Over the last week-and-a-half (7-16 August 2023), students from the universities of Regensburg and Jena explored the Romanian capital Bucharest, with almost 3 million inhabitants one of the largest cities in the European Union.

Mostly in small groups, they explored the city and its different neighbourhoods mainly by walking (dérive), while experimenting with various methodologies: reading signs (through urban semiotics), experiencing everyday life on streets (through ethnography) and reflecting on their ‘subjective’ perceptions of the city (through psychogeography and urban sketching). Topics covered were socialist neighbourhoods and other legacies from socialism such as the imposing ‘House of the People’, the historical centre as well as periphery of the city, public spaces and parks, traffic and infrastructure, gated communities, markets, nightlife and the nocturnal city, religious life, and the depiction of Bucharest in various literary works. The excursion was led by Valeska Bopp-Filimonov (U of Jena, Romance Studies) and Ger Duijzings (U of Regensburg, Social Anthropology). During the first few days, a third group of students under guidance of the urban historian Gruia Bădescu (U of Konstanz, East European History) joined, allowing all students to get extensive insights in the city´s architecture and politics of memory.

Students took extensive ethnographic notes and kept a collective diary. In the next few weeks, they will prepare reports about their research projects, which will be published in due course.