BrainMap

Luminita Dumanescu

PhD

Researcher - UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Researcher | Teaching staff | PhD supervisor

Senior researcher in social history, PhD supervisor in fields like family history, databases, Romanian modern history. I have published 5 books as main author, on family and childhood history and I co-authored a book about Romanian demography after 1945 (together with Traian Rotariu and Mihaela Haragus, Polirom, 2017).

Expertise & keywords

Rhythms and Patterns: The Quantitative Dimension of Family Life in Transylvania, 1850-1918 Call name: Projects for Young Research Teams - RUTE -2014 call
PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-2208 2015 - 2017

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Project website: http://csp.centre.ubbcluj.ro/Rypat/

Abstract:

The main goal of the project is the longitudinal analyse of the main demographical events which can be found in the parish register from Transylvania between 1850-1910. The new scientific requirements of the past couple of decades have imposed a change of perspective in the study of populations, shifting interest from the study of demographic regimes, of data aggregated strictly for longitudinal analysis, to research on the life course of people, based on micro-social level data. Life course refers to the route followed by individuals throughout their existence, to the events through which they pass: births, marriages, divorces, deaths, changes of occupation, migration. Demographic historians are showing an increased interest in this approach, focusing specifically on research methods based on micro-level data. Family reconstitution used to be considered the main traditional analytical tool for this purpose (Boonstra and Panhuysen 1988), but this stage has been overcome, and analytical tools have been developed so as to benefit from the entire wealth of information on the lives of individuals that is available to historians, marking the transition, in other words, to event history analysis. This entails, however, new requirements and demands as regards the manner of organizing the available data. Our data is HPDT, the historical population database of Transylvania, under development at Centre for population Studies.

Building Modern Identities in Transylvania. A Comparative Approach Call name: Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0081 2011 - 2016

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: Universitatea "Babeş-Bolyai"

Project partners: Universitatea "Babeş-Bolyai" (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: http://hiphi.ubbcluj.ro/Identities

Abstract:

This project will analyse how modern identities were constructed in Transylvania in the 18th – 19th centuries. It will thoroughly analyse the way in which Transylvanian communities dialogise, polemise and build a common space for performing identitary discourses. In order to achieve this result, all the components that are involved in Transylvania’s identitary rebuilding will be systematically approached: the zonal identities of the province’s geographical and administrative subcomponents, the social identities of the nobiliary, confessional and urban elites, the confessional identities of the main religious communities, the ethnic solidarities pertaining to the peasant’s traditional mentality. The comparative approach seeks to examine the identitary discourses belonging to the three ethnic communities of modern Transylvania. Furthermore, the complex mechanisms that transform local micro-identities in order to include them in larger constructions (national identities, supranational political loyalties, European symbolic geographies) will be also scrutinised. The project’s team will be led by three senior researchers, specialised in modern history and members of the three main Transylvanian ethnic groups (Sorin Mitu, Judit Pál, Rudolf Gräf) and it will include young researchers who are familiar with Transylvania’s languages, historiographical traditions and multicultural characteristics.

Interethnic marriages: between an exercise of tolerance and a modern expression of indifference. 1895-2010 Call name: Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0188 2011 - 2016

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: Universitatea Babes-Bolyai

Project partners: Universitatea Babes-Bolyai (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: http://centre.ubbcluj.ro/csp/mixedmarriage/

Abstract:

Belonging to an ethnic or religious community is an important element of human identity. In a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional area, this belonging has often determined an adversative and concurential reference to the "other", and numerous tensions and conflicts. This is the case of Transylvania, where for centuries numerous ethnic groups (Romanians as majority, Hungarians, Germans, Gypsies, Slovaks etc) and confessions (Orthodox, Greek-Catholic, Protestant, Roman-Catholic, Evangelic, Jewish) have been living together. Previous research on minorities in Transylvania has focused rather on divergences and conflicts among these ethnic and confessional groups. Beyond these aspects, most visible and spectacular, there is a space where members with different ethnic and confessional background cohabit: the marriage. The aim of this project is to study the mixed marriage, as a case study on Transylvania during 1895-2010, under its multiple facets: historical, demographical and sociological. The research methodology will comprise conducting interviews to construct family case histories; the reconstruction of quantitative/demographic dimension of intermarriage; the reconstruction of the historical, political, ideological and cultural context of this phenomenon, using sources such as texts of law, press, memoirs literature.

The Romanian Childhood during Communism Call name: Postdoctoral Research Projects - PD-2012 call
PN-II-RU-PD-2012-3-0019 2013 - 2015

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ

Project partners: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Affiliation: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Project website: http://www.copilariaincomunism.com/

Abstract:

The Romanian Childhood under Communism is aiming to recreate the life and the role of children as social layer that was deeply involved in the process of creation of the new man, as imagined by communists. The project follows several coordinates: we start out from the description of the role played by children's organizations, following their social role, probing their psychological and sociological impact, their competition spirit and the outline of differences – as engines for the future selection and formation of party members –, we aim at reconstructing the childhood specific consumerism (including media addressed to children and the specific literature and games), passing on to recreational aspects – holidays in communism have an important role here, in the form of school camps – ending with the outline of the role of children in everyday social life – queuing may be also seen as a child specific activity. This implied, from the very beginning of the research, a dual structure in terms of organizations, structure and methods. Our objective is to get into the intimacy of the childhood of today’s adults; actually, this way we shall realize a history of childhood under communism by combining the oral history with the information found in documents. This way, as it can be seen from the work plan below, I shall combine the analyze of sources from libraries an and archives with interviews.

Call name: Premierea obtinerii atestatului de abilitare - Competitia 2015
PN-II-RU-ABIL-2015-2-0127 2015 -

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Project website:

Abstract:

FILE DESCRIPTION	DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator	Download (192.25 kb) 17/05/2016
List of research grants as partner team leader
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects