Andrei Pippidi

Andrei-Nicolae Pippidi (born 12 March 1948 in Bucharest) is a Romanian historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Bucharest, specialised in South-Eastern European history of the 15th–19th century, in Romanian history of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, and in the relationship between South-Eastern Europe and the Occident.[1]

Andrei Pippidi during the awarding ceremony of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012

After graduating from the Faculty of History at the University of Bucharest, Pippidi was employed at the Institute of South Eastern European Studies in Bucharest from 1970. Additionally, he conducted research abroad, hosted by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris (1974 and 1978, with Pierre Chaunu and Jacques Le Goff), and Wolfson College, Oxford (1981–82).[2] In 1981, he earned a doctoral degree at the Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, 1986 at the University of Oxford (supervised by Hugh Trevor-Roper). In addition to his research at the Institute of South Eastern European Studies, Pippidi worked at the University of Bucharest from 1990, where he was appointed Professor of Medieval History in 1995. He was a Visiting Professor at Collegium Budapest (1995), Amsterdam University (1996), and Central European University, Budapest (1999). A member of various Commissions in Romania and abroad, he was created knight of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012. 2016, he retired from his position at the University of Bucharest, while continuing to teach courses there.

In addition to his main activity as a Medievalist, Pippidi became a founding member of the civil rights organization Grupul pentru Dialog Social in 1990. He was a member of the international historic commission that created the Elie Wiesel Report on the Romanian participation in the Holocaust, as well as the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania led by Vladimir Tismăneanu.[3] He strongly advocated the preservation of Bucharest's architectural monuments, publishing a journal column and a two-volume popular scientific work on this issue.[4][5][6] He was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 2012.[7]

Pippidi's parents were the ancient historian Dionisie Pippidi and his wife Liliana. His maternal grandfather is Nicolae Iorga, a historian, homme des lettres and national conservative politician murdered by the fascist Iron Guard in 1940, whose works Pippidi edits and who also founded the Institute of South Eastern European Studies, where his grandson works.[8] Andrei Pippidi is married to the political scientist Alina Mungiu-Pippidi.