The Fifteenth Annual Graduate Student Essay Prize 2023 is awarded to Ecaterina Vlad, MA, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, for her fascinating exploration of the work of artist Geta Brătescu in “Geta Brătescu: Subversive Practices.” In elegant prose, Vlad provides an insightful analysis of Brătescu’s artistic production in the 1970s and 1980s, treating film and collage as primary sources that occupy a unique space between modernism and postmodernism. Vlad takes us on a journey to show how Brătescu uses the “visual language of both movements” to express shared experiences of repression and surveillance in Ceaușescu’s Romania.
An Honorable Mention is awarded to Emőke Gondos, MA, Central European University, for the paper “Neoliberal techno-fantasies in a post-socialist city,” chapter one of her MA thesis titled “’This job saved me:’ The Subjectivity and Imaginary of Cluj IT.” Her valuable contribution is based on empirical research on the IT sector in the city of Cluj-Napoca.
Student Essay Prize Committee (Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović, Iemima Ploscariu, Valentina Glajar)