Book under preparation in SRS’s Polirom series
“Finally a book on Romanian history that unpacks the day to day experiences of ordinary people and how they built churches and communities. Ploscariu tells her stories through the voices and experiences of individuals from ethnic and religious minorities, showing us how they saw their world, not just what the authorities thought about them. This book complicates Romanian religious history in wonderful and surprising ways. It will be the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.” (Roland Clark, University of Liverpool)
“This book contributes significantly to our understanding of the social and religious history of interwar Romania and to the transnational evangelical expansion of the era.” (Heather Coleman, University of Alberta)
“Here is a masterful reconstruction of the everyday life of evangelical communities in interwar Romania and their members’ intricate personal relationships. This excellent study is a must-read for any scholar of nationalism who wants to understand how diverse religious and ethnic minorities struggled and thrived in a nationalising European state.” (Maria Falina, Utrecht University)
“Alternative Evangelicals is a captivating book which opens up important innovative perspectives on the Evangelical communities in interwar Romania. […] Iemima Ploscariu delivers a superb and compelling account of how these groups managed to navigate the rising tide of nationalism in interwar Romania, while also challenging it through their ethnically, linguistically and socially diverse congregations.” (Iuliana Cindrea-Nagy in Review of Ecumenical Studies)
“Alternative Evangelicals is an essential read for those seeking to understand the history of evangelicals in Romania’s diverse regions, and a religious group that navigated the complexities of a deeply nationalist and predominantly Orthodox society.” (Alexandru Profiri in Journal of Romanian Studies)
About the author:
Iemima Ploscariu is managing editor for East-Central Europe at the Directory of Open Access Journals (doaj.org) and editorial assistant for Liverpool University Press’s the Journal of Romanian Studies. She received her PhD in History from Dublin City University in Ireland. She also holds a MA in Comparative History from Central European University (Budapest) and a MLitt in Central and East European Studies from the University of St Andrews (Scotland). Her previous publications include research on ethnic and religious minorities, nationalism, music, the Holocaust, memory, and gender in twentieth-century Romania. She is based in Sacramento, California. You can read here an article by Iemima Ploscariu and listen to an interview in which she discusses her book.