David Prodan Fellowship
The David Prodan Fellowship is a way to honor the memory and legacy of David Prodan, one of the most important Romanian historians of the 20th century.
By means of this Fellowship, the Academic Cultural Heritage Department of Babeș-Bolyai University, through the David Prodan Memorial Museum, seeks to encourage emerging and established researchers in the humanities and social sciences from the academic and cultural environment who have produced original scientific work to develop new opportunities in their research fields.
During the internship, the winners (Fellows) will stay in the memorial house of historian David Prodan. Located just a few minutes from the center of Cluj-Napoca, the building benefits from a green inner courtyard, secluded from the urban noise. The David Prodan Fellowship Residence consists of a bright studio apartment with a bathroom and all the necessary appliances (electric stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer, coffee machine, etc.).
David Prodan – biographical note
Talking about David Prodan means analyzing the biography and work of one of the greatest Romanian historians and how a Central European intellectual survived between compromise with and resistance against a totalitarian regime.
Born in 1902 into a Transylvanian peasant family, David Prodan has made his way step by step (archivist, librarian, researcher at the George Barițiu Institute of History of the Romanian Academy, professor at the University of Cluj-Napoca) along a professional path that soon brought him recognition: in 1948, he was admitted to the Romanian Academy, and in 1986, he was invited to the American Historical Association, a prestigious forum that brought together leading names in world historiography.
David Prodan passed away on June 11, 1992, leaving behind masterpieces of historical writing and research: Supplex Libellus Valachorum, Teoria imigrației românilor din Principatele române în Transilvania în veacul al XVIII-lea [The theory of the immigration of Romanians from the Romanian Principalities to Transylvania in the 18th century], Iobăgia în Transilvania (I-III) [Serfdom in Transylvania, 3 vols.], Urbariile Țării Făgărașului (I-II) [The Land Registers of the Făgăraș Country, 2 vols.], Problema iobăgiei în Transilvania 1700–1848 [The Issue of Serfdom in Transylvania 1700–1848], and, above all, Răscoala lui Horea (I-II) [Horea’s Revolt, 2 vols.].
The David Prodan Fellowship Residence
The studio apartment offered to the winner of the David Prodan Fellowship competition is located inside the David Prodan Memorial Museum, which was, in fact, the historian’s last home.
Inaugurated in the spring of 2018, the David Prodan Memorial Museum is a dynamic space oriented towards organizing and supporting cultural events and a place of memory dedicated to one of the most important Romanian historians. More about this museum’s activities and mission can be found on its special page.
