For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.

Dr. A.J. (Alex) Drace-Francis

Associate Professor, Modern European Cultural History
Faculty of Humanities
Europese studies
Photographer: onbekend

Visiting address
  • Kloveniersburgwal 48
  • Room number: D2.07A
Postal address
  • Postbus 1619
    1000 BP Amsterdam
Social media
  • Profiel

     

    Alex Drace-Francis is Associate Professor of Modern European Literary and Cultural History in the Department of European Studies. He studied at the Universities of East Anglia (BA) and London (MA, PhD), and taught at the Universities of London and Liverpool, before joining the University of Amsterdam in 2011. 

    Drace-Francis specializes in the modern social and cultural history of Romania and southeastern Europe. His book The Making of Modern Romanian Culture (2006) investigated cultural institutions, literacy and national identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It came out in paperback in 2012, and in Romanian translation in 2016. A second book, The Traditions of Invention (2013), gathered together studies of Romanian and European images, interactions and encounters over the long term. His latest work focuses on mămăligă, a popular Romanian cornmeal dish and a prominent national symbol. The Making of Mămăligă (2022) surveys the cultivation, consumption and commodification of maize in Romanian lands from Ottoman times to the eve of the First World War, as well as the cultural meanings of mămăligă in literature, art, film, folklore and cuisine. 

    Drace-Francis also works on travel writing, especially in relation to cultural encounter and difference across Europe. With Wendy Bracewell of University College London, he has produced bibliographies, translations and scholarly studies on travel writing from eastern Europe, including Under Eastern Eyes (2008),  A Bibliography of East European Travel Writing on Europe (2008), Balkan Departures (2009), and Where to Go in Europe (2013). This research documents social practices and cultural attitudes from the early modern period to the present day, with reference to ideas of eastern and western Europe and other cultural stereotypes. In addition, Drace-Francis has contributed to reference works such as The Cambridge History of Travel Writing and Keywords for Travel Writing Studies.

    Drace-Francis's third main specialism is European identity as a whole. His source collection European Identity (2013) traces this theme across cultures from antiquity to modern times, and is used in courses on Europe in universities in Europe and the US. Most recently, he co-edited and wrote the introduction to the volume Networks, Narratives and Nations (2022) which offers a transnational perspective on cultural nationalism in modern Europe and beyond.

    Other areas in which he has published include historiography and literary history, Balkan/Southeast European regional identities, and history of childhood.

     

    Books

     

