Videos by Cristina A Bejan, PhD
Cristina A. Bejan presented on her partnership between Bucharest Inside the Beltway and the Roman... more Cristina A. Bejan presented on her partnership between Bucharest Inside the Beltway and the Romanian Cultural Institute of New York to produce the virtual literary series "Romanian Women Voices in North America" featuring 27 authors from USA and Canada from October 2020 to August 2021. 10 views
IRF Board Member and Executive Director of Bucharest Inside the Beltway Cristina A. Bejan present... more IRF Board Member and Executive Director of Bucharest Inside the Beltway Cristina A. Bejan presents her work in Ukraine relief since the unlawful invasion by Russia on February 24, 2022: from activism, fundraising, and producing the creative event "Ukraine+ Freedom Arts Showcase" in support of Ukrainians of Colorado. She concludes with the important lyric by Tupac: "Let's change the way we eat. Let's change the way we live. And let's change the way we treat each other." 11 views
Hosted by Cărturești bookshop in Bucharest, Romania, Cristina A. Bejan launched her two books "In... more Hosted by Cărturești bookshop in Bucharest, Romania, Cristina A. Bejan launched her two books "Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania: The Criterion Association," and "Green Horses on the Walls," in dialogue with Romanian authors and scholars Camelia Crăciun and Rucsandra Pop. The event took place on Facebook Live, Sunday October 4, 2020. 63 views
Dr. Cristina Bejan talks about her first book project on the Romanian cultural modernist circle, ... more Dr. Cristina Bejan talks about her first book project on the Romanian cultural modernist circle, the Criterion Association. September 6, 2012, Durham, NC, USA. 5 views
Book launch in Chicago “Intellectuals and fascism in interwar Romania” by Cristina A. Bejan.
...... more Book launch in Chicago “Intellectuals and fascism in interwar Romania” by Cristina A. Bejan.
..........
Lansarea cărții “Intelectualii și fascismul in perioada interbelica in România” o carte de Dr. Cristina Bejan, cu o prefață de Vladimir Tismăneanu.
O carte extrem de interesantă despre intelectualii romani, precum Cioran, Comarnescu, Eliade, Noica, etc. din perioada dintre cele doua razboaie mondiale și motivele simpatiilor lor fata de fascism. 2 views
Books by Cristina A Bejan, PhD
Rhodes Trust - Scholars Library - Rhodes Scholar author interview series, 2024
Next Stage Press, 2024
"To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking" published play script by Cristina A. Bejan (Next Stage Pr... more "To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking" published play script by Cristina A. Bejan (Next Stage Press, 2024)
A play about philosophy, love, and saving the Universe: Set in a desolate post-apocalyptic land called “the Universe” characters Hannah (a young woman philosopher from “the Beyond”) and Vlad (an older male teacher from “the Beyond”) come together to “help” the people of the universe: the Citizens and the Givers. Six actors are required to play the Citizens and Givers, each role can be played by any gender. All roles can be played by any race or ethnicity and centers female characters. Dystopian drama that is experi-mental, fantasy, and political. A distinctly original take on the legacy of totalitarianism.
https://next-stage-press.myshopify.com/collections/womens-voices/products/to-those-who-haven-t-stopped-thinking-by-cristina-a-bejan
Romanian Cultural Institute of New York, 2024
"FERVENT CRISTINA A. BEJAN LAUNCHES HER THEATER COLLECTION BOOK IN NEW YORK" - Conversation and b... more "FERVENT CRISTINA A. BEJAN LAUNCHES HER THEATER COLLECTION BOOK IN NEW YORK" - Conversation and book signing held June 18th at the legendary Drama Book Shop in NYC, also recorded as a podcast for Drama Book Shop Podcast. Featuring NYC professional actors Ava Eisenson, Yelyzaveta Gurfinkel, Elena Juliano, and Andy McCain. (Sold-out one week in advance on Eventbrite.)
Romanian Cultural Institute is proud to present, in partnership with The Drama Book Shop and Jay Michaels Global Communications, the launching of Finally Quiet. Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington, D.C., the latest book by prodigious writer, academic, and thespian Cristina A. Bejan. The event consists of a conversation with the multi-faceted Romanian-American author hosted by David Rigano and Mark-Eugene Garcia, which will also be rendered as a live podcast. Finally Quite collects four spirited, imaginative, and provocative plays, which showcase Bejan`s dramatic range and original talent: “To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking” - a dystopian investigation of the impact of totalitarianism; “Districtland” - an absurd satire about American ambition; “Finally Quiet In My Mind” - a cry for mental health awareness; and “Life According To Swami Shiva” - a timely critique of Putin's Russia. “Buchenwald”, a play delving into power struggles amidst post-WWII Soviet use of Nazi camps, which echoes today's global threats of fascism and Russian aggression, will also be presented.
Full event RCINY video livestream available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WwGQ6eRj10
MSU Denver, 2024
MSU Denver author flyer and book fair program. Cristina A. Bejan, PhD took part in the MSU Denver... more MSU Denver author flyer and book fair program. Cristina A. Bejan, PhD took part in the MSU Denver January 17, 2024 Faculty and Alumni Book Fair, where she sold her books to the local community. Event produced by Brandi Rideout. St. Cajetan's, Auraria Campus, Denver, Colorado.
