Romania took hold of my heart in 2015 and since then has consumed my mind and soul. As with any genuine commitment, my relationship with this beautiful, complex country has grown and deepened over time as I have learned of its many tragedies, as well as its many triumphs. I have surrendered myself to Romania. [...] As I continue my Romanian journey, I marvel over the resiliency and fortitude of the people. I am fortunate to have developed close relationships, familial in many ways, with many Romanians. And I am eternally grateful to have been granted a Fulbright and honored to become part of this amazing community.
In Memoriam — Keith Hitchins
We learn with profound regret the passing away of outstanding historian and scholar Keith Hitchins, Professor at the University of Illinois and the first American grantee to study in Romania under the auspices of the U.S.-Romania Cultural Exchange program back in 1960. It was the beginning of a long brilliant career of studies on Romanian and South-East European history, during which Professor Hitchins published an impressive number of volumes in Romanian and English, such as Rumanian National Movement in Transylvania, 1780-1849 (Harvard University Press, 1969), Romania, 1866-1947 and The Romanians, 1774-1866 (both published by Oxford University Press, 1994 and 1996) and A Concise History of Romania (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Professors Hitchins has not only essentially contributed to Romanian historiography and to define Romanian identity, but he was a first and outstanding participant in the Fulbright exchanges. In his own words, quoted from his speech during the Anniversary of 50 Years of the Fulbright Program in Romania in June 2010:
“After a period of strain in the late 1940s and 1950s, regular relations between Romania and the United States were gradually re-established in the 1960s and 1970s. It is reasonable to think that the cultural exchange was not only a consequence of this thaw, but also contributed decisively to a deepening of what had been a long-term, mutually satisfactory relationship. Our gathering today is striking testimony to the strength of the bonds of culture and friendship that thousands of American and Romanian Fulbrighters have forged in the last half-century. They and all those who have served the Fulbright program with such dedication have laid the solid foundations for many more half-centuries of fruitful exchanges to come.”