Historian Ioan-Aurel Pop is the new president of the Romanian Academy following a vote of the body’s general assembly.

The other two contenders for the position were Bogdan Simionescu, one of the four current vice-presidents of the Academy, and Victor Voicu, the secretary general of the body.

Pop was elected for a four-year mandate. He can hold the president position only two times. The elections for the Academy’s vice-presidents and secretary general are scheduled for April 20.

The 63 year old Pop is the rector of the Babeş Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. He has been an invited professor at the Pittsburgh University (U.S.), INALCO in Paris, the University of Trento and the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. Between 1994 and 1995 he was the director of the Romanian Cultural Center in New York, and between 2003 and 2007 the director of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanities Research in Venice. He has been a full member of the Romanian Academy, in the Historical Sciences and Archeology section, since 2010. Pop authored over 50 books, historical editions, treaties and university textbooks and over 300 studies and articles.

Among the distinctions he holds are: the Cavalier of Cultural Merit Order of the Romanian President (2010), the Cavalier of the Palmes Academiques Order of the French Republic (2016), and the Commander of Italy’s Star of the Italian Republic (2016).

Upon taking the new job, Pop spoke of the need to re-establish a dialogue between the Romanian Academy and its European counterparts, and of the need to rebuilt the trust in the institution of the Academy.

(Photo: Festivalul Internaţional de Carte Transilvania Facebook Page)

editor@romania-insider.com