Centrul de Excelență în Studiul Imaginii
University of Bucharest
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Research Master's Degree
Admissions
Admissions Round - July 2026
Online registration, at dedicated platform: July 13–19, 2026 Note: The application form will be uploaded to the platform along with the documents required for registration. Online Admissions Interview: July 22–23, 2026 Display of preliminary results: July 25, 2026 Seat confirmation: July 27–28, 2026 Admissions Exam: Test 1 – Application Form (submitted along with the application) and Test 2—an interview based on it ENROLLMENT FIGURE* Master’s Program in “Society, Multimedia, and Performance (SMS)”: 20 state-funded spots + 28 tuition-paying spots Master’s Program in “Theory and Practice of the Image (TPI)”: 20 state-funded spots + 28 tuition-paying spots *The number of available spots will be updated after the spot confirmation period for the April pre-admission session has ended. Online tutoring to help you fill out the application form: Laura Mesina, Ph.D., Professor and Coordinator of the SD SITT/CESI Study Programs, laura.mesina@litere.unibuc.ro Assistance with preparing the application (secretariat): Simona Chiaburu, simona.chiaburu@litere.unibuc.ro / office@cesi.unibuc.ro Facebook Group FOR CANDIDATES: CESI Master's Program Admissions 2026 SOCIETY, MULTIMEDIA, ENTERTAINMENT SMS – COURSES AND LABORATORIES Visual Cultural Studies | Urban Cultural Studies | Postmodern Visual Cultures | Gender Studies and Contemporary Visual Culture | Interdisciplinary Film StudiesDocumentary Film | Film and Philosophy | Text and Image in Digital Performance | Video Art and New Technologies of the Artistic Image | Modernity of the Stage | Postwar Stage Experiments | Contemporary Theater | Academic Ethics and Integrity | Scholarly Writing | Research Methods and Methodologies in Cultural Studies | Research Courses and Workshops | Internships at Cultural Festivals (theater, film, multimedia) and urban curation | Internships in cultural institutions | Cultural programs and projects | Dissertation tutorials THEORY AND PRACTICE OF IMAGE TPI – COURSES AND LABORATORIES Visual Cultural Studies | Histories, Arts, and Archives | Forms of Cultural Imagination | Art in the 20th Century | Contemporary Art | Contemporary Art: Curatorial Studies and Practices | Recent Theories of the Figure and Figurability | The Photographic Image | The Architectural Image in European Modernity | European Icons: From Art Object to Public Image | Memory, Meaning, Mediology | Ethics and Academic Integrity | Scholarly Writing | Research Methods and Methodologies in Cultural Studies | Courses and Research Labs | Art Curatorial Practice (Galleries, Biennials) | Internships in Institutions | Cultural Programs and Projects | Dissertation Tutorials TEACHING STAFF Laura Mesina – Professor, Department Chair Ileana Marin – Associate Professor Raluca Bibiri, Laura Marin, Alina Mihalache, Ana Negoiță, Corina Popa – lecturers Mihaela Criticos – visiting professor Magdalena Dragu, Mihai Ometiță – Associate Lecturers Ioana-Iuna Șerban – Medical Assistant Irina Bobei, Cristian Drăgan, Ruxandra Ghițescu, Daniel Mihalcea, Mihai Pascar, Eliza Pătrașcu – doctoral assistants Cecilia Ștefănescu – Associate Specialist and Ph.D. Candidate EDUCATION Personalized curriculum | Courses with transferable credits (30) between the SD SITT/CESI master’s programs | Research laboratories and team-based practical projects | (inter)national internships | Digital course materials and library | Access to international scientific databases | Professors, associate professors, and lecturers from the EU and the US | Research and internship mentors | Technical team for research assistance | CESI specialized publications | Contacts and recommendations for (inter)national internships and employment FINANCING FOR STUDIES AND INTERNSHIPS Merit-based and need-based scholarships | Erasmus+ internships and scholarships in Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Greece | Short courses and international summer schools within the CIVIS European University Alliance | IMAGORA-CESI grants for scientific conferences | IMAGORA-CESI grants for internships and research-documentation placements CESI PROGRAMS & IMAGORA-CESI Cultural Association CESI 25 | CESI Digital Fellows | CESI Research Seminar | Cultural Partnerships for (Inter)national Internships | Volunteer Programs | Scientific and Cultural Publications
Discourse and Debate in Scientific Research: The Dissertation in Cultural Studies
Organizers: Second-year CESI master’s students and Lecturer Dr. Corina Popa Actress Sofia Crudu has put together some useful tips for managing emotions and controlling your voice during public presentations. The meeting is intended to support master’s students who are preparing to defend their theses in Cultural Studies. Their papers are almost finished, and their presentations are in the works, so some public speaking practice would be helpful.
Away – Cosmin Bumbuț (photographer) and Elena Stancu (journalist)
Guided tour of the exhibition: April 19, 6:00 p.m., National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) Project Presentation: April 20, 5:00 p.m., Reading Room, right wing, 1st floor, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest. Moderation and organization: Associate Professor Dr. Mihai Ometiță. Photographer Cosmin Bumbuț and journalist Elena Stancu have been documenting Romanian migrant communities across Europe for six and a half years. So far, they have traveled to 12 countries and published over 130 reports on seasonal workers in Germany, doctors and nurses in England, tourism workers in Portugal, farmers in Norway, ship electricians in Denmark, researchers in Sweden, students in the Netherlands, women working as cleaners in Spain, and those caring for the elderly in Italy. The two travel in a campervan and become part of the lives of the people they are documenting, and their project captures the work, daily life, and integration process experienced by Romanian migrants and their transnational families. Their project was nominated for the True Story Award in 2025 and the European Press Prize in 2023; it received a fellowship from the Pulitzer Center in 2021 and several Romanian awards for photography and journalism. In 2024, it was exhibited at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest and at Literaturhaus Berlin, and in 2021 at the Venice Architecture Biennale, in the Romanian pavilion. Cosmin Bumbuț spent 15 years photographing for Romania’s leading brands. At the age of 40, he began working in documentary photography. In 2012, he published, together with Elena Stancu, the photo book Cuba continues (Art Publishing House), about the lives of Cubans during a time of transition. In 2013, he published Bumbata (Punctum Publishing), a photo book about the lives of inmates at Aiud Penitentiary before and after Romania’s accession to the EU. In 2015, he won first prize in the Architecture category of the Sony World Photography Awards with the project Private Room, for which he visited every prison in Romania. His photographs have been exhibited at the Berlin European Month of Photography (2016) and at the Brussels Summer of Photography, BOZAR (2012). In November 2013, journalist Elena Stancu—then deputy editor-in-chief of Marie Claire magazine—and photographer Cosmin Bumbuț moved into a campervan so they could work on documentary projects. They have published reports on extreme poverty, domestic violence, marginalized Roma communities, life in prisons, the medication crisis, school dropouts, and migration. They have produced two documentary films: The Last Boiler (2016), about a Roma family from southern Romania who emigrate to France, and Residents (2018), about Romania’s first center for female inmates with mental illnesses. In 2017, they published a collection of reports Home, on the road (Humanitas). In January 2019, they began work on “Plecat,” the most extensive documentary project on the migration of Romanians to Europe. The project offers an insider’s view of the lives of Romanians in the diaspora: the processes of integration into new societies, the fragile balance between homesickness and the need to belong, the lives of transnational families, and how migration transforms identity, values, and the relationship with Romania. It is an in-depth journalistic endeavor that sheds light on the emotional and social reality of a generation that is simultaneously changing both Romania and Europe.
Schedule of Open Courses: March–May 2026
The open course program will continue in a hybrid format over the next two weeks, giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves and to meet and support the candidates for the online pre-admission on April 27 and 28. We invite you to join us at the SD SITT/CESI Multimedia Lab, basement level (Amphitheater Wing), Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, 5-7 Edgar Quinet Street. To participate online, please email us at: office@cesi.unibuc.ro The open house program offers prospective students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the specific approaches of CESI’s master’s programs in Visual Cultural Studies (an interdisciplinary program involving Philology, Arts, and Architecture), with various dissertation topics, and with the unique working atmosphere of an advanced research center. Meetings with CESI master’s students and faculty provide free consultations regarding the preparation of the application form and the application portfolio.
