This Tuesday, July 7, Dr. Alina Dolea, upcoming Fulbright Senior Scholar in the academic year 2015-2016 at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, will launch her book focusing on public diplomacy, communication and country branding strategies. Dr. Dolea’s volume titled "Twenty years of (re)branding post-communist Romania. Actors, discourses, perspectives - 1990-2010" is, as the author says, “the first to draw a 20-years longitudinal analysis and to offer an overview of the main stages in the construction of Romania’s promotion as a public issue that concerns the entire Romanian society. Starting from 1990 and continuing up to 2010, this book identifies key institutional actors (ASG, MAE, MT, ICR), establishes a chronology of practices and campaigns of nation branding, public diplomacy and public relations, as well as certain types of discourses about Romania and its promotion.” The round-table "Perspectives on current public diplomacy practices” - an event which will accompany the book launch - will be hosted on the same day by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Sala Gafencu, as part of the “Editorial Landmarks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” program. We would like to congratulate Dr. Dolea on this occasion and look forward to her next volume resulted from her forthcoming Fulbright experience as a Romanian scholar in the US.

The 2nd edition of the Annual Scientific Conference of Romanian Academic Economists from Abroad/ERMAS 2015 will take place at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes-Bolyai University, July 29 to 31.  The ERMAS project is meant to enhance the quality of dialogue on economic issues in Romania, by engaging internationally acclaimed economists, and to encourage and disseminate research focused on/or/ applicable to Romania. Mihai Copaciu - economist at the National Bank of Romania and a Fulbright Alumnus 2011-2012 – is among the organizers of this important scientific event. Last but not least, we are proud to mention that this spring, the project ERMAS 2014, coordinated by Mihai Copaciu, together with Sebastian Buhai, Cosmin Iluţ and Cristian Litan, received the Foreign Policy Gala award in the Ideas/Projects category. More details about ERMAS 2015 are available at: http://www.econ.ubbcluj.ro/ermas2015/

June 29, 2015, was the opening day of the exhibit “135 Years of U.S.A. – Romanian Diplomatic Relations” jointly organized by the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the National Library of Romania.

The Fulbright Program, present in Romania since 1960, has played an essential part in fostering the educational and cultural exchanges between the two countries. This role is reflected in the Romanian – U.S. Fulbright Commission presence as a partner in the event.

The exhibition will be open until July 31.

The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, AELFE and QUEST Romania held their 14th International Conference entitled Developments in professional/academic communication on June 25-27. On the second day of the conference, the Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission organized a roundtable entitled “55 Years of Fulbright in Romania: The multi-faceted impact of academic exchanges”. Among the panelists were Fulbright alumni Mariana Nicolae (Fulbright Ambassador), Valentin Cojanu, Daniela Constantin, Carmen Paunescu, Rodica Milena Zaharia, Ioana Stamatescu, and former Fulbright board member, Mihai Korka. The discussion, moderated by Rodica Mihăilă, focused on ways of making best use of the Fulbright program.