Biography

Doina Anca Cretu is a historian of modern Central and Eastern Europe. Topically, her research interests focus on humanitarianism, development, refugees, nationalism and national indifference, and the relationship between social policy, culture, and foreign relations.

Her project at the EUI will explore the establishment and transformation of refugee camps in Austria-Hungary, during the First World War. By linking state-wide decision making and local evidence, she will explore formal policies and effects in the creation of a system of refugee camps. Furthermore, she is particularly interested in refugees’ everyday lives in these spaces.

Anca holds a PhD (2018) in International History at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Her PhD project, titled ‘For the Sake of an Ideal: Romanian Nation-Building and American Foreign Assistance (1917-1940)’, explores the intersections and interactions between American humanitarian and philanthropic organizations and aspirations and practices of nation-building in Romania, during the Great War and in the interwar period. While at the EUI, she will further develop the monograph concept based on this research.

Anca has a BA from The College of William and Mary, USA (2011) and an MA in International History from the Graduate Institute, Geneva (2013). She also held visiting fellowships at Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna (2018-2019), University of Oxford (2017-2018), and the Graduate Center, City University of New York (2015-2016).