Radulescu, Ruxandra – TRANS

Radulescu, Ruxandra is Assistant Lecturer in the English Department, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest, Romania. She has an MA in English from Emporia State University, Kansas (2005) and an MA in American Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania (2001). She is currently a PhD student (dissertation supervisor: Prof. Rodica Mihaila). Her Ruxandra Radulescu’s current interests are: contemporary Native American literatures (in particular, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Linda Hogan, Greg Sarris, Leslie Marmon Silko and Gerald Vizenor); ecocriticism – the relationship between (American) literature and the environment; multiethnic American literature (with an emphasis on Native American, Chicana/o and Cuban American literature).

She has been a doctoral student at the University of Bucharest since 2002, working on a dissertation titled “Constructions of Identity in Contemporary Native American Fiction: Cosmopolitanism in Post-1960 Urban Indian Narratives.” Her approach aims to bring to the fore the dialogic and postmodern-nomadologic character of contemporary American Indian fiction. Special emphasis will be placed on urban narratives, discussing the ongoing reformulation of a post-ethnic identity, constituted by means of cultural affiliation, as opposed to descent (Werner Sollors), in the context of a globalized world which offers space for cooperation and intercultural solidarity, even in the midst of intense anti-globalization movements. She has received training in literary and cultural studies at the University of Edinburgh (2000) and CEU (2003) summer schools.

Since 2001 she has been a member of the English department – the American Studies program – at the University of Bucharest, teaching a variety of courses and seminars in Native American literature, American literature & civilization, critical theory, English as a foreign language. She serves as secretary of the graduate program in American Studies and advisor for the freshmen class in American Studies. She has also served on numerous faculty committees. In addition, she taught classes in English Composition and worked as a Writing Center consultant at Emporia State, from 2003 to 2005.

Her list of recent publications includes: “Nationalism and/as Modernity in Native American Studies: Towards the New American Indian Studies?” University of Bucharest Review 7(4) 2006. 38–44; “Reinventing Romania in Popular Music: Redistributing Cultural Authority in Popular Culture” in Communism, Capitalism and the Politics of Culture. Ed. Christa Buschendorf, Frankfurt: Center for North American Studies, 2004. 247–263; “A Culture of Reinvested Waste: The Leaking Body of African American Music” in America in/from Romania. Essays in Cultural Dialogue. Ed. Rodica Mihaila and Irina Grigorescu-Pana, Bucuresti: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 2003. 169–176; “Configuring Romanian Youth Culture Identities” in Proceedings of the Conference on Culture and Identity in the Balkans. Ed. Gonul Ucele. Istanbul: Beykent University Publishing House, 2004. 91–102 (co-authored with Dragos Ivana). She has presented papers in more than 15 international conferences to date.

Email: ruxandra.radulescu@rdslink.ro and ruxandra_radulescu04@yahoo.com