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Dr. Otilia Baraboi/caption
Otilia Vieru Baraboi was born in 1976 in the city of Iai Romania. She is a graduate of the universities of Iai Romania (Faculty of Letters BA 2000) Geneva Switzerland (Faculty of Letters MA 2004) and University of Washington in Seattle (MA 2003; PhD 2010).
Otilia Barabois areas of expertise are French literature in Romania linguistic ideology bilingualism and diaspora studies. She is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the American-Romanian Cultural Society
(ARCS) (2013).
Otilia Baraboi has been living and working as an Associate Lecturer at the University of Washington in Seattle.
I met Mrs. Otilia Baraboi on November 16 2018 at the Romanian Embassy in Washington DC during a gala-symposium on issues of politics security management and culture an event sponsored by the
ALIANȚA (The Alliance The Friends of the Romanian-American Alliance) Foundation. During the event Mrs. Otilia Baraboi was kind enough to give me a brief interview.
1. Mrs. Otilia Baraboi you are the President of the American-Romanian Cultural Association (ARCS). Briefly present to readers how this association was born and what its goals are.
Our association was established in 2013 with the aim of promoting the Romanian culture not only for the Romanian community but also for the Americans who are interested in Romania.
2. What challenges has the association been facing and how do you try to overcome them?
First we are an association based on voluntary work. It is very difficult to motivate the team to come to events to be present at all our events throughout the year because we have events in several sectors we organize events in music education and film festivals which you have probably heard about. On average we need at least twenty volunteers. And these people are busy they have families they have their own jobs. It is very difficult to motivate them to come and volunteer for the ARCS during their spare time. But I think that because our mission is coherence it is a well-articulated mission and it resonates deeply with the community of Romanians and Americans in fact I think that this has brought us together and will take us far together in the future years too.
3. The last question. The association has been very active in promoting Romanian films in the United States. What other future projects does the association have?
Our association wants to adapt the educational programs to the new technologies. For this reason we will create educational programs that integrate visual arts and film as was the first ARCS summer camp this year at the University of Washington in collaboration with the Control N Association and having as instructors the film director Iulia Rugină and actress Ioana Flora. We also want to create a method for teaching Romanian language for children of Romanian origin an interactive and integrative method to be placed on projects on film projects on audio projects to create an anchorage in the current interests of the generation of Romanian-Americans.
4. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
NOTE - A version of the article was published in MEDIUM.
TIBERIU DIANU has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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