Mihaela Miroiu, Nepreţuitele femei. Publicistică feministă (Priceless Women. Feminist Newspaper Writings) Iaşi, Polirom, 2006, 271 pp.

This conference follows the “traditional” poetics of many Romanian feminist discourses: warning, justification, and body proper. After introducing new proofs about the necessity of feminist discourse in present-day Romania, the conference deploys the body of the conference proper. The conference has two main sections, constructed symmetrically according to the distance/proximity principle, which argue for the specific position of Romanian feminism among contemporary feminisms.

Conference of Mihaela Miroiu, "Fetzele patriarhului".

Mihaela Miroiu, Otilia Dragomir (eds.), Naşterea. Istorii trăite (Giving Birth. Life-stories), Iaşi: Polirom, 2010.

Mihaela Miroiu & Mircea Miclea, R'Estul şi Vestul (The R'E(a)st and the West) Polirom Publishing House, Iaşi, 2005, 367 pages.

Mihaela Miroiu, The road towards autonomy. Feminist Political Theories Polirom, Iasi, 2004.

The paper presents several cases of feminism rejection from the part of influent Romanian intellectuals. The misconceptions and prejudices surrounding feminism are sometimes difficult to interpret, as long as there are not many individuals ready to accept the feminist label. The author analyses the reasons of this phenomena, establishing the correlations among the rejection of feminism and other Western ideologies, such as multiculturalism and political correctness. Finally, it attempts at sketching several solutions, by emphasizing the importance of support groups where (...) the feminist identity may be promoted and practiced. (shrink)

With this nuanced and interdisciplinary work, political theorist Mihaela Mihai tackles several interrelated questions: How do societies remember histories of systemic violence? Who is excluded from such histories' cast of characters? And what are the political costs of selective remembering in the present? Building on insights from political theory, social epistemology, and feminist and critical race theory, Mihai argues that a double erasure often structures hegemonic narratives of complex violence: of widespread, heterogeneous complicity and of "impure" resistances, not easily (...) subsumed to exceptionalist heroic models. In dialogue with care ethicists and philosophers of art, she then suggests that such narrative reductionism can be disrupted aesthetically through practices of "mnemonic care," that is, through the hermeneutical labor that critical artists deliver—thematically and formally—within communities' space of meaning. Empirically, the book examines both consecrated and marginalized artists who tackled the memory of Vichy France, communist Romania, and apartheid South Africa. Despite their specificities, these contexts present us with an opportunity to analyze similar mnemonic dynamics and to recognize the political impact of dissenting artistic production. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, the book intervenes in debates over collective responsibility, historical injustice, and the aesthetics of violence within political theory, memory studies, social epistemology, and transitional justice. (shrink)

This work intends to discuss about the first generation of Romanian womenpainters within the wider context of the condition of woman within the Romanian society during the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. We will develop the following path: a) the movement of women’s emancipation in Romania – characteristics and phases; b) the Romanian art-world and this movement of women-painters.

This paper attempts to critically discuss and situate the phenomena of contemporary witchcraft (both the Wicca tradition and the feminist one). Contemporary Anglo-Saxon witchcraft is one of the compo- nents of “mystic-esoteric nebulousness”. It has a particular status both among contemporary prac- tices of witchcraft and among women-dominated religions. Among recent philosophical trends, it has affinities with ecofeminism and neopaganism. Along this line, its roots seem to indicate a connec- tion with the ancient beliefs that characterized the matriarchal civilization of (...) Old Europe. Finally, contemporary witchcraft finds itself well integrated in the framework of the New Age movement. (shrink)

This paper is an analysis of comparative multiculturalisms. Starting from the historical reality that both the Roma and the African-Americans were reified through slavery and discriminated against because of their racial visibility, the author analyses the position of the two groups in the Romanian, namely, the American society. The lead of the African-Americans in overcoming the racial stigma is explained by the author through: the opportunities offered by a powerful and consolidated democracy, and by the existence of an elite of (...) the minority group. These factors should be envisaged by Romanian society when trying to make both the minority and the majority cooperate in order to avoid the transformation of the Roma into an under-class group, a great challenge with a view to Romania’s integration into the EU structures. (shrink)

In the context of mainstream feminism, Eastern-European women, coming from a post-Communist context are overwhelmed. As they have been unable to access the newest developments of feminist thought, feminist theology, they cannot find their own place and voice. In order to overcome this state of mind, this article puts forward an approach and a strategy. Drawing from the main ideas of contemporary Romanian and Transylvanian feminists – Mihaela Mudure, Mihaela Miroiu, Réka Geambasu, Enikő Magyari-Vincze and others – the (...) article aims to start the quest for a fitting Eastern European-type of feminism. Post-Communist countries are the so-called ‘second world’. They need to find their own way, their own voice, similar to the ‘third world’, which has already started to do so. The knowledge and reception of the international feminist movement and its main oeuvre can help Central and Eastern European women theologians find those aspects that have supported others. Stating the specific situation of ‘second world’ women and seeking the theological aspects that describe their position and problems adequately, they can contribute to finding their one and only special voice. (shrink)

The author attempts to emphasize several aspects of religious types of discrimination that apply to women in different practices of Christian Orthodoxy. The basis of these interpretations is found both in the Bible and in the traditional writings of the church. This text suggests several solutions for locating the fundamentals that would allow for a renewal of the ecclesiastical practices in such a manner as to eliminate all possible discrimination that women are subjected to in the church.

Does feminism give a much-needed voice to women in a patriarchal world? Or is the world not really patriarchal? Has feminism begun to level the playing field in a world in which women are more often paid less at work and abused at home? Or are women paid equally for the same work and not abused more at home? Does feminism support equality in education and in the military, or does it discriminate against men by ignoring such issues as male-only (...) draft registration and boys lagging behind in school? The only book of its kind, this volume offers a sharp, lively, and provocative debate on the impact of feminism on men. Warren Farrell--an international best-selling author and leader in both the early women's and current men's movements--praises feminism for opening options for women but criticizes it for demonizing men, distorting data, and undervaluing the family. In response, James P. Sterba--an acclaimed philosopher and ardent advocate of feminism--maintains that the feminist movement gives a long-neglected voice to women in a male-dominated world and that men are not an oppressed gender in today's America. Their wide-ranging debate covers personal issues, from love, sex, dating, and rape to domestic violence, divorce, and child custody. Farrell and Sterba also look through their contrasting lenses at systemic issues, from the school system to the criminal justice system; from the media to the military; and from health care to the workplace. A perfect book to get students thinking and debating, Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? A Debate is ideal for courses in gender studies, sociology, psychology, economics, feminist philosophy, and contemporary moral issues. It is also compelling reading for anyone interested in the future of men and women. (shrink)

I investigate two issues that divided philosophers on how to teach philosophy to non-philosophers in East-European countries, specifically in Romania. First, should we focus on respectable philosophical ideas like Being, Truth, God, and Reason, or spend our time in classes discussing topics one faces in everyday life, like equity, famine, abortion, or pornography? The former alternative enforces the significant cultural role philosophy (and some philosophers) enjoyed in the last decades of socialism, while the second means a dramatic change in (...) the way philosophy relates to real life. Second, should we support the idea that great values like goodness, justice, and freedom have an enduring, non-contextual, even absolute, character, or center on tolerance, our fallibility and the social context of life? I discuss background factors that make philosophers bound to choose between such alternatives, and argue that answers are independent of our own philosophical opinions on these topics. (shrink)

In this paper I investigate, from an ethical perspective, the legal prospects of unrelated living donors from Romania. In the present-day shortage of organs necessary for transplantation, the organs from living donors represent an alternative to the organs from deceased ones. Worldwide, unrelated living donors begin to be considered as a promising category among overall living donors. However, their situation raises many ethical questions that need to be addressed by adequate regulations and protections. The paper analyzes the case of (...) non-related living donors applied to the Romanian present situation, in an attempt to underline the ethical limitations their situation presents. (shrink)

In this article, multiculturalism and feminism are dis- cussed at the crossroad of their diverse meanings: as po- litical ideologies, as social movements, as philosophical trends and as academic disciplines. In order to provide a solid conceptual analysis, the two terms are examined in relation with several key concepts of contemporary cul- tural discourse, such as postmodernism, pluralism, rela- tivism, globalization and postcolonialism.

Nicu Gavriluţă, România în Starea Bardo: publicistică şi dialoguri culturale (Romania in the Bardo State: Journalistic Writings and Cultural Dialogs) Provopress, Cluj-Napoca, 2006.

Eniko Magyari-Vincze, Excluderea socială la intersecţia dintre gen, etnicitate şi clasă. O privire din perspectiva sănătăţii reproducerii la femeile Rome / Social Exclusion at the Crossroads of Gender, Ethnicity and Class. A View through Romani Women’s Reproductive Health.

