Research

My current research project, titled Giving in the Time of Socialism. Humanitarianism, Economic Life, and Mobility in the Global Postwar, uncovers the shadow existence of the Cold War's "private humanitarians": advocates of national minorities, members of emigre communities, church representatives, feminist networks, private donors, and ordinary people who forged clandestine supply conduits to one of Europe’s most authoritarian regimes, Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romania. This transnational history of charitable workers and volunteers in Austria, West Germany, East Germany, Hungary, and the United States that has remained untold, until now, investigates how economic and environmental crises became transformative moments of humanitarian action in Eastern Europe and beyond.
My research exemplifies what I seek to convey in the classroom: that the mobility of people, ideas, and materials across cultural and geographic space is often indicative of broader world historical processes, some of which resonate in the present. In this spirit, my research contributes new insights to some of the most vexing debates in current global and area studies. It scrutinizes the impact of globalization on the socialist societies of Eastern Europe prior to the economic restructuring of the region through “shock therapy” in the 1990s. It explores how private humanitarians operated under socialism outside of, and indeed as a makeshift to, the dwindling socialist welfare state since the late 1970s. And it investigates the broader effects of neoliberalism on socialism by exploring the relationship between austerity economics, social unrest, and regime collapse in Romania in 1989.

I received support for my research through national grants from the American Historical Association, the Association for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies, the Central European History Society, the Fulbright Commission, the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C., the Social Science Research Council, and various research centers at the University of Michigan.

Research Highlights

My newest article "Migrants into Humanitarians: Ethnic Solidarity and Private Aid-Giving during Romania’s Historic Flood of 1970" appeared in the interdisciplinary journal East European Politics and Societies (EEPS).
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| Abstract
This article studies the involvement of Western diaspora communities of Transylvanian Saxons in the humanitarian campaign for Romania during the flood disaster in 1970. It shows how the Saxons’ private relief campaigns established new forms of connectivity and exchange across the Iron Curtain through a transnational regime of care, ethnic solidarity, and charitable work. The article argues that the contingent and precarious situation of such spatially divided ethnic communities refashioned a generation of World War II refugees and migrants from "speechless" objects of humanitarian intervention into passionate advocates, effective mediators, and surprising champions of private aid giving in postwar Europe.
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| Keywords 
​Natural Disasters, Socialist Period, Humanitarianism, Migrant Networks, Romania

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2020 | "Migrants into Humanitarians: Ethnic Solidarity and Private Aid-Giving during Romania’s Historic Flood of 1970," in East European Politics and Societies (online first, June 2020).

2018 | "Continuing Politics by Other Means: Giving in Cold War Europe," International Journal of History, Culture and Modernity 6:1 (2018), 105-133.

Commentaries and Pieces in Public Media

2021 | "Moving Forward in 2021: A Guide to Depolarizing America," with Arash Javanbakht, in Psychology Today (January 4, 2021).

2020 | "Lethargic Global Response to COVID-19: How the Human Brain’s Failure to Assess Abstract Threats Cost Us Dearly," with Arash Javanbakht, The Conversation (April 27, 2020).

2019 | "Segélyszállítók össztűzben" (“Aid Workers under Fire”), interview for TV Romania documentary (December 17, 2019).

2018 | "Poor People Die Younger in the U.S. That Skews American Politics," with Javier Rodríguez, The Washington Post (May 31, 2018).

2018 | "Zu arm für die Wahl," interview with Stefan Beutelsbacher from Die Welt (May 14, 2018), 11. This article also appeared online: "Verfrühter Tod armer Amerikaner als ein Grund für geringe US-Wahlbeteiligung," in Die Welt (May 14, 2018).

2014 | "Do U.S. Colleges Have Something to Learn from German Tuition Policy?," interview with Rachel Premack from The Michigan Daily 124:23 (November 05, 2014), 6B.

Organizer Conferences and Panels

2020 | "Between Globalization and Deglobalization: Assessing the Relationship between the National and the Global in East-Central Europe," Panel Organizer, 134th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, New York, January 3-6, 2020. Co-Sponsored by the Central European History Society and the Society for Austrian and Habsburg History.   
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2019 | "Austerity and Anti-Austerity Beyond Capitalism," Conference Co-Organizer, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, September 13-14, 2019.
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2017| "Contradictions of Late Socialism: Food, Housing, and Public Health in Romania and East Germany, 1970-1989," Panel Organizer, 49th Convention of the Association for Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, Chicago, November 9-12, 2017.

Webinars

2021 | Basit Kareem Iqbal, “Ambivalence and Askesis in Zaatari Refugee Camp” & China Scherz “Seeking the Wounds of the Gift:  Recipient Agency in Catholic Charity and Kiganda Patronage.” Webinar Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator, 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, February 18, 2021.

2021 | Amira Mittermaier, “God, Humans, and an Islamic Ethics of Care” & Sienna R. Craig, “From Earthquakes and Empowerments to Pandemics: Tibetan Medical Humanitarianisms.” Webinar Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator, 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, February 4, 2021.
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2021 | “Shifting the Gaze: Southern-led Humanitarian Responses to Displacement” by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh. Webinar Co-Organizer, 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, January 21, 2021.

2020 |"The Opposite of Humanity’: Anti-colonial Challenges to International Humanitarian Law” by Jessica Whyte & “Managing Migrants, Resettling Refugees” by Emma Meyer. Webinar Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator for 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, December 3, 2020.

2020 | “Provincializing the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees” by Pamela Ballinger &  “Humanitarian Rights and Palestinian Presence” by Ilana Feldman. Webinar Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator for 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, November 12, 2020.

