Teaching & Academic Projects
In May 2011, the PLURAL Forum co-organized, in cooperation with the Department of World History at the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University of Moldova, an international workshop on the topic of "Memory of the Second World War in Central and Eastern Europe". The workshop was an outstanding academic event, in particular, due to its substantial results and the original contributions presented at the conference. A collective volume, including the best papers, was published by Cartier in 2013, with our NGO's members serving as editors. This activity was supported by a grant of EUR 15,000 awarded by the Open Society Foundations (ReSET Program).From June 2011 to May 2014, the PLURAL Forum, in collaboration with the Department of World History at the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University of Moldova, initiated and developed a three-year project on “Social Mobility and Modernization in 20th century Eastern Europe”, in the framework of the Open Society Foundations' “Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching” (ReSET) Program. The project's format included three longer summer workshops (with a duration of approximately two weeks each) and three intermediary sessions. The project mainly targeted a group of academics holding junior teaching positions within university departments in the social sciences and the humanities. The geographical focus of the seminar included the non-EU East European countries (mostly covering the states of the former Soviet Union). The selection of participants was based on academic excellence, their involvement in the promotion of educational innovation in their home institutions, sufficient proof of research skills, foreign-language proficiency and their commitment to the values of open, participative and student-centered education. For the organization of six summer and winter school sessions, between 2011 and 2014, the PLURAL Forum and the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University received a total grant of EUR 300,000.
From November 2011 to July 2014, the PLURAL Forum initiated and organised a regular Doctoral Seminar in Social Sciences in partnership with several academic institutions in Moldova and abroad. The Doctoral Seminar aimed to fill a gap left by the Moldovan higher education system. The doctoral programs in Moldova still lack a systematic curriculum (with lectures and seminars) for PhD students. The Doctoral Seminar offered Moldovan PhD students in the social sciences (history, sociology, anthropology, etc.) the opportunity to take part in a series of thematic and methodological seminars. In particular, it aimed at updating and improving the development of PhD-level research in accordance with the accepted international academic standards. The Doctoral Seminar was a pro bono / voluntary activity. For additional details, see the blog of the PLURAL Doctoral Seminar.
In November 2021, the PLURAL Forum created three working groups together with its partner, the Society for Romanian Studies:
- Holocaust and Second World War group, convenors: Diana Dumitru (PLURAL) and Grant Harward (SRS);
- Pre-1918 History group, convenors: Constantin Ardeleanu (SRS) and Andrei Cusco (PLURAL);
- Sociology group, convenors: Marius Wamsiedel (SRS) and Petru Negura (PLURAL).
Social Projects
In November 2013, the PLURAL Forum engaged in a fruitful partnership with the FriedrichEbert Stiftung (FES) in Moldova. This partnership aims to conduct social investigations and analyses through the independent media outlet run by the PLURAL Forum - www.platzforma.md.In 2015/2016 the PLURAL Forum also benefited from a grant awarded by the US Embassy in Moldova, through the Program “Endowment for Democracy”. This grant funded a project consisting of a series of social investigations. The resulting articles were published on the independent platform www.platzforma.md from December 2015 to March 2016. These investigations, most of them published, filled a gap in the Moldovan public sphere. They enhanced public knowledge and provided crucial new information about certain marginalized groups in our society, e.g.: psychiatric patients, certain groups of women (mothers with small children, Roma women, and aged women), local workers employed in international textile factories, the homeless, and marginalized religious groups. Grant details: June 2015-March 2016: Endowment for Democracy Grants Program – US Embassy in Moldova. Project title: “Pleading for Democracy and Inclusion in Moldova” (S-MD700-15-GR-055); USD 6,500.
From September 2016 to August 2017, the PLURAL Forum was involved in another research project focusing on homeless people in Moldova. This project was made possible by the support of the OAK Foundation, an international NGO based in London, which is interested in promoting and consolidating a number of reforms and services specific to this field in Moldova. The research scrutinized the extent, the driving factors and the impact of homelessness in Moldova. The study was coordinated and supervised by Dr Petru Negura, who conducted interviews with homeless people and social work professionals, collected quantitative data and engaged with the relevant NGOs and stakeholders. Negura also analyzed the relevant legislation in the field. The project outcome consisted in a comprehensive piece of research that informed and supported the Oak Foundation's strategy on dealing with homelessness in Moldova. The total grant budget was USD 30,000.