This paper analyses the relations between feminism and its various ideological cores. Three tendancies are discussed here: acceptance of the ideological core, criticism and rejection of this core and, more intricately, acceptance of one core and rejection of the other. The emphasis is placed on Anglo- American second-wave liberal feminism, whose ideological nature is almost unanomously accepted, in all the meanings of the term – positive, negative, and neutral. The author adopts Christine di Stefano’s idea, that a qualified use of (...) the word „ideology” is preferable to the neglect (that never- theless must accept the presence) of the term. (shrink)

This study explored the influence of healthcare ageism on nurses’ moral distress. Episodic interviews were conducted on 25 Romanian nurses in 2020. Thematic analysis revealed that all moral distress sources reported reflected macro-, meso- and micro-level ageism, benevolent and hostile, self- or other-directed, including stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination of older patients. The COVID-19 pandemic-related ageist measures increased healthcare ageism and transformed nurses’ representations of older patients accordingly. Nurses felt moral conflict both when passively witnessing ageist acts and when perpetrating them (...) to adhere to group norms, highlighting the need to combat ageism for both patients’ and nurses’ well-being. (shrink)

The article proposes an analysis of the recent best-seller “Da Vinci Code”, by Dan Brown. Several keys of interpreting the novel are sketched – from deconstructing the accuses of plagiarism and blasphemy to analyzing the role of feminism and new-age religiousness in the plot making. In the end, the author comparatively examines the novel and the Mel Gibson movie “The Passion of Christ”, in an attempt to better situate the figure of Christ in recent cultural products.

In this paper, we thoroughly investigate the various solutions proposed to solve the problems of transplantation system in Romania. Three types of solutions are especially envisaged: legislative ones, institutional ones and cultural/religious ones. We carefully analyze the main ethical and logistical arguments on presumed consent and its alternatives in Romania: family consent provided by the relatives and mandated choice. Special attention is dedicated both to institutional solutions (organizational, educational and information issues) and to religious arguments and motivations, for (...) there were several indicators of their importance for Romanian bioethical discourse in general and for their prevalence in transplantation debates in particular. . (shrink)

În cele ce urmează vom prezenta pe scurt zona de cercetare a eticii aplicate și locul ei în cadrul disciplinei filosofiei. Vom discuta apoi despre ce fac filosofii când fac etică aplicată. Vom trece în revistă câteva concepte importante din etica aplicată, cum ar fi deontologie, virtute, grijă sau drepturi. Apoi vom încerca să oferim un răspuns la întrebarea din titlul introducerii: de ce avem nevoie de etica aplicată? Vom povesti pe scurt despre istoria eticii aplicate în România, iar la (...) final vom rezuma capitolele incluse în volum. (shrink)

A number of philosophers attribute the underrepresentation of women in philosophy largely to bias against women or some kind of wrongful discrimination. They cite six sources of evidence to support their contention: (1) gender disparities that increase along the path from undergraduate student to full time faculty member; (2) anecdotal accounts of discrimination in philosophy; (3) research on gender bias in the evaluation of manuscripts, grants, and curricula vitae in other academic disciplines; (4) psychological research on implicit bias; (5) psychological (...) research on stereotype threat; and (6) the relatively small number of articles written from a feminist perspective in leading philosophy journals. In each case, we find that proponents of the discrimination hypothesis have tended to present evidence selectively. Occasionally they have even presented as evidence what appears to be something more dubious. (shrink)

Liliana Popescu, Politica sexelor, Maiko, Bucuresti, 2004.

This article is about Mircea Eliade’s rapport to exile, both his and other Romanians’. His approach of the exilic experience allows an incursion into the “diaspora” semantic field in the study Theorizing Diaspora by Jana Evans Braziler and Anita Mannur and a look at Eliade as a “diasporic subject”. To Eliade, the relationship with homeland and the diasporic identity assume religious significance. He urges members of the Romanian diaspora to hold the native country sacred as a ‘Jerusalem in the Sky’. (...) A strong believer in the salvaging power of cultural creation over the political factor, he wanted his work to be a response to the communist regime in Romania. (shrink)

