Ovidiu Pecican

Ovidiu Coriolan Pecican (born January 8, 1959) is a Romanian historian, essayist, novelist, short-story writer, literary critic, poet, playwright, and journalist of partly Serbian origin.

During the late 1970s, he was active in the underground movie-making movement in his native city, as a member of the Atelier 16 Club, together with Gheorghe Sabău, Mircea Mihăieş, Ioan T. Morar, Valentin Constantin, Alexandru Pecican and others.

He published his first short story in 1978.

As a student, between 1981 and 1985, he became a member of the staff of the periodicals Napoca Universitară and Echinox.

Born in Arad, Pecican graduated from the University of Cluj-Napoca (currently known as the Babeș-Bolyai University, UBB) in 1985.

Between 1985 and 1990, Pecican worked as a high school professor of history in Lipova, Arad County; in 1991–1994, he was a researcher for the UBB's Center for Transylvanian Studies (Centrul de Studii Transilvane), before becoming a Lecturer at the UBB (1994).

The recipient of a BA in History and Philosophy (1985) and of a PhD in Medieval History (1998), both from the UBB, he specialized in the social and cultural history of Central and Southeastern Europe.

Regularly featured in various literary magazines, his prose was first edited in a single volume in 1990 (Eu și maimuța mea, "Me and My Monkey" — published by Editura Dacia).

Since 1994, he has been a member of the Romanian Writers' Union.

In 1994, Pecican published a book of interviews with novelist Nicolae Breban (O utopie tangibilă, "A Tangible Utopia"; Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică).

In 1995, he also authored, together with Horaţiu Mihaiu, the experimental theater show 17 acte cu Piet Mondrian ("17 Acts with Piet Mondrian"), which was hosted by the National Theater in Cluj-Napoca, before being showcased at the Belgrade Summer Festival and winning several Romanian awards.

After 1997, books by him were published yearly or in several volumes each year.

In late 1999, when the Ministry of Education, led by Andrei Marga at the time, decided to allow new textbooks to be published as alternatives to the official ones in use, Pecican, together with Sorin Mitu, Lucia Copoeru, Virgiliu Țârău, and Liviu Țîrău, published a version of a 12th grade manual of Romanian history with Editura Sigma.

The volume was submitted to Ministry approval, and caused a political scandal after its content became known to the public — its critics argued that it lacked structure and balance, that it discarded traditional historiography in themes and discourse, and even that part of the information was purely trivial.

Pecican identified most of these concerns with support for nationalist tenets, and argued they were unscientific.

The volume was immediately faced with criticism from the ultra-nationalist opposition group Greater Romania Party, through the voice of Anghel Stanciu (who called the textbook "anti-national").

Soon after, Romania's largest opposition group at the time, the Social Democratic Party, joined in the protest, and Parliamentary groups from outside the governing Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) issued a formal protest: their motion was rejected on November 15, but the scandal, deepened by major coverage in the press, probably contributed to weakening support for the CDR.

Academia was divided over the issue: while the Romanian Academy expressed concern that the Sigma textbook was not up to educational standards, several, especially young, historians supported it.

The National Liberal politician and historian Adrian Cioroianu, himself the co-author of a new manual and a vocal critic of the methods of Pecican's adversaries during the polemic, publicly sided with the Sigma authors, and argued in their favor during televised confrontations with Marius Tucă and Octavian Paler.

Eventually, the original version failed to win Ministry approval.

In later editions, the Sigma textbook was published with significant changes in content.

With Molnar Gusztav, Smaranda Enache, Marius Cotmeanu, Miklós Bakk and other Romanian and Magyar intellectuals from Transylvania, Pecican founded the Provincia Group around the magazine Provincia (April 2000); it was created as an advocacy group in favor of debating the majority-minority relationship in Romania, dedicated to reshaping Romanian administrative policies and renouncing centralism.

He is a coordinator of the Other Europes series for the Foundation's publishing house, EFES, and, between 2001–2005, he headed another publishing house, founded by the Desire Foundation.

He also coordinates the Limb series for the Limes Publishing House.

Pecican was also head of the Post-Totalitarian Studies, an office he shared with Emil Boc (who was a lecturer at the time).

He has edited Romanian-language versions of, among others, works by Geoffroy de Villehardouin (De la Conquête de Constantinople), Robert de Clari (La Conquête de Constantinople), Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu (Olteneștile), and Yves Ternon (L'État criminel).

On December 8, 2001, it issued a Memorandum calling for a public debate on the issue of Transylvanian autonomy.

The Memorandum drew criticism from several sources.

In an editorial for Ziua, Adrian Cioroianu expressed his own support for a degree of decentralization, but argued that the document was unrealistic in its assumptions and more radical goals, and that it did not represent a unitary perspective on the issue.

The Memorandum was dismissed outright by President Ion Iliescu, a gesture which prompted Pecican to address him in an open letter.

The more nationalist political forces called on authorities to indict the document's authors, based on an interpretation of the Constitution of Romania.

In 2002, the PSD Minister Ecaterina Andronescu removed it from the list of endorsed textbooks, which caused Pecican to issue a formal protest, supported by, among others, the historian and West University professor Victor Neumann.

Both Pecican and Neumann expressed concerns that this was signaling a return to official history, and made mention of inconsistencies in educational policies.

Pecican is a Professor (since 2004) and was Chancellor at the Babeș-Bolyai University Faculty of European Studies (1997–1999) and served on the staff of the UBB's "The European Idea" Foundation for European Studies as its first manager (1997–1999).

He has been the recipient of TEMPUS grants from the University of Sussex, Utrecht University, the University of Münster, the University of Milan, and the INALCO, as well as receiving grants from the Central European University, Michigan State University and a DAAD grant from the University of Münster.

In late October 2005, the journalist Melania Mandaș Vergu published an article in Gândul on the issue of Pecican's alleged candidature for government office in Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu's Justice and Truth cabinet.

The article made reference to Pecican's involvement in the textbook scandal (focusing on a reference to "Decebalus' sensual lips", made in the Sigma volume) and identified Pecican's ideas with those of Sabin Gherman, the advocate of a high degree of Transylvanian autonomy (it alleged that Pecican shared Gherman's statement "I'm all fed up with Romania!").

He is especially known for his political writings on disputed issues such as regional autonomy for Transylvania, and for his co-authorship of a controversial history textbook for 11th and 12th grade high-school students.

Pecican is co-editor of Caietele Tranziției and a contributor to major newspapers, including Contemporanul, Cotidianul, and Ziarul Financiar.

He has also written works of science fiction, mainstream literature and cultural history studies.