Dr Doina Anca Cretu
Assistant Professor in Modern European History
Director of Final Year Studies and Dissertations Coordinator
Office: FAB 3.38 (third floor, Faculty of Arts Building)
Email: anca.cretu@warwick.ac.uk
Office Hours (through appointment via email): Wednesdays, 11:00-12:00 (Teams or in person); Thursdays, 15:00-16:00 (in person)
ACADEMIC PROFILE
2024-: Assistant Professor in Modern European History, University of 糖心TV, UK
2023-2024: Visiting Lecturer, University of Vienna
2020-2024: Research Associate, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic (part of European Research Council Consolidator Grant "Unlikely Refuge? Refugees and Citizens in East-Central Europe during the Twentieth Century")
2019-2020: Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
2013-2018: PhD in International History and Politics, Graduate Institute Geneva, Switzerland
RESEARCH
I am a historian of modern Europe, working at the intersection of history of east-central Europe and international history. Thematically, my research centers on history of humanitarianism, history of development, and history of migration (esp. history of refugees). My first monograph, (Stanford University Press, 2024) looks at the case of Romania to explore ways national agendas of state making shaped trajectories of international humanitarianism and philanthropy in post-imperial east-central Europe.
My ongoing research delves into aspects of history of refugees in imperial and post-imperial east-central Europe more generally. I argue in this project that it was in Austria-Hungary and in the era of the First World War where and when a modern refugee regime emerged. The project follows three intertwining frameworks of analysis: (1) state policy making and formal agendas of refugee-oriented governance; (2) local, national, and transnational forms of humanitarian mobilization for refugees; (3) refugees' own experiences and subjectivities. This work stems from research undertaken in the framework of the Relatedly, I am co-editing (with Michal Frankl, "UnRef" Principal Investigator) a volume titled Humanitarian Mobilisation in East-Central Europe: Local, National, and International Perspectives (forthcoming with Manchester University Press).
TEACHING
Convened Modules
The Displaced: Refugees in Modern Europe (1914-2015) (HI2L1)
Radical Politics and the Struggle for Democracy in Europe, 1918-1939 (HI276)
Various Lectures
Making of the Modern World (HI153)
Farewell to Arms? War in Modern European History, 1815-2015 (HI718)
Themes in Modern History (HI998)
Themes & Approaches to the Historical Study of Gender & Sexuality (HI996)
SUPERVISION
I welcome students interested in working on history of humanitarianism, history of development, history of (forced) migration, modern east-central Europe.
PUBLICATIONS
Monograph
Foreign Aid and State Building in Interwar Romania: In Quest of an Ideal (Stanford University Press, 2024)
Edited Volume
Humanitarian Mobilisation in East-Central Europe during the Twentieth Century: Local, National, and International Perspectives (co-edited with Michal Frankl; Manchester University Press, 2025)
Articles
- 鈥淲ar is destructive, but it reconstructs anew鈥:鈥 Refugee Education and State Consolidation in Imperial Austria during the First World War,鈥 Nationalities Papers, Special Issue: 鈥淣ation Building and the Habsburg Empire鈥 (31 October 2024), 1-17.
- 鈥 The American Red Cross and Visions of Rebuilding of the Balkans after the First World War,鈥 Zeitgeschichte, Issue 3, Vol. 51, Special Issue: 鈥淭o Help or Not to Help-Humanitarianism in the 20th Century鈥 (2024), 313-333.
- 鈥淐hildhood, Experience, Encampment: The Case of Italian-Speaking Refugees in Austria-Hungary during the First World War,鈥 Journal of Contemporary History (13 June 2024), 1-19.
- 鈥淐hild Assistance and the Making of Modern Refugee Camps in Austria-Hungary during the First World War,鈥 Central European History, Vol. 55, Issue 4 (December 2022), 510-527.
- 鈥淭he Nationalization of International Relief: Romanian Responses to American Aid for Children in the Great War Era,鈥 European Review of History: Revue europ茅ene d鈥檋istoire, Vol. 27, No.4 (2020), 527-547
- 鈥淗ealth, Disease, Mortality; Demographic Effects,鈥 International Encyclopedia of the First World War, 1914-1918 Online (17 November 2020).
- 鈥淗umanitarian Aid in the 鈥淏ulwark Against Bolshevism:鈥 The American Relief Administration and the Quest for Sovereignty in Post-World War I Romania,鈥 Journal of Romanian Studies, Vol. 1, No.2 (October 2019), 65-88.
Chapters
- "Securitized Protection: Health Work and the Making of Refugee Camps in Wartime Austria-Hungary," in Out of Line, Out of Place: A Global and Local History of World War I Internments, eds. Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov (Cornell University Press, 2022), 73-91.
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鈥淔or The 鈥淵outh of The Great Nation:鈥 The American YMCA and Nation-Building in Greater Romania in the Interwar Period," in Spreading Protestant Modernity: Global Perspectives on the Social Work of YMCA and YWCA, 1889-1970, eds. Harald Fischer-Tin茅, Stefan H眉bner, Ian Tyrrell (University of Hawaii Press, 2021), 160-190.
Podcasts: , ,
Other Publications (Selection)
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"Ebbs and Flows of International Aid and the Model of Interwar Eastern Europe: An Experimental Reflection," Current Affairs, Pierre Du Bois Foundation, October 2025.
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鈥淩omania: Histories of Refugee Reception,鈥 Current Affairs, Pierre Du Bois Foundation, July 2022.
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鈥淯kraine鈥檚 Refugees and the Muddy Waters of Humanitarian Aid: Some Early Thoughts,鈥 New Fascism Syllabus Blog, 3 April 2022.
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Collaborator 鈥淓xperience of Epidemics Podcast,鈥 Episode 13: The World War, refugees, and the long history of epidemics, 9 November 2021.
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鈥淎 Regime of Immobility,鈥 History Workshop Journal, 10 May 2021.
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鈥淓pidemics and Europe鈥檚 Refugee Camps: A Tale of Two Eras,鈥 Current Affairs, Pierre Du Bois Foundation, December 2020.
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鈥淭he Irony of Triumph: The Muddled Commemorations of Romania's Great Unification,鈥 Current Affairs, Pierre Du Bois Foundation, November 2018.