Voiculescu Cerasela

Name: Voiculescu Cerasela
Address: Edinburgh UK EH8 9LD
Email: Cera.Voiculescu@ed.ac.uk, Voiculescu.Cerasela@ed-alumni.net
Research Interests: Transnational Neoliberal Governmentality, Political philosophy, Foucault and Deleuze Studies, Gramsci and Marxist Theory, Bureaucratic Power, Hegemonic Processes, Transnational Governance and Civil Society, Global Citizenship, Sovereignty, Poststructuralist Philosophy, Critical Social and Political Theory, Epistemic violence, Symbolic violence, Power and Subjectivation, Power and Space, Poststructuralist Geography, David Harvey and Noam Chomsky, Karl Polanyi and Charles Tilly, Etienne Balibar, Alain Badiou, Nikolas Rose, Mitchell Dean, Foucault's Governmnentalized State, Deleuze's State Apparatus of Capture
URL: http://www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/people/recent_graduates/voiculescu_cerasela

Education and qualifications

2013 Doctor of Philosophy, Sociology, University of Edinburgh (officially awarded in November), College of Humanities Awards, Full Studentship

2006-2007 Theory Focused Master in Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Budapest, (Central European Elite School, English Program accredited by the New York State University, USA ), Full Scholarship - http://sociology.ceu.hu

2002–2004 MA in Social Anthropology and Community Development, The National School of Political and Administrative Sciences, Bucharest.

2003 Umea University,Sociology, Sweden, Erasmus Exchance Program

2002–2004 MA in Communication and Public Opinion, The University of Bucharest. 1998-2002 BA in Sociology, The University of Bucharest.

Intro

I have 12 years of research experience in applied qualitative sociology/research, working directly with communities, especially with the Roma, in development projects ( google scholar and full CV on academia edu). For all those who have never done fieldwork and worked directly with the unrepresented (those considered 'marginal' and 'poor') would be inspiring to read my blog about organic public sociology and critical reflexive sociology:

http://criticalsocialthinking.blogspot.co.uk/

Also, for a glimpse of my current theoretical interests/discussions/lectures/full CV please see my academia edu profile https://edinburgh.academia.edu/CeraselaVoiculescu/Posts

and my incipient blogging on political philosophy http://politicalphilosophicalthought.wordpress.com

Completed PhD Thesis ( With Great Honor and Praise!)

In my PhD research I develop a new analytical framework for the study of relational power by looking at Roma spatial and historical relations with significant Other(s) (state, economic and political actors etc.), from socialism to post-socialism, within and across multiple and overlapping spaces of power (politics, economy, religion, state). The new methodological- cum-theoretical framework can be used in social research to challenge transnational neoliberal problematizations of governance , outcomes and operations which mainly follow an economic rationality and produce dis-empowerment and preservation of the status-quo. The new analytic of power creates fundamentals for a comprehensive, almost holistic historical study of power relations and contexts, which can be used further as a methodological basis for a genuine reflexive governance and governmentality. The study brings altogether post-structuralist and Marxist approaches, history and geography, time and space in a new concept : Historical Geographies of Power.

PhD supervisors: Angus Bancroft and Jonathan Hearn

Current Academic Activities

Since October 2013 I am an Active Member of the Social Theory Reading Goup,  organized by Steve Kemp (Lecturer in Sociology) and LeonidasTsilipakos (Postdoctoral Felllow) at the University of Edinburgh. I would like to thank both of them for such an inspired intitative and for all the amazing theoretical discussions we had so far.  

I terms of academic job applications in less than one year I had  7 interviews/shortlistings for academic positions (teaching and research) in the UK and Western Europe, twice for lectureship in the UK, once for teaching assistant in the UK (University of Bristol), 3  interviews for academic research positions in the UK and Holland&Germany and one interview for a postdoctoral program in European Studies at the University of Helsinki with my postdoctoral project  entitled 'Transnational Neoliberal Governmentality in the Configuration of New Europe and its Polity: Re-manufacturing East–West Divisions within Political Imaginaries  of European Identity' briefly presented below. My applications were always highly rated by the academic employers and many times considered impressive.  