2020 | “Sovereignty, Welcome, and Epistemic Hospitality” by Anne McNevin. Webinar Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator for 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, October 8, 2020.

Invited Talks

2019 | "Red Austerity: Authoritarianism and Shock Therapy in 1980s Romania," Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies Colloquium on Authoritarianism, University of Michigan, September 23, 2019.

2019 | "The Politics of Investigative Historical Research: How Historians Retrace Forgotten Narratives of Suffering and Inequality," Inequality and Policy Research Center, Institute for Democratic Renewal, Claremont Graduate University, May 3rd, 2019.

2016 | "Reconstructing the Liminal, Reassembling the Scattered: Archives of Everyday Life at OSA," Visegrad Scholarship Lecture Series, Open Society Archive, Budapest, June 27, 2016.

2014 | "Leben und Biopolitik: Menschenrechte und Humanitarismus im kommunistischen und post-kommunistischen Rumänien," Colloquium in Eastern European History, Department of History, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, July 24, 2014.

Professional Presentations

2020 | “When Europe’s East became its South: Exploring the Politics of Development and Humanitarianism in Post-socialist Romania,” Virtual 44th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, October 1-4, 2020.

2020 | "Doing Good in Globalizing Times: Private Humanitarianism in East-Central Europe," 134th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, New York, January 3-6, 2020.​ 
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2019 | "Austerity Socialism: Debt and Fiscal Discipline in Ceausescu’s Romania," Austerity and Austerity Beyond Capitalism Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, September 13-14, 2019.

2019 | "When Europe’s Middle Class(es) Discovered How to Do Good in the East," 61st Western Social Science Association Conference, San Diego, April 24-27, 2019.
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2019 | "Hungary’s Forgotten Refugee Crisis: About the Refashioning of 1980s Budapest into a Humanitarian Hub," Romanian Studies and Hungarian Studies Junior Scholar Conference, Indiana University, Bloomington, March 22-23, 2019.

2018 | "Neither Spies, Smugglers, nor Shopping Tourists: The Story of Private Humanitarians in Cold War Europe," 50th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, Boston, December 6-9, 2018.

​2018 | "Disastrous Seventies: Floods and Earthquakes in Socialist Romania at the Dawn of a New European Culture of Private Disaster Relief," 10th Romanian Studies Conference, Bucharest, June 26-30, 2018.

2017 | "From Austerity to the Unraveling of Socialism in Ceausescu's Romania," 49th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, Chicago, November 9-12, 2017.

2017 | "Frontiers of Confusion: Eastern European Border Regimes in Socialism," From Josef K to Lustration: Bureaucracy in Central Europe Conference, New York University, Prague, February 23-24, 2017.

2016 | "Impediments to Global Humanitarianism. The Case of Cold War Romania," 48th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, Washington, D.C., November 17-20, 2016.

2016 | "Humanitarianism in Socialism - Socialism in Humanitarianism. On the Practice of Giving in Late Cold War Europe," Everyday Humanitarianism: Ethics, Affects and Practices Conference, London School of Economics, London, April 14-15, 2016.

2016 | "Pakethilfen nach drüben’: West German Humanitarian Aid to Communist Romania, 1970s-1980s," Reconsidering the Political in Contemporary History: Social Practices and Material Cultures in Cold War Western Europe Conference, Humboldt University, Berlin, March 4-5, 2016.

2015 | "Mitigating the Effects and Legacies of Abortion Bans and Economic Austerity: Humanitarian Aid for Romania in the 1980s and 1990s," Community of Scholars Symposium, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, October 30, 2015.

2014 | "Challenging Power through the Power of Morals: The Role of Human Rights and Humanitarianism from Communism to Post-Communism in Romania," The Havighurst Center’s Annual Young Researchers Conference in Cooperation with SOYUZ, Miami University, Oxford, February 17-March 1, 2014.

2009 | "Transformare și Memorie în Istoriografia de Revoluție: România Dupǎ 20 de Ani de la Inceputul Democrației," International Symposium of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, West University of Timișoara, Romania, October 17-19, 2009.

Workshops

2021 | “Recentering the South in Studies of Migration” by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Co-Moderator, Virtual Workshop of the 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, January 15, 2021.

2020 | “The Evacuation of Burma and the Contours of Colonial Relief” by Emma Meyer and “The Dangerous Concept of the 'Just War’: Decolonization, Wars of National Liberation, and the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions” by Jessica Whyte, Co-Moderator, Virtual Workshop of the 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, December 4, 2020.

2020 |  “The World Refugees Made” by Pamela Ballinger and “Life Lived in Relief” by Ilana Feldman, Co-Moderator, Virtual Workshop of the 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, November 13, 2020.
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2020 | “Hospitality as a Horizon of Aspiration (or, What the International Refugee Regime Can Learn from Acehnese Fishermen)” by Anne McNevin, Moderator, Virtual Workshop of the 2020-2021 Mellon Sawyer Seminar Humanitarianisms, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington October 9, 2020.

2019 | “Socialism Under Water: Ethical Consumption, Natural Disasters, and Humanitarianism in Ceausescu’s Romania,” Presenter, European History Workshop, University of Michigan, November 3, 2019.

2015 | “The International 'Girl Trade' and Imperial Germany, 1880s-1914” by Stephanie Skier, Discussant, European History Workshop (EHW), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, February 12, 2015.

2014 | “Ordinary Solidarity: Humanitarian Aid for Communist and Post-Communist Romania,” Presenter, European History Workshop (EHW), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, December 3, 2014. 
© 2021 Cristian Capotescu
​Photo Credits Dimitris Michalakis