The Play as an Encounter: A Conversation with Director Eugen Jebeleanu on Directorial Choices, Theatrical Aesthetics, and Adapting the Classics
Eugen Jebeleanu made his acting debut in several plays written by Radu Afrim; in Paris, together with writer and director Yan Verburgh, he founded “Compania 28,” creating Franco-Romanian productions that have gained international recognition. He performs both on independent stages in experimental venues and on the official stages of the national theaters in Bucharest, Sibiu, and Timișoara. In 2020, he won the UNITER Award in the “Best Director” category for the international co-production Itinerarii. One Day the World Will Change (ARCUB and Compagnie des Ogres from France). The meeting will be moderated by Mihaela Adina Drăgan (second-year master’s student in theSociety, multimedia, entertainment) and Alina Gabriela Mihalache (Assistant Professor, Ph.D.).
Kenopsia / Metanoia – Seminar and Studio Visit
Speakers: Ștefan Ungureanu, visual artist; George Anghelescu, visual artist During the seminar and studio visit, visual artists Ștefan Ungureanu and George Anghelescu will present the exhibition Kenopsia / Metanoia, curated by art critic Dan Popescu and on view from December 13, 2025, to February 28, 2026, at InVitro Gallery in Cluj-Napoca. “Ștefan Ungureanu and George Anghelescu are millennials. What specifically distinguishes Gen Y artists from their predecessors? In my view, it has to do with how—since most of them are urban dwellers—they relate to the future and the past. For Gen Y, the past does not carry the dramatic weight of tradition, and the future is viewed with a mixture of optimism and melancholy. The current exhibition presents two examples of affective-axiological visual positioning in relation to the future and the past. Kenopsia is the eerie, desolate atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people and life but is now empty and quiet. It is one of those feelings for which one would not even suspect that there is a term to describe it. Ștefan Ungureanu creates an image that captures this feeling and makes it even more ineffable, in mental landscapes that clearly suggest a fictional future. Despite resembling a landscape reminiscent of an Arizona desert, it bears the traces of human terraforming and of a life that is still smoldering, or that can still be glimpsed. It is the image of the melancholy of the future. George Anghelescu highlights how millennials relate to the past. Reiterating a point he has made before, for Generation Y, the past is either something to be ignored or left behind by coming to terms with its countless injustices. Visual metanoia is George’s obsession. No nation remains untainted by its history, and in each of his images, Anghelescu creates a tension between horror and beauty that speaks more powerfully than many historical treatises. (Text: Dan Popescu / Translation: Bertha Savu)
The Garden of Synthetic Delights – on immersive multimedia exhibitions
Guest: Cristina Bodnărescu, artist new media, co-founder The Ethics of Joy, a master’s student in the CESI program “Society, Multimedia, and Performing Arts” Organized and moderated by: Assistant Professor Ana Negoiță, Ph.D., and Professor Laura Mesina, Ph.D. The Project The Garden of Synthetic Delights proposes a posthumanist interpretation of the relationship between humans and technology, approached through transdisciplinary practices and emerging technologies. In practice, a multidisciplinary team combines visual arts, design, music, programming, 3D modeling and printing, electronics, AI, VR, and scenography to create an immersive artistic experience in virtual reality, open access to a new audience, and integrate digital art into education. During the event, Cristina Bodnărescu will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the project and present the curatorial concept, explaining how the works explore the relationships between the human, the non-human, and the technological, the new forms of sensibility generated by the interactivity between humans, art, and technology, and how the artists involved in the exhibition integrate the body, perception, and affective ecology into a post-natural framework. The exhibition, which features nine art installations, including five newly created immersive installations, was curated by Ioana Iuna Șerban (Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest), who holds a CESI PhD in Humanities and Arts/Philology. Project co-funded by AFCN. Institutional partnership with the Center of Excellence in Image Studies (CESI).
CONFERENCE, PRIVATE EXHIBITION TOUR, AND SEMINAR - The Terrifying and Amusing Transition: Gorzo, a Cultural Reformation, the 2000s
Speaker: Dan Popescu, art historian, owner of H'Art Gallery, curator of the exhibition Dumitru Gorzo – “Does Anyone Want to Be Me?”, MARe, September 18, 2025 – January 18, 2026 Organizer: George Anghelescu, visual artist, CESI specialist The event kicks off the CONTUR CESI 25 program, which marks a quarter-century of activity at the Center of Excellence in the Study of the Image. Guest lecturer Dan Popescu taught courses on modern and contemporary art during the early years of CESI’s master’s program “Theory and Practice of the Image,” beginning in 2001. With extensive experience as a gallerist and currently a member of the board of directors of the Museum of Recent Art, Dan Popescu offers today’s CESI students a lecture, a seminar, and a guided tour—in his capacity as curator—through the exhibition-event curated by Dumitru Gorzo.
