Creative Negotiations
Ethnic & Cultural Studies Humanities, Literature & Arts (General) Visual Arts Crafts, Design & Arts Culture
CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Chapter Abstract Submission Deadline: Monday, 30 April 2023
Creative Negotiations. Romania – America 1920-1940
Book edited by Dr. Sonia D. Andraş (The “Gheorghe Şincai” Institute for Social Sciences and the Humanities, Târgu-Mureş, Romania) and Dr. Roxana Mihaly (The “Gheorghe Şincai” Institute for Social Sciences and the Humanities, Târgu-Mureş, Romania)
This edited volume will be supported by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding-UEFISCDI, the National Research Council - CNCS, the Ministry of National Education (Romania), Project PN-III-P4-PCE-2021-0688, Contract 29 from 27 May 2022, title The Ethos of Dialogue and Education: Romanian - American Cultural Negotiations (1920-1940). [See more information about the project below.] The aim is to highlight the importance of cultural negotiations between creative and innovative individuals, fields, activities and forms, blending material and symbolic cultures for a comprehensive outline of the relationship between Romania and the USA between 1920 and 1940. The contributions will cover a diverse spectrum of a dynamic, ever-evolving dialogue between interwar individuals, currents or entities and those analyzing their works and interactions today. As part of The Ethos of Dialogue and Education: Romanian - American Cultural Negotiations (1920-1940) project, the contributions will be limited by time (between 1920 and 1940) and subject matter (Romanian – US cultural negotiations in creative fields or focusing on innovative aspects regarding Romanian – US cultural, educational or artistic negotiations). The book will nonetheless make the subjects and stories relevant to current audience through methodological, disciplinary or relational means. This will assure an outstanding contribution to knowledge about the interwar era in general and its reception today and within Romanian and American Studies.
This project examines instances of both successful and unsuccessful Romanian-American formative cultural and educational negotiations, beyond interpretations of unilateral transfers from the center, as the United States and the marginal Other, as Romania. It transcends self-focused perspectives, culpabilization and self-victimization, favoring panoramic intercultural and transnational views. The approach is interdisciplinary, ranging from history (cultural, intellectual, social, political, economic, history of education, history of religion, art history) to cultural (religious, fashion, travel, memory, identity) studies, and imagology. The research applies cultural studies concepts (negotiation, difference, diversity, discourse, power relationship, representation) to historical investigation to further relativize the borders between disciplines, identities and cultures.
The goal is to offer an outstanding contribution to knowledge on the Romanian-American relations between 1920-1940, with insights into under-researched aspects. It reflects this dialogue’s dynamic qualities, demonstrating how intercultural communications transcended national or bilateral political interests for mutual understanding. This project aims to prove the benefits of studying cultural and educational relations for a better appreciation of Romanian and American cultures, art, history and formative experiences. It reconstructs the dynamism and complexities of the historical and cultural context with interdisciplinary, comparative and multi-perspective approaches. It also plans to ascertain how cultural communication evolves during and after political, ideological and military conflicts for a more comprehensive image of Romanian-American cultural and educational exchanges. It gathers a team of researchers with internationally recognized contributions.
This project aims to correlate the Romanian research on cultural, artistic and educational Romanian-American relations before and after 1989 offering comprehensive understanding of the interwar dialogue and its later echoes until the twenty-first century. The interdisciplinary, multi-perspectival and comparative research highlights fluidity and mobility outside of pre-established hierarchies. It is thus an outstanding contribution to the knowledge of interwar cultural, artistic and educational Romanian-American dialogues, highlighting instances of convergence and negotiations.
This project applies the concept of negotiation recently adapted in cultural studies from business and media studies. It builds upon the director and team’s prior research applying cultural studies concepts and methodologies in cultural and intellectual history. Following this approach, it aims to analyze the juxtapositions difference/regularity, divergence/agreement, conflict/concord, in a space of in-betweenness, intermediality, transgression, and liminality, where negotiation can shift the direction from discord to resolution. Negotiation can mediate national, cultural, social, gender, religious, political, ideological ruptures in communication, by avoiding clashes in case there is a will to build a positive future.
As a result of the project The Ethos of Dialogue and Education: Romanian - American Cultural Negotiations (1920-1940), this book focuses on the creative aspects of cultural negotiations between Romania and the United States. The aim is to link and uncover the subtle dynamics involved in the dialogues between creatives, critics, disseminators and the general public. This book and its contributors will thus add new knowledge to the field of Romanian-American Studies.
This English-language book addresses academic and non-academic audiences who wish to explore creative and innovative cultural negotiations between Romania and the United States between 1920 and 1940. The target fields are cultural studies, cultural and art history, research on written, visual or sound creative activities.
Interested researchers and authors are invited to submit by 6 February 2022 an abstract for their proposed chapter (up to 250 words) and a short description of the author(s), including current affiliation and position (if any). Accepted authors will be notified by 3 March 2023. The final full chapter draft will be submitted by 30 April 2023 for the book’s completed draft manuscript to be submitted to the publisher for review by 1 July 2023. All submissions and inquiries should be emailed to creative.negotiations@gmail.com.
This book will be submitted to a CNCS A or B-rated, prestigious academic publisher.