Ileana Marin

Prior to her coming to the United States in 2005, Ileana Marin held the faculty position of Associate Professor at Ovidius University of Constanta (equivalent to an American liberal arts college), where she taught a variety of courses in literature and published three books and several articles. In 2004, as a Fulbright scholar, she discovered the Textual Studies Program at the University of Washington, a field that she always wanted to pursue, but which does not exist as such in Romania. She earned her second Ph.D. in Textual Studies and Comparative Literature from the University of Washington in 2011. Hoping that Romanian language will be taught regularly at the UW, in 2012 she initiated the fund for Romanian Studies. She is currently affiliated with the Ellison Center for Russian, Eastern European and Central Studies Program at the University of Washington. The interdisciplinary courses she teaches for the Honors Program reflect her interest in multiculturalism and post-communist societies. Ileana is one of the founders of the Seattle based non-profit organization American Romanian Cultural Society which, in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute - New York, succeeded in organizing the first Romanian Film Festival in the Pacific Northwest, One Eye Laughing, One Eye Crying.

She has recently published articles on Victorian manuscripts and prints, as well as on Romanian literature and arts under communism. She is currently writing a book on Closet Disciplines in Communist Romania.