    Selected articles and chapters in books

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2022) Introduction: Of networks, narratives and nations. In Networks, Narratives and Nations, ed. M. Brolsma, A. Drace-Francis et al. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 13-28.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019) The elephant on the doorstep? East European perspectives on Eurocentrism. In Eurocentrism in European History and Memory, ed. M. Brolsma, R. de Bruin, M. Lok. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 179-94.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019) Travel writing from Eastern Europe. In The Cambridge History of Travel Writing, ed. N. Das, T. Youngs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 191-205.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2017) Literary history. In European Regions and Boundaries: A conceptual history, ed. D. Mishkova, B. Trencsényi. New York - Oxford: Berghahn, 350-72.
    • Livezeanu, I., Ort, T., & Drace-Francis, A. (2017) The cultures of East Central Europe: Imperial, national, revolutionary. In The Routledge History of East Central Europe since 1700, ed. I. Livezeanu, Á. von Klimó. London - New York: Routledge, 215-77.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2015) Locating remembrance. Regimes of time and cultures of autobiography in post-independence Romania. In Childhood in the Ottoman Empire and After, ed. B. Fortna. Leiden - Boston: Brill, 191-222. [Open access]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2014) All you need is love (review essay). Wasafiri, Journal of contemporary writing 29:2, 80-83.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2013) 'Like a member of a free nation, he spoke without shame': The trope of the foreign traveller in the Romanian literary tradition. In Travel Writing and Ethics, ed. C. Forsdick, C. Fowler, L. Kostova. London - New York: Routledge, 183-203.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2013) Beyond the Land of Green Plums: Romanian language and culture in the work of Herta Müller. In Herta Müller, ed. B. Haines, L. Marven. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 32-48.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2012) Review article: War, politics and culture in Romania and East-Central Europe. European History Quarterly 42:1, 105-13.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2009) 'At ten minutes past two I gazed ecstatically upon both lighthouses': Self, time and object in early Romanian travel texts. In Romantism şi modernitate. Atitudini, reevaluări, polemici [Romanticism and modernity. Perspectives, reappraisals, debates], ed. A. Mihalache, A. Istrate. Iaşi: 'A.I. Cuza' University Press, 23-45.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2008) Towards a natural history of East European travel writing. In Under Eastern Eyes, ed. W. Bracewell, A. Drace-Francis. Budapest - New York: Central European University Press, 1-26.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2008) Everybody's gotta be somewhere: Northernness and Southernness in the European imagination, and in the Basque country. In Imaging the Basques. Foreign Views on the Basque Country, ed. S. Leone, J. MacClancy. Donostia.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2006) A provincial imperialist and a Curious Account of Wallachia: Ignaz von Born. European History Quarterly 36:1, 61-89.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2005) Cultural currents and political choices: Romanian intellectuals in the Banat to 1848. Austrian History Yearbook 36: 65-93. 
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2005) Dinicu Golescu's Account of my Travels (1826): Eurotopia as manifesto. Journeys 6:1-2, 24-53.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2004) Paradoxes of Occidentalism: On travel literature in Ceauşescu's Romania. In The Balkans and the West, ed. A. Hammond. Aldershot, UK, 69-80. [Reprinted in Travel writing: Critical concepts in literary and cultural studies, ed. T. Youngs & C. Forsdick. 4 vols. Routledge, 2012, vol. 2: 231-46]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2004) Travel writing and society: The Romanian tradition. In Călători români în Occident [Romanian travellers to the West], ed. N. Bocşan, I. Bolovan. Cluj-Napoca: Cluj University Press.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2003) Zur Geschichte des Südosteuropakonzepts bis 1914 [On the history of the concept of Southeastern Europe up to 1914]. In Wieser Enzyklopädie des europäischen Ostens , 11: Europa und die Grenzen im Kopf , ed. K. Kaser, D. Gramshammer-Hohl, R. Pichler. Klagenfurt: Wieser Verlag, 275-86.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2003) Romanian book production, 1716-1770. Solanus: International journal for Russian and east European bibliographic, library and publishing studies, n.s., 17, 64-80.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2002) Romanian book production, 1770-1830. Solanus: International journal for Russian and east European bibliographic, library and publishing studies, n.s., 16, 5-26.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2000) Sex, lies and stereotypes: British images of Romania since 1945. In Romanian and British historians on the contemporary history of Romania , ed. G. Cipăianu, V. Ţârău. Cluj-Napoca: Cluj University Press, 87-100.
    • Drace-Francis, A. & W. Bracewell (1999) South-Eastern Europe: History, concepts, boundaries. Balkanologie 3:2, 47-66.

     

    Encyclopedias, scholarly reference works

    Entries/articles/chapters in:

     

    Reviews

    Reviews published in: American Historical Review  –  Central Europe  –  Colloquia, A Journal of Central European History  –  East European Jewish Affairs  –  English Historical Review  –  European History Quarterly  –  H-Romania  –  Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas  – Journal of Ecclesiastical History  –  Journal of European Studies  –  Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans  –  Journeys, The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing  –  Nationalities Papers  –  Nations and Nationalism  Religious Studies Review  –  Reviews in History  –  Slavic Review  –  Slavonic and East European Review  –  Studies in Travel Writing  –  Twentieth-Century British History  –  Wasafiri

     

