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Helsinki Romanian Studies Journal
No. 2 (2025)FOREWORD
The second issue of HEROS Journal offers a rich and diverse collection of articles exploring Romanian language, society, and culture from multiple, often intersecting perspectives. The contributions span a comparative examination of the codification and standardization of Romanian and Finnish, analyses of urban multilingualism in Timișoara (Romania), and reflections on the challenges of teaching Romanian as a foreign language in Serbia, all anchored in discussions of language history and dynamism. Further articles engage with contemporary themes such as the language of LGBTQ communities on Romanian social media, discourse networks and the transformation of Romanian journalism from print to digital formats, as well as diary discourse that frames memory as individual heritage. The hereby issue is further enriched by two book reviews: one examining a volume focused on endangered languages in Italy and the Balkans, and the other exploring the Security (Sigourantza) files of the renowned Romanian novelist Panait Istrati. Together, these studies offer fresh and thought-provoking insights while fostering dialogue between Romanian and broader linguistic and cultural contexts.
A part of the contributions included in this issue were first presented at the International Conference BORDERS – Romanian Across Borders: Identity, Migration, Culture, and Linguistic Change in the Romance Family, held at the University of Helsinki, Finland, on 5th‑6th May 2025. Organised in partnership with CoCoLaC (Comparing and Contrasting Languages and Cultures), the Romanian Language Institute (Bucharest, Romania), the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm (Sweden), Tekstin Talo (Helsinki), and Sivuvalo Platform, the conference created a vibrant space for scholarly exchange across disciplines and borders, all featuring Romanian studies.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the speakers and contributors who have honoured HEROS Journal with their invaluable work. We also extend our deepest appreciation to the peer reviewers for their thorough evaluations and insightful feedback, which have been essential in maintaining the academic rigor and integrity of this issue. Their dedication significantly contributes not only to the quality of the journal but also to the cultivation and strengthening of the HEROS community—a vibrant network of researchers committed to advancing Romanian Studies. It is our hope that this issue will provoke further reflection and foster meaningful dialogue amongst scholars, students, and readers engaged with the intricate relationships between language, identity, and culture.
The Editors
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Helsinki Romanian Studies Journal
No. 4 (2026)FOREWORD
As HEROS Journal enters its fourth issue, it continues to develop as a space for international scholarly dialogue dedicated to Romanian Studies. The contributions brought together in this volume reflect the breadth of contemporary research in the field, illustrating how Romanian language, literature, history, and culture continue to generate productive conversations across disciplines, methodologies, and academic traditions. In doing so, the journal reaffirms its commitment to promoting innovative research while strengthening the international community of scholars engaged with Romanian Studies.
Several contributions in this issue revisit historical and linguistic questions through innovative perspectives. Carmen Dura continues the research initiated in the previous issue of HEROS Journal with the second part of her detailed analysis of Johann Ignaz von Felbiger's eighteenth-century bilingual educational work, this time focusing on syntactic phenomena regarding the predicate, the predicative complement, and the verb's arguments. The volume further explores linguistic history through Adam Mikołaj Matuszczak’s investigation of Serbian influences on the vocabulary related to traditional culture and cuisine in the Banat Romanian dialect, illustrating the complex cultural and linguistic interactions that have shaped regional varieties of Romanian.
The issue also opens new directions of inquiry into literary, cultural, and contemporary social phenomena. Alexandra Olteanu examines the emergence and marketing of the historical novel as a literary genre in the nineteenth century, while Anamaria Radu and Alexandra Cotoc propose a thought-provoking exploration of artificial intelligence and Romanian cultural heritage through the concept of Eminescu’s AI doppelgänger. Cristina Hurdubaia’s ethnographic case study offers valuable insights into processes of self-cultivation and domestic reconfiguration in the context of Romanian migration, further expanding the journal’s interdisciplinary perspective.
The volume concludes with two book reviews that further enrich its intellectual and thematic scope. Brendan Humphreys offers a compelling discussion of Bruce Lincoln's Secrets, Lies, and Consequences: A Great Scholar's Hidden Past and His Protégé’s Unsolved Murder, an important and thought-provoking work that sheds new light on the life of the Romanian historian of religions Ioan Petru Culianu and the circumstances surrounding his unsolved murder. The issue closes with Nadia-Flaviana Albescu’s engaging review of Crina-Magdalena Zărnescu’s Delicatese cu spirit și savoare. Identități culturale și culinare, inviting readers into a delightful exploration of culinary traditions, cultural memory, and shared identities, and providing a fitting conclusion to a volume that celebrates the richness and diversity of Romanian Studies.