Next Stage Press, 2023
Buchenwald explores man's hunger for power and the fight for something greater than the individua... more Buchenwald explores man's hunger for power and the fight for something greater than the individual. Set in 1946, the show discloses the continued use of Nazi concentration camps as Soviet extermination camps for the Germans. Imprisoned by the Soviets, Nazi SS Colonel Max Richter reaches out to save the future of his young Soviet guard, Sasha Novsky. Buchenwald was inspired by playwright Cristina A. Bejan’s visit to the concentration camp in 2001 when she was a college student studying abroad in Germany. When she toured the camp, she saw the single prison cell “chalk chamber,” learned of the post-WWII Soviet use of the Nazi camps, and was shocked to learn that many Weimar residents lived in denial of the mass murder in the backyard. This new knowledge haunted her and one night back at Northwestern University Richter and Novsky’s story seized her, and the script for Buchenwald was born. Her senior year of college she produced and directed the play as a joint project within the university’s German and Theatre Departments. Fascism and Russian aggression are again at the forefront on the world stage. This play is a reminder of what is ultimately at risk for us all.
No Passport Press, 2023
FINALLY QUIET Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington, DC by Cristina A. Bejan. This volume colle... more FINALLY QUIET Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington, DC by Cristina A. Bejan. This volume collects four spirited, imaginative and provocative plays from Romanian-American dramatist Cristina A. Bejan. The plays are: TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T STOPPED THINKING, DISTRICTLAND, FINALLY QUIET IN MY MIND and LIFE ACCORDING TO SWAMI SHIVA. From a dystopian investigation of the impact of totalitarianism, an absurd satire about American ambition, a cry for mental health awareness, and a timely critique of Putin's Russia, Bejan's plays span the world and ultimately capture the universal beating of the human heart. This is a NoPassport Press publication endeavor. Book cover art by E. Christopher Clark.
Review
Praise for "FINALLY QUIET: Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington DC" ...
Bejan's distinctive voice flows strongly through this anthology of plays bringing brutal honesty to worlds with characters who are vulnerable, cruel, ambitious, and fully human. Pulling no punches in holding up a mirror to her ancestral country through apocalyptic absurdity in To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking and through the lens of the millennial generation in her birth country
in DISTRICTLAND, with neither being so different from the other. Her empathy for mental illness and hope flows through Finally Quiet in My Mind. In Life According to Swami Shiva her comedic take on unrequited lust when a student uses the teachings and care of her Swami to fill a deep hole within her, letting her and us down gently into reality. In the world of theatre where the woman's voice is often missing, Bejan lifting hers is a gift.
- Susan Lyles, Founder and Producing Artistic Director, And Toto too Theatre Company
Bejan's plays invite us to listen closely, then ask us to reflect on the freedoms we so often take for granted. From beyond the universe to the neighborhoods of Washington DC, she calls attention to the absurd nature of our artificial social structures and the rarity of true connections with other people. Bejan is a member of the BETC Writers Group, a collective of Colorado playwrights who meet regularly to share work and present readings of new plays.
- Heather Beasley, Associate Artistic Director, Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (formerly Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company)
Bejan's elegant plays circle around the difficult quest for belonging that is at one and the same time tied to a specific time and place and timeless and universal. Her characters find themselves in a variety of alien settings: a desolate post-Apocalyptic land called "The Universe"; a fast-gentrifying Washington DC full of ambitious young professionals unclear about what their ambitions seek; a psychiatric ward; and Russian wannabe Hindu spiritual leaders in their personal studio of Eastern thought. Their worlds of deception, betrayal, and failure lead to a deeper realization that, in the end, they matter more than they ever thought possible.
- Blair Ruble, Distinguished Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, and author of "Washington's U Street: A Biography"
Editura Tracus Arte, 2023
Romanian translation of Bejan's poetry book "Green Horses on the Walls" - translated by Mădălina ... more Romanian translation of Bejan's poetry book "Green Horses on the Walls" - translated by Mădălina Mangalagiu, published by Editura Tracus Arte, 2023.
Editura Litera, 2023
Romanian translation of Bejan's Palgrave history book, translated by Alina Pavelescu.
În Bucureș... more Romanian translation of Bejan's Palgrave history book, translated by Alina Pavelescu.
În Bucureștiul anilor 1930, cele mai strălucite minți se unesc pentru a forma Asociația Criterion. Legați de prietenie și de visul unei Românii noi, moderne, printre membrii asociației se numărau istoricul Mircea Eliade, criticul Petru Comarnescu, dramaturgul evreu Mihail Sebastian și mulți alți filosofi și artiști printre care Marietta Sadova. Împreună, aceștia au construit o scenă culturală plină de viață, care a prosperat pentru câțiva ani, până când fascismul și scandalurile i-au scindat.
Cristina A. Bejan prezintă cum Garda de Fier de extremă dreapta a ajuns să eclipseze liberalismul în cazul multora din elita intelectuală română, recurgând la jurnale, memorii și la alte scrieri pentru a analiza confruntarea dintre culturi și extremism în perioada postbelică. Este primul studiu apărut în limba engleză despre Asociația Criterion și cel mai cuprinzător scris până la ora actuală. Disponibilă acum și în limba română în traducerea Alinei Pavelescu, această carte își propune să studieze complexitatea vieții intelectuale a României în momentele dinaintea distrugerii ei.