    Memberships, academic roles

     

    Previous positions, degrees

    • 2005-2011: Lecturer, Modern European History, University of Liverpool
    • 2001-2004: Postdoctoral research fellow, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London
    • 2000-2003: Lecturer, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London
    • 1996-2001: PhD, University of London. Thesis: Literature, Modernity, Nation: The Case of Romania, 1829-1890
    • 1995-1996: MA, South-East European Studies, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London
    • 1989-1992: BA, English and American Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich
  • Publications

    2022

    • Brolsma, M., Drace-Francis, A., Lajosi, K., Maessen, E., Rensen, M., Rock, J., Rodríguez Pérez, Y., & Snel, G. (Eds.) (2022). Networks, Narratives and Nations: Transcultural Approaches to Cultural Nationalism in Modern Europe and Beyond. Amsterdam University Press. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2022). The Making of Mămăligă: Transimperial Recipes for a Romanian National Dish. Central European University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789633865842, https://doi.org/10.7829/j.ctv2cw0rn9 [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2022). Introduction: Of Networks, Narratives and Nations. In M. Brolsma, A. Drace-Francis, K. Lajosi, E. Maessen, M. Rensen, J. Rock, Y. Rodríguez Pérez, & G. Snel (Eds.), Networks, Narratives and Nations: Transcultural Approaches to Cultural Nationalism in Modern Europe and Beyond (pp. 13-28). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463720755 [details]

    2021

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2021). [Review of: I. Marin (2018) Peasant Violence and Antisemitism in Early Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe]. English Historical Review, 136(581), 1092-1094. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceab154 [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2021). [Review of: Á. Berecz (2020) Empty Signs, Historical Imaginaries : The Entangled Nationalization of Names and Naming in a Late Habsburg Borderland]. Slavic Review, 80(4), 914-915. https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2022.31 [details]

    2019

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019). Colonialism. In C. Forsdick, Z. Kinsley, & K. Walchester (Eds.), Keywords for Travel Writing Studies: A Critical Glossary (pp. 48-50). (Anthem Studies in Travel). London: Anthem Press. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019). Form. In C. Forsdick, Z. Kinsley, & K. Walchester (Eds.), Keywords in Travel Writing: A Critical Glossary (pp. 96-98). (Anthem Studies in Travel). London: Anthem Press. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019). Identity. In C. Forsdick, Z. Kinsley, & K. Walchester (Eds.), Keywords for Travel Writing Studies: A Critical Glossary (pp. 125-126). (Anthem studies in travel). London: Anthem Press. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019). Persona. In C. Forsdick, Z. Kinsley, & K. Walchester (Eds.), Keywords for Travel Writing Studies: A Critical Glossary (pp. 181-183). (Anthem Studies in Travel). London: Anthem Press. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019). The Elephant on the Doorstep? East European Perspectives on Eurocentrism. In M. Brolsma, R. de Bruin, & M. Lok (Eds.), Eurocentrism in European History and Memory (pp. 181-192). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvr7f5v5.13 [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2019). Travel writing from eastern Europe. In N. Das, & T. Youngs (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Travel Writing (pp. 191-205). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316556740.013 [details]

    2018

    2017

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2017). Literary History. In D. Miškova, & B. Trencsényi (Eds.), European Regions and Boundaries: A Conceptual History (pp. 350-371). New York: Berghahn Books. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2017). [Review of: C. Bărbulescu (2015) România medicilor: Medici, ţărani şi igienă rurală în România de la 1860 la 1910]. H-Romania. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2017). [Review of: G. Corman (2015) Das Bessarabien-Bild in der zeitgenössischen russischen Reiseliteratur, 1812-1918]. Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 65(3), 499-500. [details]
    • Livezeanu, I., Ort, T., & Drace-Francis, A. (2017). The cultures of East Central Europe: Imperial, national, revolutionary. In I. Livezeanu, & A. von Klimó (Eds.), The Routledge History of East Central Europe Since 1700 (pp. 215-277). London : Routledge. [details]

