New Europe College Institute for Advanced Study
New Europe College (NEC) is an independent Romanian institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences, functioning under the New Europe Foundation (Fundatia Noua Europa), a private foundation subject to Romanian law. It is a young institution, which is celebrating this year its 25th anniversary. At the time of its founding, in 1994, its main objective was to address the needs of Romanian scholars, by offering to them conditions of work comparable to those of their colleagues elsewhere and propitious surroundings for an exchange of ideas, and by establishing and developing international contacts. These have remained some of the most important aims of the College; however, over time we were able to set up Fellowship programs that made possible the invitation of foreign Fellows, whose number is growing. In this regard, a constant concern has been to gather at and around the College young scholars from Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, and some of our former and current programs target specifically candidates from countries located in this wide area. Over the last years NEC has been acting as host institution for a number of research projects supported by Romanian and international agencies. We are currently hosting an ERC Consolidator Grant, and an ERC Starting Grant.
It has been one of the major aims of the New Europe College from its inception to develop wide and varied international contacts. This was of special importance and urgency for a country coming out of a period of isolation, after 1989. Developing research networks, institutional and individual contacts, collaborative projects with researchers from Western Europe, the USA, and the neighboring countries continue to be a defining dimension of the College. NEC has organized over the years a large number of events with international participation, in many cases in collaboration with local and/or foreign institutions. It hosts an ongoing series of lectures given by prominent foreign and Romanian scholars for the benefit of academics, researchers and students, but also for a wider public.
Scientific priorities
Fellows at the New Europe College come from a wide array of fields in the humanities and social sciences (cultural and social anthropology, archaeology, cultural studies, economy, ethnology, education studies, history, history and philosophy of science, history and theory of art and architecture, legal studies, literary studies, medieval studies, musicology, philosophy, political science, photography and film studies, psychology, religious studies, sociology). In the last few years we have been developing a program addressing such phenomena as migration, displacement, diaspora.
Location and facilities
New Europe College is located in a traditional residential district of Bucharest, typical for its late 19th and early 20th century architecture, not far from the center of the city and from the University of Bucharest. The house now occupied by the College was built in 1910; it was thoroughly restored and remodeled some years ago, to suit the needs of the College. The house includes a multipurpose conference hall sitting up to a hundred people, with sound and video facilities; there are two seminar rooms, a library and a reading room.
NEC has office and accommodation spaces for its fellows. It has on its premises a small, but carefully conceived library, containing reference works, as well as up-to-date literature in the major fields of interest to its fellows. Besides a number of subscriptions to journals, NEC also provides access to on-line databases of academic journals, through its subscriptions to EBSCO and other online resources. Fellows and researchers attached to the NEC in various capacities are offered computer services, the use of copiers, video projector, video player, DVD-player, slides projector, overhead projector, sound and recording facilities.