Current Research Interests

Transnational Neoliberal Governmentality, Neoliberal Development and Postdevelopment Studies, Political and Bureaucratic Translation and Subjection, Securitization of Eastern European Roma Migration, Political Regional Identities, Est-West Divisions

I have a special interest in the sequential emergence and consolidation of bureaucratic apparatuses  of power, after the second world war, in Europe, mainly supported by the spread of neoliberal governmentality.  I seek to explore relation between imagined European cultural identities/divisions and Neoliberalism  as an ideological commitment of development and 'will to improve''  the social in a rational economic fashion. Images of Europe, relations between Western and Eastern European states were alternatively and sequentially construed. Elements of epistemic violence were embodied in neoliberal discourses and transnational institutional practices of formulating differential citizenship regimes and programs of social integration for the politically unrepresented populations of Europe with undeveloped and weak critical commitment to civic empowerment actions. My future research projects will concentrate on the  formulations and re-formulation of European politics within discursive enactments of Europeanization. They will seek to explore and unravel the temporal political dynamics between transnational economic organizations, civil society and Western and Eastern EU states, which through co-extensive interdependent collaborations embody the neoliberal formula of development and threaten transnational counter-hegemonic enterprises with dissolution.

New Project/main themes :Governmentalities and Transnational Neoliberalism in the Constitution of  New Europe and its Polity (and its Reflexivity) :  Imaginaries of European Sovereignty and Identity,  Re-manufacturing East -West divisions.  Europeanization, Bureaucratic Power and Epistemic Violence of  Programs for Social Integration and Development 

Publications

Under review

Roma Pentecostalism as Self –Governance, State Apparatus of Capture and its Anti-Politics Bureaucratic Translation

a. Journal articles (items marked with * were peer-reviewed)

*Voiculescu Cerasela

(2014) Voyagers of the Smooth Space. Navigating Emotional Landscapes. Space, Emotion and Society (peer reviewed British Journal, forthcoming) inspired by Gilles Deleuze's philosophy (smooth space, becoming). By using poststructuralist geography and phenomenological approaches I develop a new concept : 'emotional landspace'.

*Voiculescu, Cerasela-

2012 To whom God speaks ? Struggles for individual authority through self-reflexivity and performativity within a Gypsy Pentecostal church. Sociological Research Online 17(2)10, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/17/2/10.html

* Voiculescu Cerasela
2008 Disappearing peasants? On land, rent, and revenue in post-1989 Romania. Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology 52: 77-91. (Berghahn Books: New York and Oxford)

Voiculescu, Cerasela

2006 Regimuri de arendã ºi forme de schimb: o analizã a fermelor agricole [Rent regimes and forms of exchange: an analysis of agricultural farms]. Sociologie Româneascã III(4): 140-159 (in Romanian).

* Voiculescu, Cerasela

2005 Production and consumption of pop-folk music in post-socialist Romania: discourse and practice. Ethnologia Balkanica: Journal of Balkan Ethnology 9: 261-283. (Waxmann Verlag: Munchen)

Voiculescu, Cerasela
2003 Identity Formation for Sângeorgiu de Mureº Roma Population. Romanian Sociology (Annual English Electronic Edition) 4: 83-115. http://www.sociologieromaneasca.ro/eng/aeee-pdf/sr-rs.aeee.2002.3.pdf