    2016

    2015

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2015). Locating Remembrance: Regimes of Time and Cultures of Autobiography in Post-Independence Romania. In B. C. Fortna (Ed.), Childhood in the Late Ottoman Empire and After (pp. 191-222). (The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage; No. 59). Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004305809_010 [details]

    2014

    2013

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2013). European Identity: A Historical Reader. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2013). Beyond the Land of Green Plums: Romanian Culture and Language in Herta Müller's Work. In B. Haines, & L. Marven (Eds.), Herta Müller (pp. 32-48). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654642.003.0003 [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. J. (Accepted/In press). The Traditions of Invention. Romanian ethnic and social stereotypes in historical context. (Balkan Studies Library). Brill.

    2012

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2012). 'Like a member of a free nation, he spoke without shame': foreign travellers as a trope in Romanian cultural tradition. In C. Fowler, C. Forsdick, & L. Kostova (Eds.), Travel and ethics: theory and practice (pp. 183-203). (Routledge research in travel writing; No. 7). New York: Routledge. [details]
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2012). War, politics and culture in Romania and East-Central Europe. European History Quarterly, 42(1), 105-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265691411434249 [details]

    2013

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2013). [Review of: C.M. Philliou (2011) Biography of an empire: governing Ottomans in an age of revolution]. Reviews in history, 2013, 1312. [details]

    2012

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2012). Paradoxes of occidentalism: on travel and travel writing in Ceauşescu’s Romania. In T. Youngs, & C. Forsdick (Eds.), Travel writing: critical concepts in literary and cultural studies: vol. 2: the contexts of travel (pp. 231-246). (Concepts in literary and cultural studies). London: Routledge. [details]

    2014

    2013

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2013). [Review of: P. Mitev, I. Parvev (2010) Empires and peninsulas: Southeastern Europe between Karlowitz and the Peace of Adrianople, 1699-1829]. English Historical Review, 128(531), 439-440. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cet028 [details]

    2012

    Membership / relevant position

    • Drace-Francis, A. (2016-2017). National Council for the Accreditation of University Titles, Degrees and Certifications, Consiliul Naţional de Atestare a Titlurilor, Diplomelor si Certificatelor Universitare.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (2016). Convenor, 'Rethinking Modern Europe' seminar, "Rethinking Modern Europe" seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London.

    Media appearance

    Journal editor

    Talk / presentation

    • Drace-Francis, A. (speaker) (28-9-2017). A sea of information: networks and routes of knowledge and power, c. 1700-1850, Knowledge Exchange and the Black Sea Region, 1750-1850, Graz.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (speaker) (10-7-2017). Recycling Romantic Spain: A Romanian traveller’s Spanish notebook and the “lens of prior reading”, Borders and Crossings, Aberystwyth.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (speaker) (3-5-2017). The (Un)Civilizing Process? Travel Literature and the Evaluation of Social Norms in the Romanian Principalities, 1770-1848, Humboldt University, Berlin.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (speaker) (21-2-2017). From confrontation to impersonation: Romanian encounters with the English, 1825-1900, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
    • Drace-Francis, A. (speaker) (7-6-2016). From Another Shore: Travel Writing and Regional Identities Beyond East and West, New Europe College. http://www.nec.ro/public-events/2016/june

    Others

    • Drace-Francis, A. (participant) (25-8-2016 - 28-8-2016). "Travel Writing and Identity", Basel (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Drace-Francis, A. (participant) (13-5-2016 - 15-5-2016). „(Im)pudoarea în cultura română“ [(In)decency in Romanian Culture"], Vienna. Paper "Geografiile statutului: Călătoriile lui Vasile Alecsandri în Africa" (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Drace-Francis, A. (examiner) (8-1-2016). External examiner (examination).

    2020

    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • No ancillary activities