Feasibility

SWOT Analysis,Proactive and corrective measures, Output Indices

1. Strengths
1. Team members (TMs) have both research-specific and management skills, illustrated by the significant number of contributions to the field (Project Director [PD] and Senior Researchers), as well as by their successful management of other research (-related) projects.
2. The team itself is not entirely new, as the TMs have previously collaborated on project – related topics: at the senior-research level (PD – Steve Whitfield, PD – Victor Neumann; PD – Geo Serban), as well as at the junior-research level (PD as coordinator of MA dissertations – current doctoral students; Stephen Whitfield – Dana Mihailescu).
3. interdisciplinary approach, guaranteed by the team membership (a philologist, specializing in Jewish-Romanian and Jewish-American literature and culture; a historian, specializing in Jewish Romanian history and culture; a historian providing expertise in cultural studies and Jewish American history; two doctoral students with papers delivered and published on topics related to Jewish-Romanian and Jewish-American history and culture, as part of relevant international conferences) the existence of a corpus of texts which allows for exploratory / innovative approach and results in the field pf Jewish – Romanian and Jewish – American literature and culture; documents included in Romanian and American collections (Romanian Academy, Brandeis University etc), which have not been discussed or made public.
4. TMs are part of ISI editorial boards (Stephen Whitfield - American Jewish History) and / or international organizations (e.g.: European Society for the Study of English, Modern Language Association, International Association for the 18th Century Studies, International Association of Intercultural Education, Multi-ethnic Society of Europe and the Americas)
5. Existence of an organised, physical structure within the University of Bucharest, having Project-related concerns and activities, such as the American Studies Centre; this implies the availability of certain material facilities, as well as of a dissemination network, represented by the Fulbright programme in Romania.

 

2. Weaknesses
1. Project is not on the list of PN II (National Plan II) fundamental / high priority fields
2. Primary sources included in foreign or other national institutions (Romanian Academy, private bodies)
3. Poor research infrastructure: there is a number of subscriptions to international on-line libraries / databases, yet there are few PCs to access these (e.g. one desktop connected to the internet per research centre, on average)

3. Opportunities
1. PN II funding available
2. regular international events on similar / relevant topics (annual international conferences organised by professional organisations such as: European Association for Jewish Studies, Association for Jewish Studies, British Association for Jewish Studies, etc).

4. Threats
1. Team dissolution by TMs becoming involved in other research events / groups (national or international), by being awarded fellowships and / or scholarships abroad
2. inefficient management (unbalanced allocation of resources – time and / or finances -, and outputs)

Proactive and corrective measures

1. keen attention paid to obtaining the proposed outputs within the allotted time framework, and thus proving the project’s exploratory / innovative nature; proper international dissemination of these results, in compliance with the project dissemination plan.
2. Clear definition of roles corresponding to each Project position:
1. consultancy on matters pertaining to Jewish-American, and respectively Jewish-Romanian, history and culture: Steve Whitfield and, respectively, Victor Neumann;
2. consultancy on aspects related to Jewish-Romanian literature: Geo Serban
3. research - documentation, paper development and project dissemination activities: all TMs project management : PD, JRs
3. Monthly meetings / forum discussions meant to create the necessary team-based approach to the Project topic by having a beneficial blending / confrontation between points of view which may differ at times.
4. Transparency in managing and distributing the allocated finances, with a view to maintaining the TMs’ current strong motivation to contribute to and obtaining the proposed Project outputs and deliverables.
5. close monitoring of the following factors: timeframe, human, material and financial resources, activities carried out, their impact, and deliverables.
6. internal evaluation: every 6 months, in terms of the activities carried put, the deliverables and outputs proposed for the stage concerned, and the financial resources allocated.

Output indices (used in the Project internal evaluations):

• PN II-specific: number of papers accepted for publication in ISI and / or international database journals;
• Project-specific:
• no. of people involved in activities carried out
• financial resources used in terms of corresponding milestones
• knowledge / skills obtained by Project participants, particularly by the JRs
• number of articles / reviews published in Romanian cultural media on the Project, its members and their results
• number of pages translated for the Anthology; number of pages as finite translation; translated authors (partially / entirely).
• number of conference participants
• number of papers sent for publication
• published papers in ISI / ISSN or international – database journals
• international conference participations.