CEU alumna Ruxandra Trandafoiu (NATI ’99, PhD) recently published her book Diaspora Online: Identity Politics and Romanian Migrants. Last month a copy was presented to the CEU Library.
The book deals with online cultural and political expressions of the Romanian diaspora via websites based in Europe and North America.
Since earning her PhD from CEU’s Nationalism Department, Ruxandra has worked as a journalist, art critic, interpreter and lecturer. She currently works as a lecturer at Edge Hill University, in England, where she teaches topics including media and society, and identities and political communication.
We caught up with Ruxandra for a brief exchange about her new book:
1. What compelled you to write Online Diaspora?
Ten years ago I was researching my PhD in London and working as an interpreter for immigration services. I met many Romanian migrants and observed the way new technologies were beginning to make an impact on the way people shaped their new lives abroad. At first, it was all about keeping in touch with home, then gradually about creating a network of advice and support upon arrival, and finally about using the Internet and mobile technologies to create a diasporic community. What began as a set of practical observations ‘in the field’ became an opportunity to combine my two theoretical interests: ethnicity and nationalism on the one hand and media and communications on the other.
2. How has the reception been so far?
I’ve had some very positive feedback from academics who have never come across a book about Romanian emigration/immigration or ‘Romanianness’ before. The book thus fills a gap in that it studies a little-known community and moreover, looks at the way Romanians interact online in order to reflect upon their disaporic experiences while also beginning to elaborate identity projects supported by political incursions into mainstream (host) culture.
In October I was invited to talk at the Conference of Romanian Students, Professors and Researchers in the United Kingdom. There I was awarded the Romanian Ambassador's diploma for 'outstanding intellectual contribution regarding the Romanian community in the UK'. For me, it was recognition that research can have an impact beyond academia and should help improve society.
3. What are you working on currently?
I’ve recently published a co-edited collection entitled The Globalization of Musics in Transit: Music Migration and Tourism (Routledge 2013) and I am currently working on another co-edited book on the theme of media and cosmopolitanism, to be published in 2014.
4. How do you think CEU helped prepare you for work?
CEU gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in a new subject (nationalism studies) that would have been difficult to study elsewhere with the same kind of resources and the quality of teaching and mentoring. Most importantly, at CEU I learned how to conduct myself as a researcher. CEU gave me a work ethic that I still follow and showed me that ambition and hard work can give great rewards. Finally, I think that CEU also taught me to try and conduct research that brings a positive contribution to people’s lives and to the future of democracy in more general terms.