BrainMap

Mr. Cosmin Borza

Scientific Researcher

Researcher - ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ

Other affiliations

Researcher, Teaching Associate - UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Researcher | Teaching staff | Scientific reviewer

Web of Science ResearcherID: ITT-8328-2023

Curriculum Vitae (19/02/2026)

Expertise & keywords

A Global History of Romanian Comparatism: A Case Study in Inter-Imperial Comparative Literature (1877-1944) Call name:
PNRR-III-C9-2023-I8 CF 22/27.07.2023 2024 - 2025

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Project website: https://glorc.org/

Abstract:

The project titled A Global History of Romanian Comparatism: A Case Study in Inter-Imperial Comparative Literature (1877-1944) (GloRC) intervenes in the current international debates on the birth of the discipline by uncovering an overlooked tradition of comparatism, anchored in the East-Central European context. Framed by World-Systems analysis, decolonial an inter-imperial concepts, rather than by the Weltliteratur utopianism infused in recent World Literature Studies, GloRC traces a new genealogy of the comparative methods employed in the late 19th-early 20th century territories of todayʼs Romania. The main aim of the project is to establish an archive of Romanian comparatist contributions which have not been previously acknowledged due to narrow disciplinary, national and Eurocentric constraints. Our projects explores the historical, existential, and political conditions that shaped the multilingual, polycentric and interdisciplinary dimension of early Romanian comparatism by pursuing the following lines of inquiry: (a) inter-peripheral intersections between Romanian comparatism and the comparatist tradition of other Eastern, Northern and Southern European regions, (b) the intellectual projects that capitalized on the legacy of the Eurasian empires, and (c) the dynamic between various ethnocentric nation-building projects and their vested decolonial investments.

The Novel of Memory in Post-communism: Sub-genres, Generations, Transnational Networks Call name: P 1 - SP 1.1 - Proiecte de cercetare pentru stimularea tinerelor echipe independente - TE-2021
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2021-1429 2022 - 2024

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: http://www.novelofmemory.eu

Abstract:

The project offers the first sistematic, qualitative and quantitative research on the novel of memory in post-communist Romania, by employing recent theories and methodologies from literary studies (Morettian quantitative analysis, literary formalism, world literature studies), on the one hand, and memory studies, on the other. The research has a theoretical and comparative dimension, as it aims at defining and analysing the novel of memory not only in the Romanian post-communist context, but also in a larger, global context, by using as a term of comparison novels of memory from East-Central Europe and from other national literatures (the Spanish post-Franco era novel) and the postcolonial space. The very notion of „novel of memory” is for the first time minutely defined and widely exemplified, using a corpus of 100 novels in the post-communist context. MEMORO will contribute to scientific progress through its scalar model, and impact will be assessed on the basis of the national-global dialectics. The transfer of theory and its „localization” will make the Romanian memory novel internationally relevant, as it will complete the global template with a case study, until now absent from the literature on the genre, thereby encouraging new transnational comparative approaches.

The Migrant Experience in Post-Communist Romanian Literature. Discourses, Representations, Identity (Re)Construction Call name: P 1 - SP 1.1 - Proiecte de cercetare pentru stimularea tinerelor echipe independente - TE-2021
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2021-1207 2022 - 2024

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://sites.google.com/view/migralit/

Abstract:

This project attempts to analyze the depictions of migration abroad in

post-1990 Romanian literature, within the social-economic contexts of

this ample process, and taking into account the connections between

the literary discourse, and the media or political discourses that shape

the public perception of the phenomenon. The research focuses on the

consequences of post-communist migration - which Romanian writers

either experiment directly, or fictionalize through sociological

observations - on the(re)construction of personal and community

identities. Some of the basic topics of this investigation regard the

problem of the cultural memory, the often conflicting relation with the

communist past, or the ambivalent attitude toward both transition,

and its Western point of reference. By situating the debate in the

larger, but very specific context of the cultural developments from the

former Soviet bloc, the project sets a major goal in assessing how

Romanian fiction mirrors those bonds with the homeland that remain

stronger than elsewhere in post-communist cultures, even while they

are affected by mass migration. This typically Eastern European

mindset enables us to challenge certain Western theories which

propose a celebratory, generalized view of contemporary nomadism,

hybridity or post-national identities.

WORLDING (SEMI)PERIPHERAL LITERATURES. A SYSTEMS ANALYSIS Call name: P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie, 2020
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2006 2021 - 2023

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: http://www.wor-per.com/

Abstract:

WorPer attempts to develop a systemic analysis of the legitimation mechanisms and evolution paths by which (semi)peripheral literary cultures not only influence and transform the central ones, but also undermine the privileged position of the latter within the global literary field. The main aim of our project is to forge the specific conceptual frameworks and analytical methods able to overcome the theoretical impasse that still impinges on current World Literature approaches, which have only explained the relation centre-periphery in one-sided terms of cultural diffusionism or synchronization. At the same time, by resorting to the interdisciplinary interpretive paradigms and investigative tools provided by the polysystem theory, the new pragmatic sociology or quantitative studies, which are especially relevant to map the circuits of translations and genres, this project sets two basic goals: (1) to explore the concrete processes by which (semi)peripheral literatures become internationally recognised (through the so-called phenomenon of ”worlding”), and (2) to map the possible subfields of ”worlded” (semi)peripheral literatures. For these reasons, our research has the potential to provide the largest conceptual and analytic map of literary phenomena so far that could bring to the fore and account for the often neglected local identities, but also enable a deep understanding of the transnational networks underlying the global modernity.