„De ce intelectuali precum Emil Cioran și Mircea Eliade au cedat ispitei Gărzii de Fier? Și de ce alte figuri, precum Eugène Ionesco, au rezistat? Acestea sunt câteva dintre întrebările puse în studiul de față, unic și bine argumentat.“ Dennis Deletant
„O reconstrucție meticuloasă și impresionantă care pune în lumină trăsăturile fascinante și uneori contradictorii ale acestei mici elite artistice și intelectuale din Bucureștiul interbelic.“ Radu Harald Dinu, Slavic Review
„În România, noua dreaptă a fost reprezentată de Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail, Garda de Fier, condusă de Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Această mișcare este fundalul pentru istoria bogată a Asociației Criterion, un salon intelectual sclipitor din Bucureștiul anilor 1930, pe care o scrie Cristina A. Bejan.“ Marci Shore, Times Literary Supplement
„Studiul realizat de Bejan reușește să arate gradul în care o generație de intelectuali cu intenții bune, produși ai optimismului modernist și care își doreau să creeze o lume mai bună prin idei și cuvinte, au fost inițial incapabili să-și imagineze declinul ordinii lor civilizate.“ Philip Ó Ceallaigh, Los Angeles Review of Books
„Cristina A. Bejan, o autoare a cărei cercetare se concentrează pe fundalul cultural al fenomenelor radicale din România secolului XX, ne oferă o înțelegere profundă a dinamicilor interne, a complexităților profunde și a nuanțelor complexe care definesc o scenă intelectuală heterogenă, pentru care proiectul Criterion reprezintă un exemplu deseori trecut cu vederea.“ Răzvan Ciobanu, Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review
„Datorită amplorii cercetării întreprinse de Cristina A. Bejan, Intelectualii și fascismul în România interbelică ar trebui să facă parte din bibliografia obligatorie a oricărei facultăți umaniste din România.“ Liviu Neagoe, istoric
CRISTINA A. BEJAN este scriitoare prolifică româno-americană, care a publicat texte de istorie, piese de teatru și poezii. Are un doctorat și diplomă de master în istorie modernă de la Universitatea din Oxford, studiile sale fiind finanțate integral prin burse Rhodes și Fulbright. În prezent, predă istorie și dramaturgie la Metropolitan State University of Denver din Colorado, SUA. A fost cercetător la Muzeul Memorial al Holocaustului din Washington D.C., unde a publicat 64 de articole în Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, volumul al III-lea, editată de muzeu. Bunicii ei români s-au cunoscut ca studenți în Bucureștiul interbelic.
Bookfest, 2023
Cristina A. Bejan's book panel took place Thursday March 30, 7pm. Bejan launched both poetry and ... more Cristina A. Bejan's book panel took place Thursday March 30, 7pm. Bejan launched both poetry and history books in Romanian translation.
TVR International, 2023
International Romanian television program "A doua Românie" broadcast on March 30 2023, hosted by ... more International Romanian television program "A doua Românie" broadcast on March 30 2023, hosted by Corina Dobre. Cristina A. Bejan and Mădălina Mangalagiu speak about their collaboration on Bejan's poetry book "Cai verzi pe pereți" released by Editura Tracus Arte (poems by Bejan, translated by Mangalagiu), Bejan's history book released with Editura Tracus Arte, and Bejan's life growing up in the Romanian diaspora in the USA and her career as a writer.
TVR Cultural, 2023
I was very fortunate to be interviewed twice on Romanian National Television during my recent Rom... more I was very fortunate to be interviewed twice on Romanian National Television during my recent Romania book tour, promoting the release of my books in Romanian translation with Editura Litera and Editura TracusArte. The first on TVR International, I spoke in Romanian alongside Mădălina Mangalagiu. The second appearance was on TVR Cultural, I answered in English (with Romanian live translation). I speak about both of my recent books released in Romania. Both English and Romanian speakers can understand this one. (It's only 10 minutes, but 10 rich minutes that include what it means for me to be a historian, a Comarnescu tribute, and some real royal Durham, NC history.) My interview starts at: 3:30 min.
Voices on the Move, 2020
Bejan's play ""J'y suis j'reste // Here I Am, Here I Stay" is published in an anthology by and ab... more Bejan's play ""J'y suis j'reste // Here I Am, Here I Stay" is published in an anthology by and about refugees and immigrants, edited by Domnica Radulescu and Roxana Cazan. The play is one man's story of fleeing communist Romania and creating a life in the United States. Music is the home of the exile. Published in 2020 by Solis Press.
a collection of poetry published by Finishing Line Press (Release date: May 22, 2020)
Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
In 1930s Bucharest, some of the country’s most brilliant young intellectuals converged to form th... more In 1930s Bucharest, some of the country’s most brilliant young intellectuals converged to form the Criterion Association. Bound by friendship and the dream of a new, modern Romania, their members included historian Mircea Eliade, critic Petru Comarnescu, Jewish playwright Mihail Sebastian and a host of other philosophers and artists. Together, they built a vibrant cultural scene that flourished for a few short years, before fascism and scandal splintered their ranks. Cristina A. Bejan asks how the far-right Iron Guard came to eclipse the appeal of liberalism for so many of Romania’s intellectual elite, drawing on diaries, memoirs and other writings to examine the collision of culture and extremism in the interwar years. The first English-language study of Criterion and the most thorough to date in any language, this book grapples with the complexities of Romanian intellectual life in the moments before collapse.
University of Indiana Press, 2018
This monumental seven-volume encyclopedia, prepared by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center ... more This monumental seven-volume encyclopedia, prepared by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, examines the universe of camps and ghettos)―more than 40,000 in all―that the Nazis and their allies operated, from Norway to North Africa and from France to Russia. Document available for download is the African continent introduction for Vol. III authored by Cristina Bejan and Aomar Boum.
Volume III describes sites under the control of states that aligned themselves with Nazi Germany, as allies, satellite countries, or independent collaborationist regimes. For a variety of reasons, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and other such states each undertook the persecution, and often the murder, of people it considered undesirable or threatening. Such target groups included Jews, who were often killed directly or handed over to the Germans. Other victims spanned any number of ethnic or national groups, or political or military opponents. Each state created its own unique mix of detention sites under a variety of agencies, but all with goals that mirrored those of Nazi Germany. From the far north of Finland to France’s west African colonies, this network of sites did its work with little or no input from the Germans. This volume, with its descriptions of the individual sites and broad introductions to the regimes that governed them, adds to our understanding of a system that was truly European in scale, and not solely a German undertaking.
