Project ABOLITIONISM
Annual scientific reports
2014
SCIENTIFIC REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2014
Research project with the title
The Abolitionist Movement in the Context of Civil and Political Emancipation in Modern Romania, project code: PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0655
The activities developed by the research team in the period 5 December 2013-5 December 2014 are the ones included in the project plan, the version from the Additional act no. 1/2014.
1. The documentation work
In 2014 as well we continued the documentation work on this project, which is mainly built on archive materials, press and other epoch publications. We worked in archives and libraries from the country: the Central Historical National Archive (Bucharest), the Iaşi County National Archives Department, the Ialomiţa County National Archives Department, the Romanian Academy Library, the University Central Library in Iaşi, the library of the “Nicolae Iorga" Institute of History in Bucharest and several other places.
Research stays abroad were made by: Cătălin Turliuc at the National Library of France, in Paris (12-18 November 2014); Venera Achim at the Centre des Archives diplomatiques de Nantes, France (17-29 November 2014); Raluca Tomi in Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Italy (16-28 November 2014).
2. Elaboration of studies and books
Researchers worked on elaborating studies and books representing the main productions of the project.
2.1. Elaboration of the monograph volume
Most of the work time was allotted to the monograph volume about the Romanian abolitionism, with the working title Aboliţionism şi emancipare în România modernă [Abolitionism and Emancipation in Modern Romania]. (Authors: Venera ACHIM, Viorel ACHIM, Raluca TOMI, Cătălin TURLIUC.) This volume approaches, in special chapter and sub-chapters, all problems belonging to the historical phenomenon of the abolitionist movement in the Romanian principalities in the period ca. 1830-ca. 1860.
2.2. Elaboration of the collection of studies in English
In parallel with the work on the monograph volume mentioned above, we also worked on the volume in English about the Romanian abolitionism. The volume shall be a collection of original studies signed by the members of the research group.
3. Dissemination of some final results
3.1. Papers at scientific conferences
During 2014 we presented six papers in scientific conferences, in Romania (3) and abroad (3):
1. Cătălin TURLIUC: “Secularizarea averilor mănăstireşti - 1863" [Secularization of monastery estates - 1863] - paper at the 7th edition of the National Symposium “Union of the Romanian Principalities", organized by the Vrancea County Museum, Focşani, 18 January 2014.
2. Cătălin TURLIUC: “Alexandru Ioan Cuza - viziune şi acţiune politică" [Alexandru Ioan Cuza - vision and political action] - paper at the conference “Nation and Action in 1859“, organized by “Bogdan Petriceicu Haşdeu" State University Cahul, Cahul, Republic of Moldova, 24 January 2014.
3. Viorel ACHIM: “Some remarks on anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsyism in Romania, the 1930s and early 1940s" - paper at the Collaborative Wokshop “Anti-Semitism in Romania and Moldova 1881-1991", organized by the Romanian-Moldovan Research Group, Leicester University, Leicester, United Kingdom, 2 July 2014.
4. Cătălin TURLIUC: “Ion I.C. Brătianu şi emanciparea politică în România modernă" [Ion I.C. Brătianu and the political emancipation in modern Romania] - paper at the symposium “The 150th Anniversary of Ion C. Brătianu’s Birth", organized by the Argeş County History Museum and the Argeş County Direction for National Cultural Patrimony, Ştefăneşti-Argeş, 20 August 2014.
5. Viorel ACHIM: “What Gypsies in Romanian principalities thought about their emancipation from slavery? Note on archival documents from the years 1856-1859" - paper at the Annual Conference of the Gypsy Lore Society on Romani Studies, Bratislava, Slovakia, 11-13 September 2014.
6. Viorel ACHIM: “Între integrare şi discriminare: romii ca paradigmă" [Between integration and discrimination: Roma as a paradigm" - paper at the international symposium “The Forgoten Diversity of Romania. History, Patrimony, Memory", organized by the County Direction for National Cultural Patrimony Iaşi, “Orbis Tertius / A Treia Lume" Association (Bucharest), Institute for Symbolic Studies and Researches (Iaşi), “Lumina Moldovei" Association (Târgu-Neamţ), “Al. I. Cuza" Association (Iaşi) and Complexul Muzeal Moldova, Iaşi, Târgu-Neamţ, 23-26 October 2014.
3.2. Scientific studies and articles
In 2014 we delivered a number of four articles for publication in historical journals:
1. Raluca TOMI: “L’abolizionismo nel dibattito dei leader italiani e romeni nella prima metà dell’Ottocento". In: Transylvanian Review (forthcoming).
2. Raluca TOMI: “Iluminismul francez şi problema sclaviei: Jean Jacques Rousseau" [The French Enlightenment and the Issue of Slavery: Jean Jaques Rousseau]. In: Revista Istorică (forthcoming).
3. Venera ACHIM: “Norme şi particularităţi în aplicarea legii de emancipare a ţiganilor din Ţara Românească (1856)" [Norms and Particularities in the Implementation of the Law for the Emancipation of Gypsies in Wallachia (1856)]. In: Revista Istorică (forthcoming).
4. Cătălin TURLIUC: “Ion I.C. Brătianu şi emanciparea politică în România modernă" [Ion I.C. Brătianu and the Political Emancipation in Modern Romania]. In: Revista Istorică (forthcoming).
Other several articles are in the final stage of the writing and they shall be published in 2015.
4. Publication of the main results of the research
4.1. The volume Modernizare socială şi instituţională în Principatele Române, 1831-1859 [Social and Institutional Modernization in the Romanian Principalities, 1831-1859]
This year we submitted to the editing house the volume:
Modernizare socială şi instituţională în Principatele Române, 1831-1859 [Social and Institutional Modernization in the Romanian Principalities, 1831-1859]. Editors: Venera ACHIM and Viorel ACHIM. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române (forthcoming).
The volume includes 17 studies, initially presented as papers in the conference entitled “Social and institutional modernization in the Romanian principalities 1831-1859", organized by our project on 10-11 October 2013. Among these there are four studies authored by the research team members (they were included in the 2013 report).
4.2. The volume Aboliţionismul românesc în texte de epocă, cca 1830-1860 [The Romanian Abolitionism in Contemporary Texts, ca. 1830-1860]
This year we completed the work on the volume:
Aboliţionismul românesc în texte de epocă, cca 1830-1860 [The Romanian Abolitionism in Contemporary Texts, ca. 1830-1860].Ediţie, studiu introductiv şi note de Venera Achim, Viorel ACHIM, Raluca TOMI. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române (forthcoming).
The volume is a collection of texts illustrating the abolitionist current in the Romanian social and political thinking in the period between ca. 1830-ca. 1860.
5. The Internet page
Our research team has its own site (www.iini-minorities.ro) where, in Romanian and English, the project is presented and the activities made until now are included (www.iini-minorities.ro/ro/proiect-abolitionism, in Romanian; www.iini-minorities.ro/en/project-abolitionism, in English). Recently we re-made the site, for the purpose of making it more comprehensive and use it to facilitate the contacts with our interested researchers in the country and abroad.
I consider that the activity developed by our research group in the period December 2013-December 2014 went as planned. We have already published a part of our research findings, and in 2015 we shall published the monograph volume about the Romanian abolitionism concluded in this year. In 2015 as well we shall elaborate and publish the study volume in English, on the same topic. We believe that the results obtained so far are proving the original and high quality character of our research on an important topic for the actual preoccupations of the world historiography.
Bucharest, 5 December 2014
PROJECT MANAGER,
Dr. Viorel Achim
