Menu Close

Interview with Mara Mărginean

The other day we spoke with Mara Mărginean, researcher at the “George Baritiu” Institute of History in Cluj-Napoca of the Romanian Academy. Her expertise in urban history helps us introduce the concepts of standard of living, consumption, work and built space into documentation. We discussed the implementation of socialist realism in Romania, the construction of the compound and workers’ housing in Hunedoara, the role of women in the new housing proposed by communism, but also about what it means to research these topics.

Mara Mărginean published the book “Windows towards the red furnace. Urbanism and daily life in Hunedoara and Călan (1945-1968)” at the Polirom Publishing House, Iași, 2015. Unfortunately, the book is no longer available for sale, but it is available in libraries all over the country.
In the year of publication, the awards received were: the CriticAtac Award for the editorial year 2015, the award for the best documented book for the editorial year 2015 at the Contemporary History Gala (Center for Contemporary History Studies and the Hanns Seidel Foundation) and nomination at the History Gala Contemporane (organized by the Center for Studies in Contemporary History and the Hanns Seidel Foundation), the debut categories, the best book on communism and the best book for the editorial year 2015.
We thank New Europe College for hosting us.