Elena-Liliana Mutu-Blackstone

PhD Candidate

Dissertation: The Ambivalence of Modern Identity: Romanians in the Global Laboratory of Erudition, 1859-1918

Interests: I study the history of connections between Eastern and Western Europe as rendered visible by the mid-to-late nineteenth century perspectives on knowledge, identity, and location. Using the case of Romania, my dissertation explores the making of the modern body between 1859 and 1918. The study of empire, epistemology and borderlands history are not only useful in understanding the Romanians’ aspirations to become a world civilization, but also the Western Europeans’ escape to their imagined borderlands of civilization.

Office: SBS S-314
Email: elena-liliana.mutu-blackstone@stonybrook.edu
Advisor: Gary Marker