The Romanian anthropologist Vintilă Mihăilescu believed that anthropology is first and foremost a vocation, and only then a profession. He described it as the daily practice of not despising the other – a definition I strongly identify with. I’m interested in how the stories we tell about ourselves and one another can help us move beyond our bubbles and make more room for empathy and dialogue. I’m passionate about communities and about understanding how people can recognize and strengthen their own capacity to bring about change.

My interests include the anthropology of dwelling; the intersections of heritage, architecture, urban planning, and anthropology; and questions of memory and intellectual and social history. I value research that is accessible to a broad public and written in as human a language as possible. I see anthropology as a tool for social change – one that can bring the stories of invisible communities to light.

I pursued graduate studies at Central European University and the University of Bucharest. From 2011 to 2012, I was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Indiana University Bloomington. In 2020, I earned a PhD from the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Letters, in the Department of Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology, and Folklore. Drawing on social and intellectual history, ethnography, sociology, and autoethnography, my research focused on the intellectual biography of Mihai Pop, a pioneer of interdisciplinary work in Romania’s humanities and social sciences.