This edited volume examines manele (sing. manea), an urban Romanian song-dance ethnopop genre that combines local traditional and popular music with Balkan and Middle Eastern elements. The genre is performed primarily by male Romani musicians at weddings and clubs and appeals especially to Romanian and Romani youth. It became immensely popular after the collapse of communism, representing for many the newly liberated social conditions of the post-1989 world. But manele have also engendered much controversy among the educated and professional elite, who view the genre as vulgar and even "alien" to the Romanian national character. The essays collected here examine the "manea phenomenon" as a vibrant form of cultural expression that engages in several levels of social meaning, all informed by historical conditions, politics, aesthetics, tradition, ethnicity, gender, class, and geography.

This is the first issue of the biannual, peer-reviewed Journal of Romanian Studies, jointly developed by The Society for Romanian Studies and ibidem Press. The new interdisciplinary journal examines critical issues in Romanian Studies, linking work in that field to wider theoretical debates and issues of current relevance, and serving as a forum for junior and senior scholars. The journal also presents articles that connect Romania and Moldova comparatively with other states and their ethnic majorities and minorities, and with other groups by investigating the challenges of migration and globalization and the impact of the European Union. Volume 1,1 (2019) Katherine Verdery: Thoughts on a Century of Surveillance Vintila Mihailescu: From Peasant to Post-Peasant Society. The Rural Footprint of Nation-Building Dennis Deletant: Shattered Illusions: Britain and Iuliu Maniu, 1942-1945 Maria Bucur: Queen Marie and Interwar Feminism Marius Stan and Vladimir Tismaneanu: Stalinism and Anti-Stalinism in Romania: The Case of Alexandru Jar Revisited

The new biannual, peer-reviewed Journal of Romanian Studies, jointly developed by The Society for Romanian Studies and ibidem Press, examines critical issues in Romanian studies, linking work in that field to wider theoretical debates and issues of current relevance, and serving as a forum for junior and senior scholars. The journal also presents articles that connect Romania and Moldova comparatively with other states and their ethnic majorities and minorities, and with other groups by investigating the challenges of migration and globalization and the impact of the European Union. Issue No. 2 contains: Lucian Leustean: Romania, the Paris Peace Conference and the Protection System of Race, Language and Religion Minorities: A Reassessment. Gavin Bowd: Between France and Romania, Between Science and Propaganda. Emmanuel de Martonne in 1919. Doina Anca Cretu: Humanitarian Aid in the Bulwark of Bolshevism: The American Relief Administration and the Quest for Sovereignty in Post-World War I Romania. Gabor Egry: Made in Paris? Contested Regions and Political Regionalism during and after Peacemaking: Szekelyfoeld and the Banat in a Comparative Perspective. Svetlana Suveica: Against the Imposition of the Foreign Yoke: The Bessarabians Write to Wilson (1919). Florian Kuhrer-Wielach: A fertile and flourishing garden: Alexandru Vaida-Voevod's Political Account Ten Years after Versailles.

The biannual, peer-reviewed Journal of Romanian Studies, jointly developed by The Society for Romanian Studies and ibidem Press, examines critical issues in Romanian studies, linking work in that field to wider theoretical debates and issues of current relevance, and serving as a forum for junior and senior scholars. The journal also presents articles that connect Romania and Moldova comparatively with other states and their ethnic majorities and minorities, and with other groups by investigating the challenges of migration and globalization and the impact of the European Union. Issue No. 3 contains: Alexandra Chiriac: Ephemeral Modernisms, Transnational Lives: Reconstructing Avant-Garde Performance in Bucharest; Petru Negura: Compulsory Primary Education and State Building in Rural Bessarabia (1918-1940); Vladimir Solonari: Record Weak: Romanian Judiciary in Occupied Transnistria; Delia Popescu: A Political Palimpsest: Nationalism and Faith in Petre Tuteas Thinking; Cynthia M. Horne: What Is too Long and When Is too Late for Transitional Justice? Observations from the Case of Romania; Brindusa Armanca and Peter Gross: Searching for a Future: Mass Media and the Uncertain Construction of Democracy in Romania.

The epic tradition has been part of many different cultures throughout human history. This noteworthy collection of essays provides a comparative reassessment of epic and its role in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, as it explores the variety of contemporary approaches to the epic genre. Employing theoretical perspectives drawn from anthropology, literary studies, and gender studies, the authors examine familiar and less well known oral and literary traditions--ancient Greek and Latin, Arabic, South Slavic, Indian, Native American, Italian, English, and Caribbean--demonstrating the continuing vitality of the epic tradition.
Juxtaposing work on the traditional canon of western epics with scholarship on contemporary epics from various parts of the world, these essays cross the divide between oral and literary forms that has long marked the approach to the genre. With its focus on the links among narrative, politics, and performance, the collection creates a new dialogue illustrating the sociopolitical significance of the epic tradition. Taken together, the essays raise compelling new issues for the study of epic, as they examine concerns such as national identity, gender, pedagogy, and the creation of the canon.