This issue also marks the beginning of a new institutional collaboration with the Romanian Language Lectureships at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Heidelberg University, initiated through the commemorative conference dedicated to Alexandru Cihac, organized at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in November 2025 to mark the bicentenary of the scholar’s birth. We are particularly grateful to Professors Anca Gâță and Romanița Constantinescu for this fruitful partnership, which will continue with the publication of the special fifth issue of HEROS Journal (December 2026), dedicated to the topic of etymology.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the authors who have entrusted HEROS Journal with their work and whose contributions continue to shape the journal’s academic profile. We are equally indebted to the peer reviewers, whose rigorous evaluations, thoughtful recommendations, and unwavering commitment to academic excellence ensure the quality and integrity of every issue. Their work remains essential not only to maintaining the journal's scholarly standards but also to strengthening the growing HEROS community as an international space of intellectual exchange, collegiality, and collaborative research.
We hope that this fourth issue will inspire further research, encourage new interdisciplinary collaborations, and continue to foster meaningful dialogue across disciplines and national academic traditions, further consolidating HEROS Journal as an international forum for Romanian Studies.
The Editors
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Helsinki Romanian Studies Journal
No. 1 (2024)FOREWORD
The Lectureship in Romanian Language and Culture at the University of Helsinki (the Faculty of Arts, the Department of Languages), in collaboration with the University of Helsinki Library, and the Romanian Language Institute in Bucharest, is honored to present the inaugural issue of HEROS Journal (Helsinki Romanian Studies Journal). This publication is dedicated to fostering Romanian Studies and aims to establish a dynamic platform for scholarly dialogue. It seeks to engage both experienced academics and emerging researchers, while continuing the editorial legacy of the Finnish Journal for Romanian Studies (2015–2018), previously published by the University of Turku.
As a young and ambitious academic journal, HEROS aspires to promote rigorous intellectual exchange across a broad spectrum of topics within Romanian Studies. Emphasizing interdisciplinarity and inclusivity, the journal welcomes research articles that go beyond traditional fields such as Romanian language, literature, and cultural studies, and embrace diverse disciplines and methodologies.
The current issue features a rich selection of articles addressing topics ranging from Romanian philosophy, history, and society, to language, culture, literature, and cinema. These contributions offer fresh, thought-provoking perspectives and foster dialogue between Romanian and other linguistic and cultural contexts.
We extend our deepest gratitude to the contributors for their valuable insights and original research, and to the peer reviewers for their meticulous evaluations and critical contributions to the quality of this issue. Their dedication not only ensures the journal's academic rigor but also plays a vital role in building and strengthening the HEROS community of researchers committed to advancing the field of Romanian Studies.
The Editors
Online ISSN 2984-5068
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Helsinki Romanian Studies Journal
No. 3 (2025)FOREWORD
The third issue of HEROS Journal continues the journal’s commitment to exploring Romanian language, literature, and culture through a plurality of scholarly lenses and disciplinary approaches. The present volume brings together contributions that span historical inquiry, literary and cultural analysis, translation studies, linguistics, and language pedagogy, highlighting both diachronic depth and contemporary relevance within Romanian Studies and beyond.
Several articles in this issue engage with historical and cultural foundations, offering new perspectives on formative moments and texts. From the cultural and morphological analysis of Johann Ignaz von Felbiger’s eighteenth-century bilingual educational work, to a socio-cultural examination of the emergence of modern Romanian theatre, the volume foregrounds the role of language, performance, and translation in shaping cultural identities. Other contributions address literary imaginaries and intertextual dialogues, such as the comparative exploration of mythological typologies in the fantasy worlds of Michael Ende and Răzvan Rădulescu, or the linguistic and translational analysis of verbal periphrases in Bacoviana by Mircea Cărtărescu.
The issue also reflects the journal’s strong interest in multilingualism and language in use. Articles devoted to plurilingual approaches in teaching Romanian as a foreign language and to the translation of Romanian literary structures into other languages underscore the journal’s engagement with applied linguistics, pedagogy, and cross-cultural mediation. At the same time, the volume addresses pressing contemporary cultural debates, notably through a critical examination of the controversies surrounding manele in Romania, situated at the intersection of marginality, politics of taste, and cultural industries.
The volume is further enriched by three book reviews that broaden its intellectual and thematic scope. These include a perceptive and inspiring review of a recent biography of Emil Cioran, offering a nuanced insight into the thinker’s life and intellectual legacy; a rigorous analysis of a volume devoted to Nadia Comăneci, read through the lens of surveillance and control during the Ceaușescu regime; and an informed assessment of a textbook for teaching Romanian as a foreign language, which highlights both its pedagogical coherence and its practical value. Together, these reviews contribute substantively to debates on intellectual history, memory and power, and contemporary language pedagogy.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the authors who have entrusted HEROS Journal with their work and whose contributions meet the high scholarly standards upheld by the journal. We are equally indebted to the peer reviewers, whose rigorous evaluations, careful attention to academic integrity, and constructive feedback have been essential in ensuring the quality, originality, and reliability of this issue. Their commitment plays a decisive role in maintaining the journal’s academic credibility and in strengthening the HEROS community as a space of excellence, responsibility, and scholarly dialogue. We hope that this third issue will inspire further research and foster meaningful conversations among scholars, students, and readers engaged with the intersections of language, literature, history, and culture.
The Editors