Reading Urban Strata: The Semiotics of Post-Communist Spaces
Scientific and Organizing Committee: PhD candidates Eliza Pătrașcu and Irina Bobei (SD SITT/CESI, University of Bucharest) Dr. Ileana Marin (SD SITT/CESI, University of Bucharest, University of Washington) Dr. Cristina Albu (University of Missouri-Kansas City) Special Guest: Dr. Isaac Marrero-Guillamón (University of Barcelona) Visual Identity: eliza_demian Reading Urban Strata: The Semiotics of Post-Communist Spaces Bucharest | June 11–14, 2025 This event brings together researchers, artists, and practitioners to reflect on how time, architecture, and society intersect in post-communist cities. Focusing on Bucharest’s layered urban fabric, we will explore architecture as a living organism shaped by ideology, memory, and everyday use. How can we interpret the traces of history embedded in the city? And how might alternative forms of research and storytelling reframe these narratives? Join us for one or more of the panel discussions, film screenings, site visits, and performative interventions that offer new ways of interpreting the city and its histories. Registration required! If you would like to attend, please send us an email at patrascu.eliza@gmail.com – Limited spots available!
Events dedicated to Prof. Victor Ieronim Stoichiță
April 7, 1:30 p.m., University of Bucharest Rectorate, Senate Hall (90 Panduri Road) The ceremony conferring the title of Doctor Honoris Causa upon Mr. Victor Ieronim Stoichiță, professor emeritus at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), Romania’s foremost image theorist and art historian. April 8, 5:00 p.m., “Carol I” Central University Library, Auditorium (88 Calea Victoriei) Victor Ieronim Stoichiță – ABOUT DREAMS – Keynote Lecture The lecture is related to his impressive recent work, *La fabrique du rêve. Songe et représentation au seuil de la modernité* (Éditions Hazan, 2024).Long before the Surrealist revolution, the history of art and imagery had already grappled with dreamlike experiences, which it sought to render in a visible form. The phenomenon is significant above all because of the challenges posed by moving beyond the strictly verbal framework involved in the “narration” (oral or textual) of a dream—with all its difficulties and pitfalls—by resorting to a fundamentally visual account. This playback Visual learning involves a number of specific challenges. This conference aims to address them (Victor Ieronim Stoichiță)What is the place of the dream’s illusion in the age of the invention of perspective? What challenges does the representation of altered states of consciousness pose at the moment of the discovery of the cogito? How is the status of the dream sign defined in the realm of painting? The most important artists, from Raphael and Michelangelo to Vermeer, from Giotto and Dürer to Bosch and Schongauer, have grappled with these questions, attempting to offer a series of answers. Others, less well-known, have raised these questions, challenging, through their approach, the ideas of classical oneiromancy as well as the viewer’s interpretive abilities. Through this critical reflection at the intersection of dream interpretation and image analysis, Victor Ieronim Stoichiță addresses a fundamental hermeneutic problem: how to approach the indistinct, the unclear, the imprecise, the obscure, the vague. (trans. from Fr. Humanitas) April 9, 4:00 p.m., Reading Room, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest (5–7 Edgar Quinet Street) ABOUT AUTOBIOGRAPHY – Roundtable Discussion Participants: Victor Ieronim Stoichiță, Professor Emeritus at the University of Fribourg Ana Blandiana, writer, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy Sorin Alexandrescu, Professor Emeritus at the University of Amsterdam, founding director of CESI, honorary member of the Romanian Academy Iulian Boldea, professor at the “G.E. Palade” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Târgu Mureș, editor-in-chief of the journal Vatra. The moderator of the event, Sorin Alexandrescu, will open the discussion with Victor Ieronim Stoichiță’s autobiography, *Farewell to Bucharest: A Story* (translated from French by Mona Antohi, Humanitas, 2024 [2015], pp. 193–194). Published in French in 2014, it was awarded the Prize for the Promotion of the French Language and Literature by the French Academy in 2015. The discussion will also explore the relationship between personal identity, history, text and image, cultural belonging, memoirs, and the diary. Main promoters and organizers: Sorin Alexandrescu and Laura Mesina Institutional partners: The "Carol I" Central University Library, New Europe College, Humanitas, and the IMAGORA-CESI Association.