Starting in February 2017, the PLURAL Forum received a grant from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Moldova to produce and elaborate a series of thematic dossiers to be published on the www.platzforma.md website. This series of thematic dossiers (4-5 articles/pieces per dossier) aimed to produce a comprehensive set of analyses, investigations, essays, and discussions focusing on the most significant social, political and economic topics in Moldova. For each dossier, a discussion was organised in a public location in Chisinau (Teatru-Spalatorie, the Zemstvo Museum, Propaganda Cafe, etc.), with the participation of the relevant stakeholders, including activists, experts, scholars, representatives of local businesses and local and/or national-level public authorities. The total grant amount was USD 12,000.
From September 2019 to February 2020, the PLURAL Forum carried out a national study of the wheelchair public service in Moldova, in partnership with the MUSE UK organisation, University College London (UCL) and the Free International University of Moldova. The aim of the study - Mapping of Wheelchair Provision and Usage in Moldova - was to conduct research on the current state of the wheelchair service in the Republic of Moldova. The study also aimed at identifying the gaps in the service and producing a set of realistic, context-specific, achievable recommendations in order to enhance the quality of the service. In particular, the study sought to improve the coordination, efficiency and transparency of the national service, so that its beneficiaries might lead more independent and inclusive lives within their community and workplace. The project was supported by the UK Embassy in Moldova with a grant of GBP 29,954.
Prizes & Fellowships
PLURAL Fellowship
In 2021 and 2022, the
PLURAL Forum awarded a three-month research fellowship in Moldova. The PLURAL
fellows were Keith Harrington and Jana Stöxen.
The PLURAL Local Archives & Collections Research Prize
From 2020 to 2023, the
PLURAL Forum established the PLURAL Local Archives & Collections Research
Prize, to be awarded for original research articles based on archives or
collections held in Moldova or in the neighbouring regions and counties in
Ukraine and Romania. Recipients of the prize: Anastasia Felcher (for her
article Alexander
Pushkin in Bessarabia: literature and identity politics in the periphery:
National Identities: Vol 21, No 4, Andreea Kaltenbrunner (for Modernization Struggles in Interwar
Romania: Old Calendarists, Church and Government in Bessarabia in the 1930s),
and Iemima Ploscariu (for ‘God
is against Nationalism’: Averbuch and the Jewish Christians of Interwar Romania
| Contemporary European History).
The PLURAL Chișinău Antisemitism Studies Prize
To commemorate 120 years
since the Kishinev Easter pogrom of 1903, in 2023, the PLURAL Forum established
the PLURAL Chisinau Antisemitism Studies Prize, to be awarded for original
research articles relating to antisemitism studies or Jewish history in Moldova/Moldavia/Bessarabia/Transnistria.
The recipient of the prize was Maria Irimia (for her study "Struma”:
Destine ale tragediei").
Media Projects
In October 2013, PLATZFORMA (PZF) - Review of Social Critique, a new online platform of social analysis and criticism, was launched. The platform aims to become an online environment for reflection and critical analysis. By publishing high-quality and well-informed discussions and analyses of social phenomena and of certain issues neglected or distorted in the public sphere (i.e., inequality, vulnerability, oppression, identities, cultures, ideologies, etc.), PZF highlights the need for deconstructing the dominant patterns of understanding these phenomena and issues in our society. Moreover, PZF intends to broaden the public discourse in Moldova by including and supporting visions hitherto marginalized or ignored, and by hosting meetings and discussions between holders of different or opposing views. In 2014, the PLURAL NGO received a grant of EUR 2,500 from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Moldova for a series of 5 dossiers, composed of 5 articles each, focusing on various topics (including educational reforms, European integration, the deportations from Bessarabia and Transnistria during the 20th century, the Transnistrian region, migrants and migration).