Dr Irina Marin is Assistant Professor in Political History at Utrecht University. She specializes in Modern European History with particular emphasis on Central and Eastern European history and society. Her research so far has focused on the political and social dynamics of imperial borderlands, nationalism and identity politics as well as political combustibility and social violence. Her first book Contested Frontiers in the Balkans: Ottoman and Habsburg Rivalries in Eastern Europe was published with I. B. Tauris in 2012. Her second book Peasant Violence and Antisemitism in Early Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) received an Honorable Mention from the American Society for Romanian Studies (SRS) at their biennial book prize in 2019.
For the last few years she has been teaching and researching on reforms as concept and practice: why do they fail? why do they succeed? In her latest research she has explored the connection between reforms and state sovereignty She is currently putting together a transdisciplinary toolbox of reform theories from across the social sciences and the humanities in an attempt to bring into fruitful dialogue strands of knowledge that can mutually reinforce one another and contribute to present-day dilemmas about tackling climate change and rampant inequality.
Dr Marin holds a PhD in History from University College London and has previously taught at University College London, University of Oxford, University of Leicester and University of Augsburg. Her research has benefited from grants and fellowships awarded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Ratiu Family Foundation in the UK, the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, and the IWM (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen) in cooperation with the EURIAS Fellowship Programme.
Workshops, Keynotes and Outreach Activities
TEH 21: Chapter 1.2.1 Borders in Modern History 1800-1900
ABS World 2018 - Keynotes Irina Marin & Leisy Abrego
Irina Marin: Rural Social Combustibility along the Complex Frontier
Irina Marin: Anti-Semitism around a Triple Frontier
Book of Riots: Research in Translation - collaborative project University of Leicester (UK), UCL (Qatar), University of Birmingham, Birmingham Museums (UK)
Audio Historical Survey of the 1907 Peasant Uprising in Romania for the Zalau History Museum (Romania)
Commentary on Nicholas Dimancescu's feature documentary Decoding Dacia: Romania's Lost Heritage - Ratiu Foundation (RCC London)