Cristina Bejan coauthored the African Continent Introduction with Aomar Boum and wrote 64 articles on camps in Africa and Europe. The sites she documented include: “Ain Guenfounda,” “Ain Sefra,” “Akbou,” “Balasagyarmat,” “Beaune-la-Rolande,” Beaune-la-Rolande”(CSS), “Bekescsaba,” “Ben-Chicao,” “Bou Azzer,” “Boulhaut,” “Carnot,” “Chateau du Sablou,” “Chateau-le-Roc,” “Cherchel,” “Conakry,” “Constantine,” “Craiova,” “Crampel,” “Dakar-Bango,” “Djebel-Felten,” “El-Karit,” “El-Arisha,” “El-Guerrah,” “Fort-Barraux,” “Fort Carafelli,” “GT-14539,” “Hadjerat M’Guil,” “Kankan,” “Kasba-Tadla,” “Kenadsa,” “Kersas,” “Keszethely,” “Khenchela,” “Kindia,” “Kisvarda,” “La Marne,” “La Meyze,” “Le Kef,” “Magenta,” “Maroszvasarhely,” “Marrakech,” “Montmelian,” “Nagysurany,” “Oued-Djerch,” “Oued-Zenati-Bone,” “Quargla,” “Paks,” “Papa,” “Reillanne,” “Relizane,” “Sepsiszentgyorgy,” “Sereilhac,” “Sighet,” “Sisteron,” “Skrirat,” “Szaszregen,” “Szatmarnemeti,” “Szeged,” “Tamanar.” “Tecuci,” “Telergma,” “Tendrara,” “Villemur-sur-Tarn,” and “Zalaegerszeg.”
Uploads
Videos by Cristina A Bejan, PhD
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Lansarea cărții “Intelectualii și fascismul in perioada interbelica in România” o carte de Dr. Cristina Bejan, cu o prefață de Vladimir Tismăneanu.
O carte extrem de interesantă despre intelectualii romani, precum Cioran, Comarnescu, Eliade, Noica, etc. din perioada dintre cele doua razboaie mondiale și motivele simpatiilor lor fata de fascism.
Books by Cristina A Bejan, PhD
Interview took place at Rhodes House, University of Oxford, UK, September 20, 2024.
View here:
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Rch9Z5G4E
Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/1013167723/501fe64b63?ts=0&share=copy
Rhodes Trust Scholars Library homepage - https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/programmes-events/scholars-library/
Poems delivered by Rhodes Scholar poets: Monica Youn & Cristina A. Bejan - Rhodes Trust - Scholars Library
A play about philosophy, love, and saving the Universe: Set in a desolate post-apocalyptic land called “the Universe” characters Hannah (a young woman philosopher from “the Beyond”) and Vlad (an older male teacher from “the Beyond”) come together to “help” the people of the universe: the Citizens and the Givers. Six actors are required to play the Citizens and Givers, each role can be played by any gender. All roles can be played by any race or ethnicity and centers female characters. Dystopian drama that is experi-mental, fantasy, and political. A distinctly original take on the legacy of totalitarianism.
https://next-stage-press.myshopify.com/collections/womens-voices/products/to-those-who-haven-t-stopped-thinking-by-cristina-a-bejan
Romanian Cultural Institute is proud to present, in partnership with The Drama Book Shop and Jay Michaels Global Communications, the launching of Finally Quiet. Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington, D.C., the latest book by prodigious writer, academic, and thespian Cristina A. Bejan. The event consists of a conversation with the multi-faceted Romanian-American author hosted by David Rigano and Mark-Eugene Garcia, which will also be rendered as a live podcast. Finally Quite collects four spirited, imaginative, and provocative plays, which showcase Bejan`s dramatic range and original talent: “To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking” - a dystopian investigation of the impact of totalitarianism; “Districtland” - an absurd satire about American ambition; “Finally Quiet In My Mind” - a cry for mental health awareness; and “Life According To Swami Shiva” - a timely critique of Putin's Russia. “Buchenwald”, a play delving into power struggles amidst post-WWII Soviet use of Nazi camps, which echoes today's global threats of fascism and Russian aggression, will also be presented.
Full event RCINY video livestream available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WwGQ6eRj10
Review
Praise for "FINALLY QUIET: Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington DC" ...
Bejan's distinctive voice flows strongly through this anthology of plays bringing brutal honesty to worlds with characters who are vulnerable, cruel, ambitious, and fully human. Pulling no punches in holding up a mirror to her ancestral country through apocalyptic absurdity in To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking and through the lens of the millennial generation in her birth country
in DISTRICTLAND, with neither being so different from the other. Her empathy for mental illness and hope flows through Finally Quiet in My Mind. In Life According to Swami Shiva her comedic take on unrequited lust when a student uses the teachings and care of her Swami to fill a deep hole within her, letting her and us down gently into reality. In the world of theatre where the woman's voice is often missing, Bejan lifting hers is a gift.
- Susan Lyles, Founder and Producing Artistic Director, And Toto too Theatre Company
Bejan's plays invite us to listen closely, then ask us to reflect on the freedoms we so often take for granted. From beyond the universe to the neighborhoods of Washington DC, she calls attention to the absurd nature of our artificial social structures and the rarity of true connections with other people. Bejan is a member of the BETC Writers Group, a collective of Colorado playwrights who meet regularly to share work and present readings of new plays.
- Heather Beasley, Associate Artistic Director, Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (formerly Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company)
Bejan's elegant plays circle around the difficult quest for belonging that is at one and the same time tied to a specific time and place and timeless and universal. Her characters find themselves in a variety of alien settings: a desolate post-Apocalyptic land called "The Universe"; a fast-gentrifying Washington DC full of ambitious young professionals unclear about what their ambitions seek; a psychiatric ward; and Russian wannabe Hindu spiritual leaders in their personal studio of Eastern thought. Their worlds of deception, betrayal, and failure lead to a deeper realization that, in the end, they matter more than they ever thought possible.
