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On 18 th December 2025, two days after the official 250 th anniversary of Jane Austen, we gathered in the English Department to award the winners of The Jane Austen Competition. The jury, consisting of three professors of English at the Faculty of Letters (Teodora Drișcu, assistant lecturer, Florina Năstase, lecturer and Estera Federciuc, adjunct lecturer), has selected the letters written by the following students:
- 🥇First Place Award: Ana-Ivona Lungu (1 st year, Ro-En)
- 🥈Second Place Award: Serena Niță (3 rd year, En-Sp)
- 🥉Third Place Award: Bianca-Alice Tănase (2 nd year, Ro-En)
Warmest congratulations to our talented winners! We invite you to delight in their inspiring letters posted below. Many thanks to our collaborator, Corint Publishers, for all the help in organising this activity and for the beautiful works of English Literature bestowed as awards! We would also like to thank all our participants who have expressed their affectionate thoughts and gratitude for our beloved writer and are truly glad to have come together in celebration of this significant event.
Iasi, May 8-9, 2025
A Hybrid Conference
In the hallowed halls of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi and also in a hybrid format, scholars from all over Romania, as well as abroad, gathered to mark a momentous occasion: the centennial celebration of the founding of the English Department (one of the many of the Faculty of Letters). The conference, aptly titled Facing Ideology and its Discontents, provided a fertile ground for intellectual discourse, drawing attention to the ever-evolving landscape of ideologies that shape our world through various mechanisms of our language(s).
The centenary celebration was opened by Dr. Dana Bădulescu (Head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures) and featured speeches by Dr. Nicoleta Laura Popa (Vice-Rector of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași), Dr. Oana Cogeanu-Haraga (Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Letters), and Dr. Codrin Liviu Cuțitaru (Member of the Scientific Committee).
The Conference opened each day with a plenary session featuring keynote speakers from Romania and abroad.
În luna martie, Catedra de engleză a avut onoarea de a organiza și găzdui, prin reprezentantele sale, dr. Sorina Ciobanu și dr. Alexandra Vrînceanu, o serie de întâlniri cu absolvente remarcabile, care au reușit să își construiască afaceri și cariere de succes cu... Litere. Ne-am dorit să sărbătorim succesul feminin și totodată să le oferim posibile modele de reușită și determinare studentelor și studenților noștri. Fiecare dintre întâlniri a fost la fel de remarcabilă ca protagonista ei și ne-a arătat o nouă față a vieții și succesului după Litere.
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Elena Cuvinciuc-Aviv, traducătoare și fondatoarea uneia dintre cele mai longevive firme de traduceri din Iași, Eurocontact, ne-a captivat cu energia și optimismul ei, care au ajutat-o să se reinventeze continuu, atât pe plan personal, cât și în afaceri. Elena nu a plecat fără să ne spună că „Viața e prea scurtă pentru a fi banal”, îndemnându-ne să avem curajul de a încerca lucruri noi și de a gândi creativ, de a nu rămâne blocați în situații aparent fără ieșire.
Marți, 13 mai 2025, în Sala Senat, studentele, studenții și cadrele didactice de la specializarea Limbi Moderne Aplicate - Traducere și Interpretare și de la masteratul de Traducere și terminologie au avut plăcerea de a se întâlni cu doamna Mihaela Pîrvuleț, terminolog principal la Directoratul General pentru Traduceri al Uniunii Europene. În cadrul întâlnirii, doamna Pîrvuleț ne-a vorbit, printre altele, despre ce presupune munca de terminolog în instituțiile europene, instrumentele informatice folosite, cursul normal al unui proiect terminologic, dar și despre importanța documentării, a unei foarte bune cunoașteri a limbilor străine implicate și a perseverenței.
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The English Department celebrated Jane Austen’s 250 th anniversary yesterday, 8 th April, with a meeting centred on her most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice. Lecturer Florina Năstase gave a talk on “Love, between Passion and Reason,” which explained the narrative tension between these two primordial aspects in the case of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth, with references to the social and literary context of that age. Afterwards, PhD student Teodora Drișcu opened the discussions with some questions based on the text, inviting students to express their opinions about the meanings of the renowned Austenian beginning of the book, the leitmotif of the inconsistency of human nature and the differences between the 19 th century British society and our own. Around 47 students participated, actively engaging in the discussions. At the end, we offered all the participants a gift from Corint Publishers: a voucher for a 50% discount on books by Jane Austen.
We are thankful for the impressive participation of the public, which proves that Austen is still read, thoroughly analysed and loved today, as always!
InterCulturalia #7, an intersection of 5 languages and several fields, organised by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in partnership with the Faculty of Geography and Geology, the Faculty of Law and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy ”Grigore T. Popa” of Iaşi took place on the 11th and 12th of April this year.
Despite the chilly weather, its spirit was as enthusiastic as ever. The topic of interrogating centers, margins and norms in the age of the (post)-canon challenged the participants and the keynote speakers to look into it and chart a vast and complex territory through interdisciplinary methods. In the German Studies, the literary canon and xenotransplantation were tackled together. Thus, the humanities and the medical sciences engaged in a dialogue.
On Tuesday, November 19, 2024, the 2nd Year American Studies MA students, who take an American poetry class taught by Patty Seyburn, attended an online zoom dialogue between the two poets about living a poet’s life, poetic influences and affinities, poetry movements, the poetic canon and its limitations, poetic temperaments, poets and language, American poetry, Latin American poetry, Eastern European poetry, how the arts instigate one another, and the poets’ social club. The event was organized by Patty Seyburn and Dana Bădulescu, who teach the same group of students.