This seminar was created in 1993 in the Department of History of the Romanians, in honour of Dimitrie Onciul, the founder of the ‘Critical School’ in Romanian historiography, commemorating 70 years since the death of the illustrous scholar.
The seminar is organised by Professor ªtefan ªTEFÃNESCU, and seeks to explore innovative directions in the methodology of historical research, in order to promote a global vision on history and to develop the studies of the theory and epistemology of history.
Starting from the demands of current historical research, the seminar’s preoccupations are:
to enlarge the knowledge of Dimitrie Onciul’s work and of the problems he addressed;
to organise courses and seminars on the paleography of the languages of sources for the history of the Romanians;
to expand the search for new documentary sources in Romania and abroad;
and to promote interdisciplinary researches.
In order to enlarge and to improve historical knowledge, cross-over disciplines such as historical demography, ecohistory, historical geography, mass psychology and imagology are cultivated, alongside the more traditional auxiliary disciplines of diplomacy, numismatics, heraldry, genealogy etc.
As the result of a performance evaluation organised by the Romanian Academy, the Dimitrie Onciul Seminar has obtained a GAR contract on the theme History of the Romanians, vol. 4 (14th-16th centuries), which, as well as enhancing its prestige, has enabled the acquisition of a computer.
Looking ahead, it is hoped that the Seminar will contribute to an expansion of scholarly competence, and a growth in the authority of the critical interpretation of documentary sources as a means of reconstructing historical reality. ‘Truth alone,’ insisted Dimitrie Onciul, ‘will give birth to a true lover of the nation and the country”