- Blair Ruble, Distinguished Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, and author of "Washington's U Street: A Biography"
În Bucureștiul anilor 1930, cele mai strălucite minți se unesc pentru a forma Asociația Criterion. Legați de prietenie și de visul unei Românii noi, moderne, printre membrii asociației se numărau istoricul Mircea Eliade, criticul Petru Comarnescu, dramaturgul evreu Mihail Sebastian și mulți alți filosofi și artiști printre care Marietta Sadova. Împreună, aceștia au construit o scenă culturală plină de viață, care a prosperat pentru câțiva ani, până când fascismul și scandalurile i-au scindat.
Cristina A. Bejan prezintă cum Garda de Fier de extremă dreapta a ajuns să eclipseze liberalismul în cazul multora din elita intelectuală română, recurgând la jurnale, memorii și la alte scrieri pentru a analiza confruntarea dintre culturi și extremism în perioada postbelică. Este primul studiu apărut în limba engleză despre Asociația Criterion și cel mai cuprinzător scris până la ora actuală. Disponibilă acum și în limba română în traducerea Alinei Pavelescu, această carte își propune să studieze complexitatea vieții intelectuale a României în momentele dinaintea distrugerii ei.
„De ce intelectuali precum Emil Cioran și Mircea Eliade au cedat ispitei Gărzii de Fier? Și de ce alte figuri, precum Eugène Ionesco, au rezistat? Acestea sunt câteva dintre întrebările puse în studiul de față, unic și bine argumentat.“ Dennis Deletant
„O reconstrucție meticuloasă și impresionantă care pune în lumină trăsăturile fascinante și uneori contradictorii ale acestei mici elite artistice și intelectuale din Bucureștiul interbelic.“ Radu Harald Dinu, Slavic Review
„În România, noua dreaptă a fost reprezentată de Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail, Garda de Fier, condusă de Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Această mișcare este fundalul pentru istoria bogată a Asociației Criterion, un salon intelectual sclipitor din Bucureștiul anilor 1930, pe care o scrie Cristina A. Bejan.“ Marci Shore, Times Literary Supplement
„Studiul realizat de Bejan reușește să arate gradul în care o generație de intelectuali cu intenții bune, produși ai optimismului modernist și care își doreau să creeze o lume mai bună prin idei și cuvinte, au fost inițial incapabili să-și imagineze declinul ordinii lor civilizate.“ Philip Ó Ceallaigh, Los Angeles Review of Books
„Cristina A. Bejan, o autoare a cărei cercetare se concentrează pe fundalul cultural al fenomenelor radicale din România secolului XX, ne oferă o înțelegere profundă a dinamicilor interne, a complexităților profunde și a nuanțelor complexe care definesc o scenă intelectuală heterogenă, pentru care proiectul Criterion reprezintă un exemplu deseori trecut cu vederea.“ Răzvan Ciobanu, Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review
„Datorită amplorii cercetării întreprinse de Cristina A. Bejan, Intelectualii și fascismul în România interbelică ar trebui să facă parte din bibliografia obligatorie a oricărei facultăți umaniste din România.“ Liviu Neagoe, istoric
CRISTINA A. BEJAN este scriitoare prolifică româno-americană, care a publicat texte de istorie, piese de teatru și poezii. Are un doctorat și diplomă de master în istorie modernă de la Universitatea din Oxford, studiile sale fiind finanțate integral prin burse Rhodes și Fulbright. În prezent, predă istorie și dramaturgie la Metropolitan State University of Denver din Colorado, SUA. A fost cercetător la Muzeul Memorial al Holocaustului din Washington D.C., unde a publicat 64 de articole în Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, volumul al III-lea, editată de muzeu. Bunicii ei români s-au cunoscut ca studenți în Bucureștiul interbelic.
Volume III describes sites under the control of states that aligned themselves with Nazi Germany, as allies, satellite countries, or independent collaborationist regimes. For a variety of reasons, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and other such states each undertook the persecution, and often the murder, of people it considered undesirable or threatening. Such target groups included Jews, who were often killed directly or handed over to the Germans. Other victims spanned any number of ethnic or national groups, or political or military opponents. Each state created its own unique mix of detention sites under a variety of agencies, but all with goals that mirrored those of Nazi Germany. From the far north of Finland to France’s west African colonies, this network of sites did its work with little or no input from the Germans. This volume, with its descriptions of the individual sites and broad introductions to the regimes that governed them, adds to our understanding of a system that was truly European in scale, and not solely a German undertaking.
Cristina Bejan coauthored the African Continent Introduction with Aomar Boum and wrote 64 articles on camps in Africa and Europe. The sites she documented include: “Ain Guenfounda,” “Ain Sefra,” “Akbou,” “Balasagyarmat,” “Beaune-la-Rolande,” Beaune-la-Rolande”(CSS), “Bekescsaba,” “Ben-Chicao,” “Bou Azzer,” “Boulhaut,” “Carnot,” “Chateau du Sablou,” “Chateau-le-Roc,” “Cherchel,” “Conakry,” “Constantine,” “Craiova,” “Crampel,” “Dakar-Bango,” “Djebel-Felten,” “El-Karit,” “El-Arisha,” “El-Guerrah,” “Fort-Barraux,” “Fort Carafelli,” “GT-14539,” “Hadjerat M’Guil,” “Kankan,” “Kasba-Tadla,” “Kenadsa,” “Kersas,” “Keszethely,” “Khenchela,” “Kindia,” “Kisvarda,” “La Marne,” “La Meyze,” “Le Kef,” “Magenta,” “Maroszvasarhely,” “Marrakech,” “Montmelian,” “Nagysurany,” “Oued-Djerch,” “Oued-Zenati-Bone,” “Quargla,” “Paks,” “Papa,” “Reillanne,” “Relizane,” “Sepsiszentgyorgy,” “Sereilhac,” “Sighet,” “Sisteron,” “Skrirat,” “Szaszregen,” “Szatmarnemeti,” “Szeged,” “Tamanar.” “Tecuci,” “Telergma,” “Tendrara,” “Villemur-sur-Tarn,” and “Zalaegerszeg.”