Starting from the hypothesis that the predominant church, religion and belief in Romania (i.e. the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox religion and the Orthodox belief) are paradigms that help understand politics, we will highlight in the present article three major aspects of the political phenomenon in post-communist Romania: de-symbolizing the democratic function, institutionalizing “democratism” and manifesting integralism in the public space. Our analysis is based on a communicational approach which postulates the conceptual oppositions as a fundament of understanding. (...) The interpretation of these oppositions has lead us to discovering a series of coherent actions, behaviors, facts, etc., but also a series of incoherent, at some point irrational situations in the relation between the religious and the political spheres. The importance of this article lies in the fact that, once highlighted, these structures allow us to take into consideration the possibility of analyzing the meaning of the relation between the religious and the political spheres. (shrink)

Feminist authors claim that many of the advertising messages are promoting stereotypical images of the genders. However, if in social sciences, gender stereotypes have been facilitated and enforced by religious ideologies, the connections between gender stereotypes in advertising and religious ideologies remain to be investigated. The purpose of this paper is to analyze these connections. Using the tools and methods of philosophy of communication, the paper attempts to emphasize a double discourse of advertising: an external one that derives from existing (...) religious ideologies, and an internal one that borrows the structure and elements of modern religiosity. If the first one is enforcing the gender stereotypes, the second one is more innovative and less related to stereotypical images of genders. When advertising is approached from the perspective of philosophy of communication, its most conspicuous aspect is its narrative dimension. One way in which narratives of advertising are constructed is in the form of myth. We can see that, in some circumstances, advertising has a function similar to myth, or includes structures of depth coming from the world of myth or of religion understood in a broader sense. The power of those elements is derived not from the realm of merchandise value, but from the one of traditional mentalities and cultural representations. In order to illustrate my research on the relation between gender, religion and advertising, I choose a sample of ads, that I analyze using the tools of philosophy of communication. Thus, my research has led me to a nuanced understanding of the relation between gender stereotypes and religion in advertising. (shrink)

The author proposes a symbolic analysis of the national flags and other objects painted in the national colors, that have been recently erected in the city of Cluj- Napoca, Romania. The interpretative approach focuses on three levels: the first one uses the tools of the politi- cal imagery, by connecting the flags and painted objects with the idea of ethnicity. The second level involves an analysis that is situated between semiotics and phenom- enology, treating the different types of objects (...) as mark- ers or implants that modify the environment of the city. At the third level, the national symbols are interpreted through the lenses of the science of religion. Finally, the lack of reaction of citizens is called into question and various types of motivations are analyzed. (shrink)

Besides Dracula, Ceauşescu, and Nadia Comăneci, monasteries constitute a permanent Romanian brand, inextricably linked in every foreign visitor's mind to Romanianness. Specific to Moldavia and Bucovina—the Eastern and Northern parts of Romania—these monasteries have attracted visitors for the past 500 years. The person visiting a sacred site is transformed from being merely a tourist into a pilgrim. The painting “The Ladder towards Heaven” at the Pângăraţi Monastery, for example, highlights the importance of the mental and physical involvement of the (...) tourist-pilgrim as an interactive participant in the process of self-discovery. (shrink)

The paper seeks to analyse how two domestic courts decided criminal trials under circumstances of emotional mobilisation and political stress. Decisions from Argentina after 1983 and Romania after Ceausescu’s dictatorship illustrate how citizens’ affects influence courts’ choices within penal cases. Both cases show how the judiciary had to enter a dialogue with resentful and indignant claims for redress. However, while the Argentinean court filtered emotions through the strainer of equal respect and thus pushed the cause of democratic justice ahead, (...) the Romanian case serves as a cautionary tale about how not to correct injustices through criminal law. These two cases provide us with important lessons about the obstacles, but also the opportunities associated with public emotions during periods of radical political transformation. (shrink)

Despite its impact on public administration, policy development, education, philosophy and politics, American pragmatism has made a relatively small impression on the social sciences. In particular, American pragmatism has seldom influenced feminism, which is remarkable given the potentially striking affinities between these two disciplines. Drawing upon the pragmatist philosophy of John Dewey and the work of feminists who support a pragmatist approach to the study of gender, this article discusses the chequered history of relations between the two disciplines. It also (...) focuses on the methodological possibilities of establishing a pragmatist-feminist position. Taking ethnography as a means to illustrate our ideas, we suggest that a pragmatist-feminist ethnography can help social scientists to rethink theory in terms of its practical application, articulate the value of an anti-foundational view of knowledge and promote investigating people's concrete experiences for understanding gender inequalities. (shrink)

