Workshop on American Studies in Romania

On Thursday, December 12, the Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission hosted the ”Workshop on American Studies in Romania: Vulnerabilities and Working Solutions”, the first event in its Fulbright Think Tank initiative. The over 30 professors and leaders of American Studies programs in universities all over the country had the occasion to present the current situation and discuss future opportunities for the development of these programs in the presence and with the contribution of invited representatives of the Public Diplomacy Office, of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS), the Romanian Association for American Studies (RAAS), Fulbright Ambassadors and U.S. Fulbright grantees.

The event is meant to provide more impetus to the American Studies in Romania, the institutionalization of which happened to a large extent due to the efforts of the U.S. Embassy and the Fulbright Commission.

At the end of the Fulbright Workshop "American Studies in Romania: Vulnerabilities and Working Solutions" held at the Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission on December 12, the participants agreed to send us for publication the following:

-          a list of comments and proposals based on the workshop discussions

-          the 2013-2014 American Studies/English curricula of their respective departments

We hope the proposals and comments, as well as the examples of individual practices reflected in the curricula, will contribute to consolidating the interest in American culture and society at Romanian universities.

Listed below you will find comments and proposals coming from universities which offer accredited undergraduate and/or graduate American Studies programs, as well as from universities where American topics are part of the English curriculum. As for some of the hot topics we discussed during the workshop, you will notice that some of the participants are of the opinion that American Studies specialization should be included in the field of Philology, while others approve of its present inclusion in the field of Cultural Studies. However, everybody agrees that all American Studies programs should have a very strong language component and that all English curricula should include the study of American culture and literature.