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Lansarea cărții “Intelectualii și fascismul in perioada interbelica in România” o carte de Dr. Cristina Bejan, cu o prefață de Vladimir Tismăneanu.
O carte extrem de interesantă despre intelectualii romani, precum Cioran, Comarnescu, Eliade, Noica, etc. din perioada dintre cele doua razboaie mondiale și motivele simpatiilor lor fata de fascism.
Interview took place at Rhodes House, University of Oxford, UK, September 20, 2024.
View here:
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Rch9Z5G4E
Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/1013167723/501fe64b63?ts=0&share=copy
Rhodes Trust Scholars Library homepage - https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/programmes-events/scholars-library/
Poems delivered by Rhodes Scholar poets: Monica Youn & Cristina A. Bejan - Rhodes Trust - Scholars Library
A play about philosophy, love, and saving the Universe: Set in a desolate post-apocalyptic land called “the Universe” characters Hannah (a young woman philosopher from “the Beyond”) and Vlad (an older male teacher from “the Beyond”) come together to “help” the people of the universe: the Citizens and the Givers. Six actors are required to play the Citizens and Givers, each role can be played by any gender. All roles can be played by any race or ethnicity and centers female characters. Dystopian drama that is experi-mental, fantasy, and political. A distinctly original take on the legacy of totalitarianism.
https://next-stage-press.myshopify.com/collections/womens-voices/products/to-those-who-haven-t-stopped-thinking-by-cristina-a-bejan
Romanian Cultural Institute is proud to present, in partnership with The Drama Book Shop and Jay Michaels Global Communications, the launching of Finally Quiet. Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington, D.C., the latest book by prodigious writer, academic, and thespian Cristina A. Bejan. The event consists of a conversation with the multi-faceted Romanian-American author hosted by David Rigano and Mark-Eugene Garcia, which will also be rendered as a live podcast. Finally Quite collects four spirited, imaginative, and provocative plays, which showcase Bejan`s dramatic range and original talent: “To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking” - a dystopian investigation of the impact of totalitarianism; “Districtland” - an absurd satire about American ambition; “Finally Quiet In My Mind” - a cry for mental health awareness; and “Life According To Swami Shiva” - a timely critique of Putin's Russia. “Buchenwald”, a play delving into power struggles amidst post-WWII Soviet use of Nazi camps, which echoes today's global threats of fascism and Russian aggression, will also be presented.
Full event RCINY video livestream available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WwGQ6eRj10
Review
Praise for "FINALLY QUIET: Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington DC" ...
Bejan's distinctive voice flows strongly through this anthology of plays bringing brutal honesty to worlds with characters who are vulnerable, cruel, ambitious, and fully human. Pulling no punches in holding up a mirror to her ancestral country through apocalyptic absurdity in To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking and through the lens of the millennial generation in her birth country
in DISTRICTLAND, with neither being so different from the other. Her empathy for mental illness and hope flows through Finally Quiet in My Mind. In Life According to Swami Shiva her comedic take on unrequited lust when a student uses the teachings and care of her Swami to fill a deep hole within her, letting her and us down gently into reality. In the world of theatre where the woman's voice is often missing, Bejan lifting hers is a gift.
- Susan Lyles, Founder and Producing Artistic Director, And Toto too Theatre Company
Bejan's plays invite us to listen closely, then ask us to reflect on the freedoms we so often take for granted. From beyond the universe to the neighborhoods of Washington DC, she calls attention to the absurd nature of our artificial social structures and the rarity of true connections with other people. Bejan is a member of the BETC Writers Group, a collective of Colorado playwrights who meet regularly to share work and present readings of new plays.
- Heather Beasley, Associate Artistic Director, Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (formerly Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company)
Bejan's elegant plays circle around the difficult quest for belonging that is at one and the same time tied to a specific time and place and timeless and universal. Her characters find themselves in a variety of alien settings: a desolate post-Apocalyptic land called "The Universe"; a fast-gentrifying Washington DC full of ambitious young professionals unclear about what their ambitions seek; a psychiatric ward; and Russian wannabe Hindu spiritual leaders in their personal studio of Eastern thought. Their worlds of deception, betrayal, and failure lead to a deeper realization that, in the end, they matter more than they ever thought possible.
- Blair Ruble, Distinguished Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, and author of "Washington's U Street: A Biography"
În Bucureștiul anilor 1930, cele mai strălucite minți se unesc pentru a forma Asociația Criterion. Legați de prietenie și de visul unei Românii noi, moderne, printre membrii asociației se numărau istoricul Mircea Eliade, criticul Petru Comarnescu, dramaturgul evreu Mihail Sebastian și mulți alți filosofi și artiști printre care Marietta Sadova. Împreună, aceștia au construit o scenă culturală plină de viață, care a prosperat pentru câțiva ani, până când fascismul și scandalurile i-au scindat.
Cristina A. Bejan prezintă cum Garda de Fier de extremă dreapta a ajuns să eclipseze liberalismul în cazul multora din elita intelectuală română, recurgând la jurnale, memorii și la alte scrieri pentru a analiza confruntarea dintre culturi și extremism în perioada postbelică. Este primul studiu apărut în limba engleză despre Asociația Criterion și cel mai cuprinzător scris până la ora actuală. Disponibilă acum și în limba română în traducerea Alinei Pavelescu, această carte își propune să studieze complexitatea vieții intelectuale a României în momentele dinaintea distrugerii ei.
