Education:

2004 Ph.D., History, Western Michigan University

Dissertation: “'Imagined Communities' in Showcases: the Nationality Rooms

Program at the University of Pittsburgh, 1926-1945”

• Concentration : Modern European History, Museum Studies, Art History

1998 M.A., History, Western Michigan University

Thesis: “Painter and King: Gustav Klimt’s Work at Peles Castle (1883 -1884)”

• Concentration: Modern European History, Art History, Material Culture, Public History

1991 M.A., B.A., History and Philosophy, University of Bucharest

Thesis: “The significance of the andron as a representation room in the democratic city of the

ancient Greece ”

• Concentration: European History, Philosophy, Ancient History, Ancient Greece, Archaeology

Professional experience:

2004-2005: Adjunct Assistant Professor

University of Florida

2003-2004: Doctoral Associate, History

Western Michigan University

2001-2002: Scholar in residence, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

2000-2003: Adjunct Assistant Professor

University of Florida

2000- : Adjunct Assistant Professor, Santa Fe College, Gainesville, Florida

1997-1998: Doctoral Associate, History

Western Michigan University

1995-1997: Teaching Assistant, History and Art History

Western Michigan University

1992-1994: Associate Museum Curator,

Bucharest Museum of Art and History

1991-1992: Assistant Museum Curator,

Bucharest Museum of Art and History

1991-1992: History teacher

Middle School no. 100, Bucharest, Romania

1986 -1990: archeological research (excavations and artifact registration): Targsor (near Ploiesti),

Buturugeni (near Buzau), and Bucharest vicinity, Romania

Public History/Museum Studies:

Awards and fellowships:

2006/2007: Winterthur Research Fellowship

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library (Winterthur, Delaware)

2001: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Scholars-in Residence Program Grant (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

1998: Western Michigan University

Graduate College Doctoral Fellowship

Robert R. Russel Writing Award for Graduate Students

1994-1995: Western Michigan University

Graduate College Fellowship

Publications:

• "Painter and King: Gustav Klimt’s early decorative work at Peles Castle, Romania, 1883-1884," Studies in Decorative Arts 12 (2004-2005), no. 1: 98-129.
• "Constructing an ‘imagined community’: the Romanian Classroom at the University of Pittsburgh, 1927-1943" Studies in Decorative Arts 5 (1998), no. 2: 40-68.
• " Empire sau Biedermeier? Despre tranzitia stilistica la începutul secolului al XIX-lea [Empire or Biedermeier? On the stylistic transition in the early 1800s]" Studii si comunicari (Sibiu) 37 (1994), 35-56.

Book Reviews:

Papers delivered and professional presentations:

• "Classroom, museum, or national shrine? The Nationality Rooms Program at the University of Pittsburgh (1926-1945)" paper presented in the Pozzetta Colloquium Series, Department of History, University of Florida, Gainesville, November 17, 2004
• "The Russian Classroom in the Cathedral of Learning: classroom or museum?" paper presented at the Graduate Colloquium, Department of History, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, April 2, 2004
• "The Nationality Rooms Program at the University of Pittsburgh: new data from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission archives," paper presented in the Division of History of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, May 11, 2002
• "Medievalism and ‘imagined communities’: the Romanian classroom at the University of Pittsburgh," paper presented at the Eleventh International Conference on Medievalism, Kalamazoo, September 4-7, 1996
• "The Hohenzollern monarchy in Romania: historiography and propaganda?" paper presented at the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters Meeting, March 1-2, 1996
• "Reform in Balnibarbi: playing with meaning in architecture and rhetoric," paper presented in the Department of History, Western Michigan University, February 1,1995
• "A Biedermeier workshop in Transylvania," paper presented at the National Symposium "Theodore Aman and the Romanian Arts in the 1900s," Tulcea, May 1993
• "Ornaments from Northern Germany in Biedermeier furniture from Transylvania: historical and social implications," paper presented at the 14th Annual Conference of the National Offices of Patrimony, Bucharest, June 1993.

Grant proposal reviews:

“Better if they were all away: a comparative study of Acadian and Cajun history museum and

Historic sites”, by Tom Patin, Ohio University (Athens, Ohio; March 2005)

Museum exhibits/projects:

1991-1994: Building a database for objects of art of national interest,
Bucharest Museum of Art and History

1992: "Integrating the clock in the interior decoration", temporary
exhibition, Bucharest Museum of Art and History

Courses taught:

Fall 2004: Society and Culture in Fin-de-Siecle Europe (EUH-3931), Department

of History, University of Florida

Fall 2002, Spring 2003: Western Civilization from 1648 (EUH-2001), Santa Fe

Community College

Spring 2002, Fall 2002, Summer 2003: Western Civilization to 1648 (EUH-2000),

Santa Fe Community College and University of Florida

Fall 2001, Spring 2002, Fall 2002, Spring 2003: Modern European History

(EUH-2002), Department of History, University of Florida

Summer 2001, Spring 2002, Spring 2003, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Summer 2007, Fall 2008, Spring 2009: World History (WOH-2040), Santa Fe

College, Gainesville

Spring 2001, Summer 2003: Art History, Ancient to Renaissance (ARH-2050),

School of Art and Art History, University of Florida, Gainesville

Fall 2000: Art History, Renaissance to Modern (ARH-2051), School of Art and Art

History, University of Florida, Gainesville

Winter 1998, Fall 2003: Early Western Civilization (HIST-100), Department of

History, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo

Fall 1998, Spring 2004: Western Modern World (HIST-101), Department of

History, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo

Potential courses and teaching interests:

• Introduction to Public History
• Seminar in Public History
• Museum Studies
• Museums and nationalism in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe
• Historic Preservation
• Local History Techniques
• Museum, Historians, and Community
• Museums as “Imagined Communities”
• Material Culture and Build Environment
• Patronage and art in Eastern and Central Europe in the late nineteenth and
• early twentieth century
• Modern European history
• Turn-of-the-century culture and society
• Nationalism and art

Public History/Museum studies project:

"Museums and nationalism", "Museums and ethnicity", Summer School Program

(involving visits to US and European museums to research the conceptual link

between museums and cultural policies)

Guest lectures:

1998: "Open-air museums"

Department of History, Western Michigan University

1997: "Art Nouveau Movement in Europe and the United States"

Department of Art, Western Michigan University

Fall 1996: "Viennese Secession"

Department of Art, Western Michigan University

Languages Read/Spoken:

Membership in professional organizations:

American Association of Museums (1996-)

College Art Association (1996-)

American Historical Association (1995-)