The Iman Foundation
PROMOTING DIALOGUE • CHALLENGING EXTREMISM • BRINGING CHANGE
Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Ovidiu Pecican (Romania)

Prof. Dr. Ovidiu Pecican is vice-dean of the Faculty of European Studies from Cluj-Napoca, Romania (Europe). He is a professor and has a Ph.D. degree in history. He is a member of the National Council of the Union of Writers in Romania, and has published several novels, short stories volumes, theatre plays, poetry and literary critiques. He is a weekly columnist for Romania Libera (Free Romania) national journal since 2006 on current political issues, in Observator cultural (Cultural Observer) on history books and in Tribuna (The Tribune), Steaua (The Star) and Apostrof (The Apostrophe) on recent literary and philosophy publications.

The main fields of his scientific interest are in medieval inter-cultural studies, multicultural ties in the global times and cooperation between peoples and religions in the contemporary world, and cultural diplomacy. He has several specialisations at Institut National de Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris (France), Centro per Studi di Politica Estera e Relazioni Internazionali, State University from Milan (Italy), Fachbereich Sozialwissenschaften from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster (Germany), Utrecht and Nijmegen (Netherlands), School for European Studies, University of Sussex from Falmer-Brighton (U.K.), Institute for Public Policy and Social Research from East Lansing, Michigan State University (U.S.A.), Central European University from Budapest (Hungary).

Prof. Pecican was awarded in 2008 with the prize for theatre and in 2011 with the prize for literary history and critique by the Romanian Union of Writers, the Cluj-Napoca branch.

In 2008 he was elected national ambassador in Romania for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Since 2005 he has been a member of Team Europe. From 2000 to 2005, Prof. Pecican was a member of the board of the Open Society Foundation in the program concerning the Faculty Development Scheme for the countries of South East Europe.

He is a producer of TV cultural talkshows at the Romanian Television 3 channel, Transylvanian branch of RTV and a regional private TV channels (2006 – present).