Alina Thiemann

Alina Thiemann is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main. She holds a Ph.D. in Media and Communication from Temple University in Philadelphia (2014) and an M.A. in Media Studies from the New School in New York (2007). Her doctoral dissertation focused on the role of collective memory about the communist past in shaping a post-communist identity in Romania. Her current work deals with memory, identity and migration in the European Union. She is a substitute member of the Management Committee of COST Action “In search of transcultural memory in Europe” (ISTME).

Project:The Dialectics of the European Migration within the European Union

This project investigates the capacity of people living abroad to influence political affairs at home, focusing on the case of the Romanian migrants and the Romanian diaspora in the European Union. During the last two presidential elections in Romania (2004, 2009) the massive voting turnout abroad significantly influenced the result of the elections. The Romanian migrants/diaspora also organized protests of support for citizens at home, who opposed political arbitrariness and corruption (e.g. “Save Rosia Montana” campaign in 2013). In this way, they tried to attract attention by the European/international media and the transnational political actors who could further pressure Romanian decision-makers to align to “European values” (e.g. integrity of public office, transparency and accountability of political decision-making). Combining theories of social justice and deliberative democracy with the study of the political articulation/reconfiguration of collective memory, this project aims to explain how both the memories of the country they left and the lived experience abroad shape the political preferences of the Romanian migrants/diaspora and motivate to be actively involved in decision-making at home.

email: alina.hogea[at]temple.edu