The National Congress of Romanian Historians, which is convened every two years, has the following schedule: Cluj-Napoca – 2016, Iasi – 2018, Alba-Iulia – 2022, Chisinau – Suceava – 2024. In Chisinau, the meeting will take place on August 28 at the Palace of the Republic and later, by sections, at the Moldova State University. On August 29 and 30, the scientific sessions of the Congress will continue in Romania, at “Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava. This scientific meeting will be attended by illustrious figures of the historical science, renowned teachers and researchers, about 500 representatives of the most prestigious pre-university, university and academic institutions of the Republic of Moldova, Romania and other countries. The participants in IPN’s public debate “National Congress of Romanian Historians, 4th edition, Chisinau-Suceava” discussed the event, the problems faced by national historiography, as well as the development of cross-border education between the Republic of Moldova and Romania.

Moldova State University rector Igor Sharov said that this Congress takes place in Chisinau for the first time and the number of participants will be very large. “Enormous organizational work was done. We will be warmly welcoming the participants starting with August 26-27. I’m glad about this symbiosis because this Congress takes place between two crucial events for the Republic of Moldova. on the one hand – Independence Day on August 27, on the other hand August 31 – the proclamation of the Romanian language as the official language and the return to the Latin script. Bookfest will take place in parallel. All the more, this year is a different one given that the Republic of Moldova was in the center of attention at Bookfest in Romania,” noted the rector.

Igor Sharov also said that the fourth edition of the National Congress of Romanian Historians is opened at the Palace of the Republic on August 28. “I take this opportunity to invite, including the guild of historians from the Republic of Moldova, history teachers, researchers to participate in the opening of this event. We will be honored by the participation in this event of representatives of the President’s Offices and the Parliaments of the two states. From 09:00 a.m. until 12 noon, the plenary session will be held and representatives of the academies of sciences of the two countries, officials and others will give speeches during it. From 01:00 until 06:00, workshops by multiple sections with very interesting communications will take place. On August 29, the opening will be held in Suceava,” stated the rector.

Ștefan Purici, vice-rector of “Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, said that the National Committee of Romanian Historians decided to organize the congress in two old cities of Moldova – Suceava and Chisinau. “So, we decided that part of the work of the Congress will take place at “Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava. Between the two universities, in fact, there is a long-term partnership. We have partnerships at various levels – teaching, research, and Erasmus mobility. Within this project, we are organizing a particularly important event for the community of Romanian historians from Romania and from abroad, historians who will participate directly in this Congress,” stated the vice-rector.

According to him, the official opening in Chisinau will be followed by the opening at “Ștefan cel Mare” University. There, the event will take place according to the same program – the plenary session with multiple communications from reputable specialists and then, in the second part of the day, there will be meetings by sections where specialists in different issues and fields will discuss the most important aspects of the Romanian and universal past. “It is practically a unique opportunity to bring together researchers who study the past in the same place to discuss important issues. Of course, specialists in this field know each other, but we do not always have this opportunity to debate, to analyze, to come up with ideas and proposals related to the development of the historical science – together, regardless of age, the university center or research institute to which we belong. It is also an opportunity to analyze the status of history in school and university curricula. It is a possibility to confer on new strategies or methods and tools that a teacher can use in the teaching of history. It is an opportunity to discuss with young researchers the problems that concern them, access to research infrastructure, funding and joint projects,” said Ștefan Purici.

Silvia Corlăteanu-Granciuc, scientific secretary of the Institute of History of the Moldova State University, said that the range of topics that will be discussed at the Congress is a wide one and covers a multitude of questions that concern the historians. From all the proposals collected by the organizers, the most important ones are selected and the specialists in those issues then propose their themes. “For example, at the current Chisinau-Suceava Congress, more than 50 section titles were proposed. As a result of selection, 42 section titles were chosen, with two roundtables, with an enormous number of book launches. And these topics are very broad. Of course, these are the most important topics. They are topics that were not discussed at the previous congresses, etc.” stated Silvia Corlăteanu-Granciuc.

In her opinion, it is interesting and nice that this Congress is attended by the titans of Romanian historiography, who come with the results of their work. The event will involve established researchers and developing researchers who come up with innovative ideas, especially since in recent years, access to Romanian and international archives on Romanian history topics have become somewhat more open. “These are themes that have not been interpreted or dealt with within previous research. And these congresses become a propitious framework for new discussions, new reassessments and new interpretations of history. Moreover, I want to emphasize that the themes start with the oldest periods, with archaeology, with the medieval period, with the modern period, with subjects regarding the formation of nations or the same identity problem, up to contemporaneity,” said Silvia Corlăteanu-Granciuc.

Gina Necula, dean of the Cross-Border Faculty of the “Lower Danube” University of Galati, said that history is written through partnerships with counterparts from the Republic of Moldova. She has contributed to this process since 2000, when she started teaching at the Cross-Border Faculty, since 2015, when she became vice-dean, then dean and director of the department and from other positions she held. The faculty also hosts a magazine on the pages of which professors from the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, Taraclia and other regions of the Republic of Moldova have written. “As I said, I think that’s what we’re doing – we’re writing history because we’re close to each other, because we’re trying to maintain the Romanian spirit – the need to remain ourselves in a sea of globalist tendencies. As proof that we are close, although in related fields, but still there, since 2015 we had coordinated together with representatives of the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Moldova, a project that referred to the integrated teaching of the Romanian language and contents, within which we had history teachers as a trainable audience as well”, explained the dean.

According to her, this year the discussion with the Ministry of Education was resumed and groups of teachers, including history teachers, are to be created to specialize in the integrated teaching of language and content. “And this is because our mission has always been this – to support teachers in basing their teaching approach on Romanian too, not only, as you know, for Gagauzia, Taraclia in Russian or other minority languages. In everything that is related to identity issues, linguistic, communication or ethnic barriers, they have always been the subjects of the projects we carried out, which are financed including by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova,” said Gina Necula.

The public debate entitled “National Congress of Romanian Historians, fourth edition, Chisinau-Suceava” was the 19th installment of the project “Double integration through cooperation and information. Continuity”, funded by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova. The content of this debate does not represent the official position of the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova.