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
RESTORY intends to maximize its presence in the Romanian cultural heritage sector by ensuring ongoing support to GLAM professionals and any cultural institutions even after the project’s lifetime. Thus, three research units of the coordinating partner, Babeș-Bolyai University, will upgrade their operative range to a multifaceted guidance centre, or HUB [Heritage Upcycling Base]. HUB vouches to maintain a constant dialogue with similar national heritage institutes and pan-European platforms, such as Heritage Research Hub and DELPHI.
TRANS.SCRIPT. The Centre for Diplomatic and Medieval Documentary Palaeography has previously collaborated with various public institutions harbouring cultural heritage and implemented significant research and education projects (https://ts.centre.ubbcluj.ro/workshop/), thus acquiring the necessary experience in order to coordinate a new strategic direction of development. One of the major scientific goals of TRANS.SCRIPT, officially established in December 2017 (informally functioning through the activity of its members since 2013), was precisely to conduct complex academic investigations of inaccessible or hard-to-reach written sources related to Transylvania in an innovative, in-depth manner by: a. editing and interpreting sources (exploratory and fundamental research); b. implementing information technologies in the studies of the medieval written heritage concerning Romania. Alongside this research mission, interdisciplinary cooperation perspectives were from the first moment on the guiding line of the centre’s activities; collaboration(s) with experts in the history of law, philology, historical geography, digital humanities, computer science etc. towards an interdisciplinary approach (https://ts.centre.ubbcluj.ro/our-mission/). Such ideas were derived from the involvement of TRANS.SCRIPT researchers in the highly demanding project The Digitization of Medieval Documents from the National Archives of Romania, 2014-2016, which combined traditional expertise in humanities, mostly Latin Palaeography, with digital humanities. The digitization and manual transcription or indexing metadata of over 30000 archival units within a reduced time (24 months) offered an extremely valuable lesson concerning the necessity of developing computer-assisted tools designed to speed up the work of palaeographers, enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of the human resource involved. Several other research activities or dissemination of results (conferences, workshops, university teaching or scholarly publications) bear proof that TRANS.SCRIPT has reached the required level of expertise in order to conduct independent and highly innovative academic initiatives. Upgrading the role of TRANS.SCRIPT to that of informational HUB supporting GLAM professionals expands its original mission revolving around the triad: Teaching – Research – Cooperation.
The Territorial Identities and Development Research Centre (TIDRC), affiliated to the Faculty of Geography in Babeş-Bolyai University, has the mission to develop and implement specific research programmes focused on capitalizing the development of territorial identities within an inter- and multidisciplinary system. This will be achieved by analysing the dynamics of identity structures, with a highly strategic impact for development at various levels (local, regional, national, international), and through wide applications in the process of spatial-functional reintegration and regeneration of inhabited areas. TIDRC aims to play a key role in the institutional and scientific networking, by conducting relevant research, offering new perspectives on science and development within the territorial framework. The actions carried out emphasize the innovative approaches, both at a normative-formal level and at the experimental-productive one, aiming at identifying the best solutions and elaborating the models of good practices useful to the decision makers in different fields (administrative, economic, social, cultural, political, ecological, etc.), at the national and European level. Territorial identity is a relevant structure for both building the social capital, useful in spatial modelling, and for the European Union cohesion policy and other macro-regions of the world. The development and innovation framework of the centre falls within the priorities set by the National Strategy for Research, Development and Innovation, being mainly focused on the social and human sciences. Therewith, the journal of the research centre, Territorial Identity and Development, offers the possibility to share the research results and the experience of good practices with specialists and practitioners from various fields and sectors of activity. TIDRC’s objectives include a) investigating the structures and relations of territorial synthesis that define the brand identity elements; b) achieving of interdisciplinary operational research programmes based on methods and techniques of integrated analysis of territorial elements; c) developing the capacity to identify and attract national / international sources of financing and capitalization of cooperation with other specific institutions and local public authorities; d) Efficient development of activities performed by multidisciplinary teams from which students, professors, and researchers, as well as the local, regional and national public authorities will benefit; e) Organising specific courses, interactive training, internship programmes and providing consultancy / expertise in various fields (Geography, Sociology, Anthropology, Architecture, History, Economics, Administrative Sciences, Landscaping, Urban Planning, Tourism, Tourism Development, etc.).
The Oral History Institute (OHI) has been operating as a centre of Babeş-Bolyai University since 1997, created by professors Pompiliu Teodor and Doru Radosav. Its objective is the elaboration and interpretation of oral sources in order to recover part of the recent memory of Romanian society, excluded from written testimonies; thus, the research program of the Institute has a civic dimension, due to the need to manage the traumatic post-communist past. From a methodological point of view, oral history offers not only the tools for recovering the recent past, but also a grid for the interpretation and analysis of written documents developed in past eras, which contain transcripts of oral statements. It also provides a perspective of the everchanging nature of immaterial heritage consisting of stories about the past as told by members of local communities; in different moments, there are different ways of telling the same story which can be signified again and again according to different elements such as the relation between the interviewer and the interviewee, the political context in which the interview occurs, personal experiences of the interviewee. However, most commonly, the general story remains unchanged. Unlike most academic research, oral history can be considered as part of the citizen science because members of the society tell their story and thus co-create a document of the past to be used in many instances: archival records, academic studies, digital products, education instruments for local history, etc. In fact, one of the most relevant features of oral history is that since its creation contributed to the democratization of historical research as it gave voice to previously unheard voices of marginal people. Especially in multicultural settings, recording oral history interviews with people belonging to all different groups is vital to understand the ways they represent past experiences in relation to the other. This is a way to identity challenges in small communities, the needs they have as well as to provide possible solutions to overcome problems.
Envisaged activities:
- Consultancy addressed to all those interested in managing local cultural history and heritage: schools, government agencies, NGOs, and private enterprises.
- Educational campaigns & training sessions, contributing to the creation of new skills (curating, restoration, and conservation) and, ultimately, jobs in the cultural heritage economy.
- Implementation of the ‘Best practises guidebook’ dedicated to GLAM professionals regarding the inventorying of old texts, in particular of manuscript fragments.
- Assistance to GLAMs in their transition to OpenGLAMs: implementing open access policies to cultural heritage; validating the pursued policies as markedly entrepreneurial and business-oriented; integration into the GLAM global network; making cultural heritage available online without copyright restrictions.
- Assistance in finding and accessing funding opportunities for organizations safeguarding cultural heritage.