In 1958, socialist Romania ratified the UNESCO Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Although the Protocol was already signed in 1954, the Cold War context delayed its ratification by Romania and other East European countries beyond the Iron Curtain. Yet, as of late 1950s Romania reconnected with Western Europe and international organizations, the country became more involved in global initiatives, including issues of cultural reparations. This project examines how and why socialist Romania became involved in a network of postwar global cultural reparations movement that encompassed both international organizations and bilateral connections. Existing literature has covered the issue of cultural reparations from the perspective of the West but neglected how small countries like Romania became involved in these debates. My research hypothesis is that from the early 1950s until the late 1980s, Romanian officials and cultural technocrats used the rhetoric of cultural reparations as a tool in international relations both in relation to international organizations, such as the United Nations and UNESCO, but also in bilateral contacts. By using an array of primary sources from both Romanian and international organizations‘ archives, the project will focus on Romania’s soft power strategies vis-à-vis cultural reparations at the United Nations and UNESCO on the one hand and in its bilateral contacts with both Western countries and the Global South on the other hand.
DR. OANA ADELINA STEFAN
CURRICULUM VITAE
Adelina Stefan is a historian of tourism and consumption during the Cold War with a particular focus on socialist Romania and Franco’s Spain. She gained a PhD in History from the University of Pittsburgh, United States. She was a Humanities Initiative Fellow at Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University in Budapest and held positions at European University Institute in Florence and The Centre for Contemporary and Digital History at University of Luxembourg. Her latest book, Vacationing in Dictatorships: International Tourism in Socialist Romania and Franco’s Spain is forthcoming with Cornell University Press in December 2024.
