RESTORY
Recovering Past Stories for the Future: A Synergistic Approach to Textual and Oral Heritage of Small Communities
Premiere Orizont Europa – Instituții
PN-IV-P8-8.1-PRE-HE-ORG-2024-0170
1.07.2024 – 31.12.2026
Project Description Objectives H.U.B. Team Activities and Outputs Contact
The Horizon Europe project n. 101132781 “Recovering Past Stories for the Future: A Synergistic Approach to Textual and Oral Heritage of Small Communities” (acronym: RESTORY) brings together 20 partners – universities, public institutions, companies and NGOs – from 12 European countries. Coordinated by Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (BBU), the project seeks to identify effective practices for sustainably managing material and human resources. Key areas of focus include local education, intuitive circular economy processes, and affective communication strategies related to inhabited spaces. Episodes of this type can be found both in current accounts and in old community records, texts found in archives and libraries that are too little researched. This initiative examines both contemporary accounts and historical community records – underexplored texts preserved in archives and libraries – which together form a rich symbolic vocabulary of local cultural heritage and territorial identity. Through 10 case studies across 9 European countries, RESTORY aims to analyse and interpret these narratives. The Romanian case studies focus on two contrasting contexts: the urban environment of Sighișoara (Mureș County) and the rural setting of Jelna (Bistrița-Năsăud County). These investigations span a timeline beginning in the medieval era, with a particular emphasis on the lived experiences of Transylvanian Saxons, alongside Romanians, Hungarians, and Roma communities within their shared spaces.
This initiative intends to capitalize on the opportunity provided by the UEFISCDI Consolidator Grants program to strategically expand its young human resource and the originally defined timeline, to integrate additional case studies, and strengthen the research and innovation (R&I) infrastructure with a strategic focus. These developments align fully with the program’s recommendations and the institutional strategy of BBU, as well as the objectives of the STAR-UBB-N network research centres, emphasizing enhancing the competitive edge of a Romanian institution across diverse fields, establishing it as an active player in national, European, and global cultural contexts, while fostering stronger connections between researchers of Romanian historical phenomena and the international academic community.