b. Book chapters

Voiculescu, Cerasela
2008 Confronting expert knowledge and local experience: Peasants and farm directors facing EU regulations. In Roth, Klaus (ed.) Europaisierung von unten? Beobachtungen zur EU-Integration Sudosteuropas, pp. 97-113. Forost Arbeitspapiere Nr. 44, Munchen.
Voiculescu, Cerasela
2007 Egy cigány–paraszt társadalmi és gazdasági rendszer: reciprocitás és túlélési viszonyok egy erdélyi faluban [A Gypsy-peasant Socio-economic System: Reciprocity and Survival Relations in a Village of Transylvania]. In Ilyés, Sándor, Pozsony, Ferenc (szerk./ed.) Lokalitások, határok, találkozások. Tanulmányok erdélyi cigány közösségekrõl, pp. 67-79. Kolozsvár: Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság. (in Hungarian)
Voiculescu, Cerasela
2007 Agricultural Farm Management between Regional Markets and Local Communities: Networks of Production and Distribution in South Romania. In Roth, Klaus (ed.) Sozialkapital – Vertrauen – Rechtssicherheit. Postsozialistische Gesellschaften und die Europaische Union (Social Capital – Trust – Rule of Law. Postsocialist Societies and the European Union), pp. 141-163. Berlin: LIT-Verlag.
Voiculescu, Cerasela
2004 Challenging Cultural Diversity. An Analysis of Social and Economic Relationships between Roma and Hungarians in a Transylvanian Village. In S. Frunzã, N. Gavriluþã, MS. Jones (eds.) The Challenges of Multiculturalism in Central and Eastern Europe, pp. 200-213. Cluj-Napoca: Provopress.
Voiculescu, Cerasela
2004 Temporary Migration of Transylvanian Roma to Hungary. In D. Pop (ed.) New Patterns of Labour Migration in Central and Eastern Europe, pp. 145 - 164. Cluj- Napoca: AMM Design. http://www.cenpo.ro/files/10%20Migration.pdf

Lecturing

2013 Lecturer & Co-Convener/Course Designer for the Senior Honours Course (4th year of studies) Nationalism and Ethnic Violence, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK. [ 2 hours lecture and 3 hours tutorials in one day/each week] For more details see: https://www.academia.edu/6605186/Co-Course_Convener_and_Lecturer_on_Nationalism_by_Dr.Voiculescu

2013 Guest Lecturer for the Masters course ‘Comparative Perspectives in Nationalism Studies’. Lecture: ‘Communist and Post-communist Nationalism in Eastern Europe’. The University of Edinburgh.

2011 Seminar Lecture ‘The historical politics and geography of Roma leadership in socialist and post-socialist Romania’, West Coast Seminar Series, Central and East European Studies, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK, 16 November. http://www.gla.ac.uk/events/academic/?action=details&id=5888

Tutoring

2013 Tutor for the honours module Nationalism and Ethnic Violence, 4th year of studies, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK .

2012 Tutor for the undergraduate module Self and Society, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK.

2012 Tutor for the undergraduate module Understanding Social Research, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK.

2012 Tutor for the undergraduate module Social and Political Theory, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK .

2011 Tutor for the undergraduate module Self and Society, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK .

2011 Tutor for the undergraduate module Social and Political Enquiry, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK .

2004 Co-convener and Teaching Assistant for the Master module Classical and Contemporary Social Theory with reference to Social Stratification and Lifestyles (Marx, Weber, Bourdieu, Grusky), Department of Sociology, University of Bucharest. Related Duties: I organized the seminar syllabus, assigned the readings and questions for each meeting and marked final essays.  

2004-2005 Senior Tutor for the postgraduate/Masters module Community Development, Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest, Romania.

Research Grant Director

2006-2007 GDN – RRC VI -12 Corporate Farming in Central and Southern Romania: Practices, Ideologies and Power Relations, funded by international organization Global Development Network (GDN-CERGE-EI)http://cloud2.gdnet.org/cms.php?id=gdn_development_research

2006 -2007 Agricultural enterprises between regional markets and local communities: networks of production and distribution in South Romania, Ministry of Education and Research (CNCSIS), Bucharest, Romania [Awarded the second best project position, as a result of a nation-wide social science competition] For a full detailed list of my research experiences see my CV on academia edu

In terms of conferences, I presented papers at 22 international and national conferences since 2003- for a full list see my CV on academia edu

Field research areas/experience -summary

Romania,United Kingdom, Hungary ,Serbia

Between 2004 and 2006 I have been a permanently employed Researcher at the Research Institute for the Quality of Life, Romanian Academy of Sciences, Bucharest. Between 1999- 2004 I worked as a research assistant for various Romanian research institutions and NGOs. After 2006 I worked as a principal investigator in various national and international research grants. My research has been mainly focused on various aspects of social and economic development, mobility and governance, including studies on Roma/Gypsy Travellers in Romania, Hungary and United Kingdom.