Rural Modernism. Romanian Literature as East-Central European Literature Call name: P 1 - SP 1.1 - Proiecte de cercetare pentru stimularea tinerelor echipe independente
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-1378 2020 - 2022

Role in this project: Project coordinator

Coordinating institution: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ

Project partners: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Affiliation: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Project website: http://inst-puscariu.ro/modernismrural/index.html

Abstract:

The present project aims at critically reassessing the most consistent and influential approaches of Romanian modernism, as well as that of Romanian rural literature, by drawing a connection to corresponding debates unfolding in other East-Central European cultural milieus. The project’s main objective thus consists in a revamping of the scientific approaches and methodology formerly used in similar projects, an improvement consisting in the radical leap from perceiving Romanian culture as constantly striving to produce a mirror image of Western models to defining it as one among several East-Central European cultures, following a unique pattern of modernization, highly indebted to regional routes of mutual influence, exchanges, socio-economic and ideological-political frictions. Building upon contemporary theories defining modernity as “combined and uneven development”, the project testifies to the crucial role held by rural literature in the formation of East-Central European modernism (the region being preponderantly agrarian during the entire 20th century). The project will invoke a series of comparative studies engaging rural literary phenomena, formulas and (sub)genres, as well as several authors representative for East-Central European cultural spaces, in order to illustrate how subject matters, narrative strategies and literary techniques widely accepted as “modernist”, when employed in rural poetry and prose, succeed in challenging canonical Western narratives regarding modern society. In conclusion, the project strives to dissociate rurality both from its idealized embodiments (that tend to ignite heated nationalist mysticism), as well from its belittling renditions (through which inferiority complexes concerning cultural backwardness are voiced), instead pleading for an understanding of Romanian and East-Central European rural literature as a privileged space, able to reflect and likewise deflect the challenges and dilemmas of the modern world.

The Role of the Translated Novel in the Romanian Literary System. A Quantitative Approach Call name: P 1 - SP 1.1 - Proiecte de cercetare pentru stimularea tinerelor echipe independente
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0946 2020 - 2022

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Project website: https://trans-rom.com/

Abstract:

In the aftermath of the theoretical premises of recent disciplines like Translation Studies and World Literature Studies, the project aims at exploring the development of the Romanian novel through the lens of translation. The project employs the experimental methodology of Quantitative Studies (distant reading, macroanalysis, digital analysis) in the first systemic attempt to prove their functionality on Romanian literature. Its premises openly dissmiss organicist literary histories that have long ignored the importance of the system of translations for the dynamcs of national literary spaces, as well as comparative approaches that reduce the interacton between cultures to a limited number of privileged cases. Challenging these traditional practices, our project puts forward a systemic approach to the Romanian novel, starting from the assumption that, rather than playing a secondary role in the growing of national cultures, translations have been a major source of revolution in the literary field. Using quantitative methods derived from Franco Moretti’s “distant reading” to instrument important literary data bases recently made available in Romania, the project examines the impact of translations on the Romanian novel in various historical contexts: the investigaton of the selection principles behind the translation of novels; the affinities with certain literary cultures; the functions of translations within the literary system (innovatory/conservative; didactic/informative/aesthetic/political); the contribution of translations to new themes and techniques of the novel; the proliferation of translations by certain subgenres; the resistance of the Romanian literary system to certain forms or genres. Our project looks at translation as a crucial mechanism of global culture and pleads for a translational model of investigating national cultures.

The Encyclopedia of Romanian Imaginaries. Historical Patrimony and Cultural-Linguistic Identities Call name: P 1 - SP 1.2 - Proiecte complexe realizate in consorții CDI
PN-III-P1-1.2-PCCDI-2017-0326 2018 - 2021

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO); ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO); UNIVERSITATEA NATIONALA DE ARTE DIN BUCURESTI (RO)

Affiliation: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Project website: http://romimag.granturi.ubbcluj.ro/

Abstract:

The project The Encyclopedia of Romanian Imaginaries. Historical Patrimony and Cultural-Linguistic Identities (ROMIMAG) aims to produce a knowledge base and a five-volume Encyclopaedia, providing a synoptic perspective on the cultural inheritance and spiritual identities of Romania. However, it would be impossible to tackle cultural identities without a thorough analysis of the collective imagination. Guided by the powerful and innovative concept of social and cultural imaginaries, along with other key concepts such as semantic basin, linguistic field, constellations of images, fractal identity, ROMIMAG will use multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary methodologies for analyzing the main domains of Romanian collective representations. It will feature 5 scientific work packages, covering the following fields: Romania’s Linguistic Patrimony; Literary Imaginaries; Historical Representations; Religious Imaginaries; Artistic Imaginaries and Patrimony. Within a two-year calendar, each work package will feature about 20 contributors, who will produce 20 articles presenting the main cultural basins covered by their volume, and 2 patents. This database will be published online (an interactive site, designed as an “electronic hive”) and in print (a five-volume Encyclopedia, published by Polirom, Iași). ROMIMAG targets different categories of public: educated (writers, artists, musicians, theatre and movie directors, linguists, editors, media specialists, curators), broad (pupils, students, general readership) and institutional (media studios, advertising and tourism companies, leaders and policy makers from the administration and governance levels). This panoramic image of the cultural and spiritual patrimony of Romania will offer, within the frame of European interculturalism, a better understanding of national, but also of local and group identities, which could prevent latent tensions and social violence from erupting and allow the configuration of a collaborative climate.

Mapping Anticommunism. Cultural Policies and Community Memory in Historical Narratives of Romanian Film and Literature (1990-2006) Call name:
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2016-0541 2018 - 2020

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Project website:

Abstract:

FILE DESCRIPTION	DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects