Dennis Deletant was the Ion Ratiu Visiting Professor of Romanian Studies at CERES for almost a decade, retiring in Spring 2020. Currently residing in London, Professor Deletant kindly agreed to speak with us specifically for the Alumni Newsletter, sharing fascinating stories of his personal and professional encounters with Romania and his time at Georgetown.
Professor Deletant became attracted to Romanian culture and language while studying at University College London. He first visited the country as an exchange student in the Summer of 1965, at the age of 19. Even though meeting the general population proved to be challenging, as international students required permission to go outside the summer camp, he still managed to speak with locals and learned about the pressure ordinary Romanians had to endure on a daily basis under the communist regime. “That fascination with the intrusion of politics into people’s personal lives was what led me to learn more about this nation in particular and problems which they faced under the Communists,” Professor Deletant recalled.
He recounted for CERES becoming persona non grata to the communist regime and being denied a visa for entry after his involvement in a 1988 BBC broadcast series about the deep economic recession in Romania. After the 1989 revolution, which ended with a removal of the Marxist-Leninist government, the ban on Deletant’s travel was lifted. Deletant commented, “I still have to point out that communism lingered longer in Romania and, as one of my Romanian friends likes to say, although the communist party died, no one produced a death certificate.” Indeed, a lot had to be done in a newly liberated Romania. Along with his colleagues, Professor Deletant established a Romanian history institute with funding from the Dutch foreign ministry, which attracted many talented young researchers, who later became prominent scholars and politicians in the country. Deletant also worked on the introduction of new voting system and fought for the improvement of women’s lives, who had been treated as second class citizens under the Communists. For his remarkable services to Romanian democracy, Deletant was awarded Order of Merit in 2000 and granted Romania’s highest civilian honor, [a title of] the Star of Romania by the President of Romania in 2016.
Transforming his interest into a career, Deletant gradually established himself as a prominent scholar of Romanian studies. He remembers his time at Georgetown warmly. He began working with CERES in 2011 and from then until his retirement in 2020, he taught a number of courses, ranging from politics of Southeastern Europe to the Holocaust in Romania and the modern-day contested territories. The latter was his favorite as it attracted a large number of students from diverse backgrounds and led to riveting class discussions. Professor Deletant told CERES, “Georgetown is a great place to study Eurasia. Students have access to reputable academic journals and newspapers, while the number of practicing professionals and diplomats teaching the region makes this place virtually unrivaled in my experience.”
Now in retirement, Deletant has found himself engrossed in archival research. Over these past two years, he has managed to finish writing an autobiography about his personal and professional experiences in Romania and is now completing another book on the Romanian interwar period. We want to thank Professor Deletant for his highly prolific time with CERES and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors!