Like many rural European regions, communities in Transylvania, East Germany, and Albania are challenged by migration and an accelerating decline of local cultural offerings.
Although most villages in Albania and Romania have designated cultural centers, such spaces are still to become more connected to local communities. Meanwhile, new community spaces emerge, providing new models of social activation through culture.
icebauhaus, Mihai and Maria Fratila Foundation / @HomeinFăgăraș, Tek Bunkeri, and the Fagaras Research Institute are initiators of MOCI Balkans, enabling new partnerships of cultural spaces and between creative pioneers. With SPACE (Sustainable Partnerships for Arts and Culture in Europe), we aim to activate local initiatives and inspire collaborators to develop future-oriented cultural solutions to systemic challenges. Cultural SPACES in rural areas can re-emerge as spaces of freedom placed at the heart of local community development.
TEAM
Ana Marica
Maria Chirilă
Ștefan Cibian, Ph.D.
Ana Marica
Ana's professional experience is located at the intersection of learning design, organizational development, and social impact. On a mission to understand how communities can change for the better when self-directed learning principles are introduced in the educational process, she has spent the last 8 years researching and connecting with projects and communities from around the world who actively contribute to reimagining educational paradigms.
During this time, she has co-founded Digital Romads, a human resources and organizational design consultancy whose purpose is to support teams and organizations to explore transparent, open, self-managed, and co-created ways of collaborating and communicating.
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Maria Chirilă
Ana-Maria is Assistant Manager at the Făgăraș Research Institute. Also, she is a student at the Department for Biotechnical Systems Engineering, Faculty for Environmental Protection, University of Oradea. Ana-Maria considers that community engagement is an important part of one’s lifestyle, therefore, she is supporting the activity of the Țara Făgărașului Community Foundation and is a member of Carpati.org. Ana-Maria believes that what others do, and their actions, influence us all, therefore it is important that we create and collaborate, as we are sharing life experiences every day. Ana-Maria is passionate about exploring new places and sports, such as endurance biking, swimming, hiking, and gastronomy.
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Ștefan Cibian, Ph.D.
Dr. Ștefan Cibian is a member of the Board and the executive director of the Făgăraș Research Institute. Stefan is an Academy Associate with Chatham House – The Royal Institute of International Affairs, he is also teaching courses related to international development at Babeș-Bolyai University and manages Cibian Consulting S.R.L.
In what concerns teaching and research, Stefan is focused on development and statehood in Sub-Saharan Africa, development policy, development assistance, international organizations, migration, and human rights.
Stefan’s core interest in research is focused on international development, community development, Africa-EU relations, development policy, international relations theory, peacebuilding and fragile states, the link between research, policy, and practice, higher education policy and global affairs, including the EU. In terms of geographic focus, Stefan is primarily concerned with Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the European Union, and transatlantic relations.
In his consulting and civil society work, Stefan is focusing on civil society development in CEE, contributing to the development of civil society organizations. Stefan is the President of FOND, the Romanian NGDO Platform, the Treasurer of CONCORD – the European NGO Confederation for Humanitarian Aid and Development. He is also a board member for the following organizations: ARCADIA – The Romanian Association for International Cooperation and Development, Țara Făgărașului Community Foundation (FCTF), UiPath Foundation, and the Foundation for Youth Involvement (FIT).
Stefan received his Ph.D. degree in political science and international relations (2012) as well as his M.A. in public policy (2006) from CEU – the Central European University. He also holds a BA in political science (2004, from Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and in law (2005, 1st of December 2019 University, Alba Iulia, Romania).
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Central and Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa: Prospects for Sustained Re-engagement (Chatham House Research Paper, 2017)
Analyzing the European Development Fund: An English School Account of How Presumed Statehood Undermines (Development in) Sub-Saharan Africa (Ph.D. Thesis, Central European University, 2012)
