We conclude the month of June with an engaging evening dedicated to Romanian history, ideas, and intellectual responsibility. The event features two important volumes and their brilliant authors, world leading scholars in their fields.
The programme centres on a lively dialogue between Professor Marius Turda and Dr.Cristina A. Bejan, examining interwar Romania, the emergence of fascism, and the influence of intellectuals on society. Their conversation will also reflect on academic mentorship, influenced by their meeting and collaboration at the University of Oxford, and highlight Dr. Bejan’s accomplishment in receiving the George Parkin Distinguished Service Award from the Rhodes Trust in September 2025.
Cristina A. Bejan will present her Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania: The Criterion Association (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019; Editura Litera, 2023), an acclaimed exploration of Romania’s dynamic yet fragmented intellectual life in the 1930s. Professor Marius Turda will introduce his award-winning book In Search of the Perfect Romanian(Amsterdam University Press, 2026; Polirom, 2024), a compelling study of how ideas of nation, race, and identity shaped modern Romania.
Join us for an evening of thought-provoking discussions, outstanding scholarship, and fresh perspectives on Romania’s past and its enduring questions!
Author, artist, and poet CRISTINA A. BEJAN has published works across multiple fields - history, poetry, and drama. Her plays have been staged in several countries, and her production Districtland was acquired for a television adaptation. She has been invited as an expert on channels such as The History Channel and C-SPAN, and her work has been featured in prestigious publications including The Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement, and Foreign Policy. She earned her PhD from the University of Oxford, supported by major scholarships such as Rhodes and Fulbright. She currently lives in Paris, where she continues her academic and artistic work.
Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania: The Criterion Association offers an in-depth analysis of Romania’s intellectual life in the 1930s, focusing on the influential Criterion Association, which brought together figures such as Mircea Eliade, Mihail Sebastian, and Petru Comarnescu. The book examines how fascism, particularly through the influence of the Iron Guard, attracted part of the cultural elite, leading to ideological and personal fractures. Based on contemporary sources, the work highlights the fragility of democracy in the face of ideological radicalization.
MARIUS TURDA is Professor and Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Oxford Brookes University, and a member of the Royal Historical Society. He is internationally recognized as a specialist in the history of eugenics, racism, and nationalist ideologies in Central and Southeastern Europe. His work explores the relationship between science, politics, and the construction of collective identities, with a focus on biopolitics and the history of the concepts of “nation” and “race.” He has authored and edited numerous key volumes in the field, including Race and National Character in Modern Hungary (Bloomsbury 2026),Historicizing Race (Bloomsbury, 2018),Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective (Bloomsbury, 2014), and Modernism and Eugenics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
In Search of the Perfect Romanian, winner of the 2025 Observator Cultural Award for Essay/Journalism, critically analyzes how ideas about national identity and ethnic belonging influenced the formation of modern Romania. The volume examines the development of eugenic and racial discourses in the 19th and 20th centuries, highlighting their impact on state policies and society. The work provides a rigorous and necessary perspective on modern Romanian nationalism and a reappraisal of the Holocaust in Romania.
Free entry.
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