This paper examines the shaping factors, drivers, and impact credentials of students’ entrepreneurial intention during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed framework addresses the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention among students in Romania, focusing on three focal constructs, namely, risk-taking, proactiveness, and innovativeness, with a keen focus on the mediation effect of the entrepreneurial university environment. The study used self-reported data collected through an online questionnaire during November 2020–February 2021 from a sample of 1,411 students in western Romania. The methodology (...) relies on two modern techniques of modeling cross-sectional data, namely, structural equation modeling and Gaussian graphical models. The main results highlight that the three constructs positively relate to students’ entrepreneurial intention in a comprehensive framework where the entrepreneurial university environment drives innovativeness. The paper brings forward, in an innovative way, that entrepreneurship education and training at the university level enhance students’ entrepreneurial intentions as it fosters the attainment of advanced knowledge and skills. The results are well associated with the start-up process as prerequisites for successful entrepreneurship engagement of youth in a globalized digital economy, particularly during this challenging pandemic outbreak, but also post-pandemic times. This research sheds new light on the essential role played by higher education institutions in providing advanced knowledge and necessary skills matched with the labor market needs, thus enhancing students’ innovativeness and their entrepreneurial intentions. (shrink)

Gender discrimination is a reality affecting an important part of the socio-economic life. The study aims to examine, by using quantitative techniques, the main tendencies in the Romanian society regarding gender discrimination, as perceived by the young, educated population. In order to meet the objectives of the study, a cluster sampling was performed among the Romanian students. The results from the statisti- cal sampling were compared to national data from several studies made by national and international organizations. In the final (...) part of the study, the findings of sampling research are validated by a logit model. The model is presenting the main factors that are generating gender discrimination, as well as the most important variables throughout which discrimination is perceived in Romania. (shrink)

When John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice was published in 1971, it brought a strong, inspiring, and refreshing creative impetus in Anglo-Saxon philosophy. Since then, Rawls’ work has been criticized on several grounds, mainly related to its Kantian formalism. However, ideas and theories are not born and do not exist in a social and political vacuum. Read in different historical contexts they can reveal new meanings and deliver specific messages, which are tailored to specific audiences and political cultures. I argue (...) in my paper that, reflecting this reality and my own life experience, Rawls’ conception of justice and of a well-ordered society always remains actual. An important part of this actuality is revealed in the manner in which the theory inspired Romanian society in its post-communist search for models of citizenship. It is also revealed by the message it delivers to today’s divided and polarized societies, where solidarity has been corroded by neoliberalism and a sense of fairness and reasonableness has been weakened by an increasingly noxious agonistic spirit. (shrink)

One of the problems the institutional crisis of philosophy is facing in Romania is the difficulty of philosophy graduates to find a suitable place on the complex labor market. The article attempts to elucidate whether philosophy graduates subsequently teach what they study during their university education and to find solutions for a better integration on the labor market of these graduates. An important part of the article is dedicated to analyzing the institutional offer vis-à-vis the challenges that philosophy graduates (...) face once they are attempting to find a job on the labor market. From our analysis we conclude that there is no direct connection between the diversity of jobs among philosophy graduates and the courses that they took during their university studies. (shrink)

In Romania, the debate on the electronic passports has raised controversies having ethical, religious, ideological implications, as well as consequences for the political practice. The debate has as premise the general background of the crisis that modernity brings in the reception of values in Christian communities. The discussions on the consequences of secularization, the metaphor of “cultural wars” and the new perspective brought by modernity to the state and the public policies it requests – all these oblige us to (...) formulate a novel type of humanism that should be found out at the end of this debate. By drawing on a natural concern regarding human freedom, individual security, respect for private life, the debate around passports finally fails into the field of superstitions, radical ideologies, and the gratuitous critique of the implementation of the new technologies in the practice of modernity. For avoiding such sideslips, an important role can be played by the researchers from social and humanist disciplines, who can enter the debate and offer answers that are consonant with their own disciplines. (shrink)

The present text discusses several aspects of the institutional crisis of philosophy in the Romanian educational system after 1989. On the one hand, at the level of university educational system, one may note the marginalization of philosophy programs, due to young people’s decrease of interest for those specializations that do not provide immediate benefits for rapid integration in and well-paid jobs on the labor market. This entails direct consequences for the type of financing and creates functional difficulties in the university (...) system. On the other hand, the diminution of the presence of philosophy at the level of high school curricula has given rise to a crisis manifested through the negative consequences on the necessity for humanist education of the young people, upon the social prestige of philosophy, and upon the possibility of philosophy graduates’ insertion on the labor market. (shrink)