„De ce intelectuali precum Emil Cioran și Mircea Eliade au cedat ispitei Gărzii de Fier? Și de ce alte figuri, precum Eugène Ionesco, au rezistat? Acestea sunt câteva dintre întrebările puse în studiul de față, unic și bine argumentat.“ Dennis Deletant
„O reconstrucție meticuloasă și impresionantă care pune în lumină trăsăturile fascinante și uneori contradictorii ale acestei mici elite artistice și intelectuale din Bucureștiul interbelic.“ Radu Harald Dinu, Slavic Review
„În România, noua dreaptă a fost reprezentată de Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail, Garda de Fier, condusă de Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Această mișcare este fundalul pentru istoria bogată a Asociației Criterion, un salon intelectual sclipitor din Bucureștiul anilor 1930, pe care o scrie Cristina A. Bejan.“ Marci Shore, Times Literary Supplement
„Studiul realizat de Bejan reușește să arate gradul în care o generație de intelectuali cu intenții bune, produși ai optimismului modernist și care își doreau să creeze o lume mai bună prin idei și cuvinte, au fost inițial incapabili să-și imagineze declinul ordinii lor civilizate.“ Philip Ó Ceallaigh, Los Angeles Review of Books
„Cristina A. Bejan, o autoare a cărei cercetare se concentrează pe fundalul cultural al fenomenelor radicale din România secolului XX, ne oferă o înțelegere profundă a dinamicilor interne, a complexităților profunde și a nuanțelor complexe care definesc o scenă intelectuală heterogenă, pentru care proiectul Criterion reprezintă un exemplu deseori trecut cu vederea.“ Răzvan Ciobanu, Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review
„Datorită amplorii cercetării întreprinse de Cristina A. Bejan, Intelectualii și fascismul în România interbelică ar trebui să facă parte din bibliografia obligatorie a oricărei facultăți umaniste din România.“ Liviu Neagoe, istoric
CRISTINA A. BEJAN este scriitoare prolifică româno-americană, care a publicat texte de istorie, piese de teatru și poezii. Are un doctorat și diplomă de master în istorie modernă de la Universitatea din Oxford, studiile sale fiind finanțate integral prin burse Rhodes și Fulbright. În prezent, predă istorie și dramaturgie la Metropolitan State University of Denver din Colorado, SUA. A fost cercetător la Muzeul Memorial al Holocaustului din Washington D.C., unde a publicat 64 de articole în Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, volumul al III-lea, editată de muzeu. Bunicii ei români s-au cunoscut ca studenți în Bucureștiul interbelic.
Volume III describes sites under the control of states that aligned themselves with Nazi Germany, as allies, satellite countries, or independent collaborationist regimes. For a variety of reasons, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and other such states each undertook the persecution, and often the murder, of people it considered undesirable or threatening. Such target groups included Jews, who were often killed directly or handed over to the Germans. Other victims spanned any number of ethnic or national groups, or political or military opponents. Each state created its own unique mix of detention sites under a variety of agencies, but all with goals that mirrored those of Nazi Germany. From the far north of Finland to France’s west African colonies, this network of sites did its work with little or no input from the Germans. This volume, with its descriptions of the individual sites and broad introductions to the regimes that governed them, adds to our understanding of a system that was truly European in scale, and not solely a German undertaking.
Cristina Bejan coauthored the African Continent Introduction with Aomar Boum and wrote 64 articles on camps in Africa and Europe. The sites she documented include: “Ain Guenfounda,” “Ain Sefra,” “Akbou,” “Balasagyarmat,” “Beaune-la-Rolande,” Beaune-la-Rolande”(CSS), “Bekescsaba,” “Ben-Chicao,” “Bou Azzer,” “Boulhaut,” “Carnot,” “Chateau du Sablou,” “Chateau-le-Roc,” “Cherchel,” “Conakry,” “Constantine,” “Craiova,” “Crampel,” “Dakar-Bango,” “Djebel-Felten,” “El-Karit,” “El-Arisha,” “El-Guerrah,” “Fort-Barraux,” “Fort Carafelli,” “GT-14539,” “Hadjerat M’Guil,” “Kankan,” “Kasba-Tadla,” “Kenadsa,” “Kersas,” “Keszethely,” “Khenchela,” “Kindia,” “Kisvarda,” “La Marne,” “La Meyze,” “Le Kef,” “Magenta,” “Maroszvasarhely,” “Marrakech,” “Montmelian,” “Nagysurany,” “Oued-Djerch,” “Oued-Zenati-Bone,” “Quargla,” “Paks,” “Papa,” “Reillanne,” “Relizane,” “Sepsiszentgyorgy,” “Sereilhac,” “Sighet,” “Sisteron,” “Skrirat,” “Szaszregen,” “Szatmarnemeti,” “Szeged,” “Tamanar.” “Tecuci,” “Telergma,” “Tendrara,” “Villemur-sur-Tarn,” and “Zalaegerszeg.”
Cristina A. Bejan commissioned by the Rhodes Trust to write this original article
(Also included is Bejan's 2024 personal Rhodes Scholar alumna update.)
You can find the entire 2024 Rhodes Magazine "Creating Change" available below (public internet access for all)
https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/scholar-community/rhodes-scholar-magazine/
BY:
THEPOETSPODCAST (based in Denver, Colorado - hosted by Mitchel Ring)
POSTED IN:
BUCHAREST, HISTORIAN, HISTORY, PODCAST, POETRY, ROMANIA, SPOKEN WORD, WRITING
Listen here:
https://thepoets.co/2024/07/17/93-cristina-a-bejan/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1gVivFWk5KjQYJgbJOeQMh?flow_ctx=75b19910-1ff4-42a7-8f8d-deb14f21e91e%3A1721429664
https://www.tribuna.ro/stiri/eveniment/popasuri-ale-poetei-cristina-bejan-in-romania-173396.html
Theatre Artist Directory PROFILE 2024
https://directory.coloradotheatreguild.org/talent-profile/cristina-a-bejan/
"But it never felt intentional-this time was just naturally there. If anything, I wrote my spoken word poetry and plays-produced shows in festivals-became a regular at open mics-out of survival. I needed to share space with other creatives in order to survive the siloed capitalist patriarchal "adult" world I was existing in. My creativity for me was like gasping for fresh air while soaked in the misogyny and narrow-mindedness of the conventional day-today. More fundamentally, I have always been creative, and I guess that the straight-jacketed professional world failed to stop me. I have always just been me doing my thing. And, finally, I feel free to do so. (I do want to give a shout-out to my mom who took my family to the theatre, dance performances, and art museums so regularly it was like our religion. I am sure that this exposure from birth had an enormous impact on me and gave my artistic spirit some great fundamentals as well as the courage to soar." - Cristina A. Bejan
October 16, 2023, online.
