First in Romania

I am very pleased to welcome you and to share some thoughts about what we have accomplished and the legacy the program aims to create. It was with strong commitment, painstaking effort and immense enthusiasm — and with the unswerving support of the U.S. Embassy and the Fulbright Commission — that we succeeded in institutionalizing this challenging field, at both undergraduate and graduate level, as part of the nationwide process of democracy-building and reform after 1989.

The curriculum we designed played a significant role in the reforms of that period. Beyond language and literary studies, it introduced areas that had been under-explored in philological departments — ethnic, media and film studies, Native-American and African-American culture, popular and corporate culture — with the aim of preparing students to think comparatively, to compete internationally, and to excel in a diversity of careers involving the United States.

With the constant support of the Fulbright Commission, we attracted U.S. grantees to teach the new courses and trained our own specialists through doctoral programs, encouraging them to gain research and teaching experience in the United States. Many have gone on to hold positions in Romanian, U.S., Canadian, Taiwanese and Swedish universities — one of the greatest satisfactions of my long commitment to American Studies.

Senator J. William Fulbright regarded education as the most powerful instrument for building bridges between nations and for “humanizing international relations.” We should be proud of being among the first to fulfil this role after the fall of communism.

Professor Emerita Dr. Rodica Mihăilă