University Women. [3] [ self-published source? ] In May 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest, Romania. [24]

Books

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References

  1. ↑ "Maria Bucur". Department of History, Indiana University. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Vice President Biden and Sen. Coats help inaugurate IU School of Global and International Studies". newsinfo.iu.edu. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Maria Bucur-Deckard | Indiana University - Academia.edu". indiana.academia.edu. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  4. ↑ Urbana-Champaign, ATLAS, LAS, University of Illinois at. "Graduate Studies « Department of History, College of LAS, University of Illinois". www.history.illinois.edu. Retrieved 13 May 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ "Maria Bucur". Department of History. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  6. ↑ "Maria Bucur | Department of Gender Studies". www.indiana.edu. Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  7. ↑ "Gender Matters" (PDF). Indiana University Department of Gender Studies. 4. College of Arts & Science Alumni Association: 1–10. Winter 2009.
  8. ↑ "REEIfication" (PDF). REEIfication: News from Indiana University's Russia and East European Institute. 3 (2). April 2007.
  9. ↑ "Women East-West" (PDF). Women East-West (94). Association for Women in Slavic Studies. Spring 2008.
  10. ↑ "Call for Papers – ESSHC 2010". History of Feminism Network. 10 February 2009. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  11. ↑ "Discussion on Interpreting Women's History". C-SPAN.org. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  12. ↑ "CNATDCU". www.cnatdcu.ro. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  13. ↑ Schneider, William H. (1 January 2003). "Review of Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania". Slavic Review . 62 (2): 372–374. doi:10.2307/3185594. JSTOR   3185594. S2CID   165095371.
  14. ↑ Tismăneanu, Vladimir (1 January 2010). "Review of Heroes and Victims: Remembering War in Twentieth-Century Romania. Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies". Slavic Review . 69 (4): 971–974. doi:10.1017/S0037677900009931. JSTOR   27896145. S2CID   164444993.
  15. ↑ "Gendering Modernism". www.bloomsbury.com. Bloomsbury Publishing . Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  16. 1 2 The Century of Women: How Women Have Transformed the World since 1900 – via rowman.com.
  17. ↑ Maria Bucur archive at Public Seminar
  18. ↑ "Russian & East European Institute: News & Events". www.indiana.edu. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  19. ↑ "REEIfication" (PDF). REEIfication: News from Indiana University's Russian and East European Institute. 33 (2). April 2009.
  20. ↑ "REEIfication" (PDF). REEIfication: The Newsletter of the Indiana University Russian and East European Institute. 25 (2). April 2001.
  21. ↑ "Profesori invitați". Scoala Nationala de Studii Politice si Administrative. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  22. ↑ "Aspera Pro Edu - Didactic, științific, cultural - Proiectul "Istoria Orală"". aspera.ro. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  23. ↑ "Poster Exhibits Depict China, Poland, and Romania under Communism" (PDF). International Programs Newsletter: 1, 16–17. December 1999.
  24. ↑ "Prof. Univ. Dr. Maria Bucur, Doctor Honoris Causa al SNSPA". 7 May 2018.
  25. ↑ "Home - Indiana University Press". Indiana University Press. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  26. ↑ "The Global West: Connections & Identities, 3rd Edition - Cengage". www.cengage.com. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  27. ↑ Bloomsbury.com. "Gendering Modernism". Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  28. ↑ "Making Europe: The Story of the West, 2nd Edition - Cengage". www.cengage.com. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  29. ↑ "Heroes and Victims". Indiana University Press. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  30. ↑ "Gender and War in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe". Indiana University Press. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  31. ↑ "BookDetails". www.upress.pitt.edu. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  32. ↑ "Cărți - Editura Polirom". www.polirom.ro. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  33. ↑ "Staging the Past | Purdue University Press". www.thepress.purdue.edu. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
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