https://exchanges.uiowa.edu/features/conversation-bejan/?fbclid=IwAR2am0AxPY9JQ_Ni1qSrzOyKtJHN2Lbcxl_HLg44fq5lofGONanq58D2F8Q
MINISTERUL CULTURII
MUZEUL NAŢIONAL DE ISTORIE A TRANSILVANIEI
ACTA MVSEI
NAPOCENSIS
60/II
HISTORICA
2023
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
https://amn-historica.mnit.ro/ro/download/?id=365&tk=a644a5987583c64c6b87157b0b2b6de1f1688367&fbclid=IwAR0n9xwpC-P0xXkt9kp21QnKwh5k6eHMHOM77DbN8qfC8VeENNm4-HqgK2w
https://uniuneascriitorilorarad.ro/ARCA/2023/4_2023/31_lecturi_bucur_4_2023.html
FOUR PLAYS FROM BUCHAREST TO WASHINGTON, D.C.
BY CRISTINA A. BEJAN ‧ RELEASE DATE: MARCH 19, 2023
A quartet of socially minded plays that wear their themes on their sleeves.
In this collection of plays, Bejan probes the spaces between the world as it is and the way it could be.
The idealistic characters in this collection of plays start out expecting the world to be orderly, only to discover that disorder is the norm. The four-act “To Those Who Haven’t Stopped Thinking” takes place in a post-apocalyptic society known as the Universe, where the rules seem arbitrary and everyone is locked into an unfulfilling social niche. When an idealistic do-gooder arrives from the Beyond, she’s shocked by how much society has deteriorated, but her attempts to reform things don’t go as planned. The 20-scene “DISTRICTLAND” takes place in and around a shared house in Washington, D.C., where a group of young professionals grapple with the highs and lows of government-adjacent work during the height of the Obama years. “Google me, Fool me, Rule me,” goes the slam-poetry opening monologue. “Institution after institution, / Bureaucrats and Bureaucracy / From suburban strip-mall / To the MALL / Concrete urban jungle / The land of opportunity / The land of intensity…” Morgan, a young Black woman, and Gerard, a young Senegalese man, find themselves admitted to a D.C. hospital’s psych ward for their mental health issues in “Finally Quiet in My Mind.” Morgan is haunted by intrusive visions and auditory hallucinations related to her family and her childhood best friend. Can Gerard help her figure out their meaning, even when her doctors have failed? The 10-minute “Life According to Swami Shiva” is a one-scene play with just two characters, a guru named Shiva and his student, Ella. Ella has been harboring deep sexual feelings for her guru; when she finally confesses them, she doesn’t get the response she expects.
Bejan’s plays grapple with the intersection of the political and the personal, examining the friction between the idealized fantasies that inform a person’s actions and the grim reality that often frustrates them. The playwright excels at finding ways to dramatize this conflict, as in “DISTRICTLAND,” when Maria, a young State Department employee growing tired of D.C., criticizes her naïve roommate Dave for the international focus of his “progressive leadership network happy hour”: “MARIA: My problem is that…you are totally ignoring the immediate issues here and now: poverty, education, health care, immigration—I could go on. DAVE: We are not ignoring them! MARIA: Well I didn’t hear a word about any of it at the drinks. DAVE: Read our website.” “DISTRICTLAND” is the strongest of the plays, mostly due to its large cast and free-wheeling, slice-of-life mini-scenes, one of which consists solely of a character singing an Ani DiFranco song to herself in its entirety. On the whole, however, the plays suffer from a tendency to be thematically on the nose, more developed in their political content than they are in their characters or plots. While talented actors could undoubtedly lend some gravitas to these roles, few moments leap off the page.
https://revistagolan.com/noi-nu-stim-sa-asteptam-jocul-cu-focul-romania-si-intelectualii-fascisti-in-interbelic/
31 MAI 2023 POSTAT DE: BEDROS HORASANGIAN
Observator Cultural (Romanian literary journal) Nr. 1147
Book review written in Romanian, reviewing the Romanian translation by Mădălina Mangalagiu of "Green Horses on the Walls" by Cristina A. Bejan (Editura Tracus Arte, 2022)
“Filled with visual & narrative streaks, her poems illustrate figments of a life that was shaped by immigration, separation, communism, trauma, while constantly negotiating the much-needed space to find balance.“
#poetry #denverpoet #greenhorsesonthewalls #caiverzipepereți #claraburghelea #writingcommunity
Journal of the Society of Romanian Studies, Volume 4 (2022), Issue 2, Liverpool University Press
Access the journal here: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/id/115/volume/4/issue/6727
EXCERPTING POLICIES Please review Kirkus Media's excerpting policies before publishing any portion of this review online or in print for any use. To learn about proper attribution and to ensure your use is in compliance with our guidelines, we invite you to visit http://www.kirkusreviews.com/indieexcerpts.
Infrastructure (EHRI) selected seminar participant, Elie Wiesel Institute, Bucharest, Romania, February 18-22, 2019.