Marius Turda
Biographic Data
| ID | 511490 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marius Turda |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marius |
| FAMILY NAME | Turda |
| SIGNATURE | TURDA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Oxford Brookes University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5225-1536 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 7 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Racialization of Roma as “Black” in Interwar Romania and Beyond
This article addresses the underrepresentation of “blackness” within Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), which has historically concentrated on the United States, western Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Despite calls for global expansion, CWS has so far inadequately engaged with the ways in which individuals perceived as “Black” were excluded from the idealized national community in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The marginalization of…
Eugenics is an integral aspect of our global scientific and political culture: Interview with Marius Turda
Despite public condemnation after the defeat of Nazism, eugenic ideas continue to persist into the twenty-first century in different countries and contexts and with varying forms of intensity and support, as seen in events such as the covid-19 pandemic and the George Floyd case, discourse by contemporary far-right populist governments, and the 2024 US presidential election. This interview with Professor Marius Turda, a prominent scholar in the fi…
Eugenics and the Racialisation of ‘White Eastern Europeans
Colonialism, eugenics and ‘race’ in Central and Eastern Europe
The legacies of eugenics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and their connections to global colonialism remain uncharted. Therefore, it is worth pondering over this relationship, which requires a historical perspective and a repositioning of the recent postcolonial ‘turn’ in CEE to include the history of eugenics. For the most part of the 20th century, eugenics took shape within both colonial and nation-building projects. Eugenic strategies devi…
Desafiando os cânones nacionais: Novas Perspectivas E as Possibilidades De Um Futuro Antieugênico
The Roma and the Question of Ethnic Origin in Romania during the Holocaust
This article suggests that the arguments used to justify the deportation of Roma to Transnistria in 1942 were racial and eugenic. As a selfstyled scientific theory of human betterment, eugenics aimed to sanitize Romania’s population, proposing a new vision of the national community, one biologically purged of those individuals believed to be “defective”, “unfit”, and “unworthy” of reproduction. Based on new archival material we suggest that the r…
Legacies of eugenics: Confronting the past, forging a future
The anti-eugenic commemoration of the Second International Congress of Eugenics, held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York between 22 and 28 September 1921, was unprecedented in terms of its global reach and the number of individuals and organizations involved. Meetings, conferences, seminars, exhibitions, and symposia were convened throughout 2021–22 to review how assumptions and attitudes rooted in eugenics continue to affect t…
The “Yellow Spot” on Europe’s “Snow White Body”
This essay is written in response to Böröcz’s (2021) essay on race in Europe
Subversive affinities: Embracing soviet science in late 1940s Romania
This article discusses the appropriation of Soviet science in Romania during the late 1940s. To achieve this, I discuss various publications on biology, anthropology, heredity and genetics. In a climate of major political change, following the end of the Second World War, all scientific fields in Romania were gradually subjected to political pressures to adapt and change according to a new ideological context. Yet the adoption of Soviet science d…
Identities In-Between in East-Central Europe
The lands that once comprised the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth pose a fascinating challenge to studies of identity. In the last two-and-a-half centuries in place of an erstwhile multinational Commonwealth, countries have disappeared and re-emerged, often in new guises, in the fault-lines between land-based empires. The relationship between discourse, territory and identity has a complex history in the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a mu…
Teleology and Modernity
Exploring Transylvania: Geographies of Knowledge and Entangled Histories in a Multiethnic Province, 1790–1918, by Borbála Zsuzsanna Török
Reminiscing about the Hungarian zoologist and histologist István Apáthy (1863–1922), the German physiologist Albrecht Bethe (1872–1954) noted his friend’s many scientific qualities alongside his ardent Hungarian nationalism. Apáthy, according to Bethe, would ‘return to sender’ any letter addressed to him at Klausenburg, the German name of the capital of Transylvania, instead of Kolozsvár (the city’s Hungarian name). This story is revealing of the…
Romanian Eugenic Sub-Culture and the Allure of Biopolitics, 1918–39
By the late 1920s a considerable body of eugenic literature in Romanian, Hungarian and German had been produced in Romania, illustrating the growing importance afforded to science and evolutionary theories of human improvement in this country. Engaging with this literature, this article investigates the emergence of a Romanian sub-culture in Transylvania and the Banat, sanctioned through eugenics and biopolitics, and promoted by cultural associat…
Eugenics, History of
Eugenics as a Basis of Population Policy
The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900–1945: Sources and Commentaries
Distinctive eugenic models of modernity developed in Central Europe between 1900 and 1944, models that were adapted and used by political leaders in the immediate post-1918 era. Yet these theories, their reception and the long-term impact of them have remained largely obscure until now. Central European Eugenics, 1900-1944 is an encyclopedia that redefines a new European history of eugenics by exploring the ideological transmission of eugenics in…
Eugenics and Nation in Early 20th Century Hungary
In 1900 Hungary was a regional power in Europe with imperial pretensions; by 1919 it was crippled by profound territorial, social and national transformations. This book chronicles the development of
The ambiguous victim: Miklós Nyiszli's narrative of medical experimentation in Auschwitz-Birkenau
While recent scholarship has – for the past two decades – endeavoured to transcend initial reservations about memoirs of Holocaust survivors, the difficulty with some of these memoirs – namely their authors’ implicit complicity in unethical medical research and in the Nazi Holocaust in general – remains however problematic. To address this thorny issue, this article considers the memoirs of a Jewish inmate doctor, Miklós Nyiszli, who worked with …
Crafting a Healthy Nation: European Eugenics in Historical Context
Crafting Humans: From Genesis to Eugenics and Beyond
Clerical Fascism in Interwar Europe
This edited volume arose from an international workshop convened in 2006 by Feldman and Turda with Tudor Georgescu, supported by Routledge, and the universities of Oxford, Brookes, Northampton and CEU (Budapest). As the field of fascist studies continues to integrate more fully into pan-European studies of the twentieth century, and given the increasing importance of secular ‘political religion’ as a taxonomic tool for understanding such revoluti…
In Pursuit of Greater Hungary: Eugenic Ideas of Social and Biological Improvement, 1940-1941
András Gerő, Public Space in Budapest: The History of Kossuth Square
In search of racial types: Soldiers and the anthropological mapping of the Romanian nation, 1914–44
Turda's article explores the diverse ways in which racial research conducted on prisoners-of-war (POWs) and soldiers contributed to the emergence of anthropological narratives of national identity in Romania between 1914 and 1944. It first discusses racial typologies produced by Austrian, German, Italian and Polish anthropologists investigating POWs during the First World War, and then examines how Romanian physicians and anthropologists engaged …
Doing anthropology in wartime and war zones edited by Johler, Reinhard, Christian Marchetti and Monique Scheer
The Nation as Object: Race, Blood, and Biopolitics in Interwar Romania
In this article, Marius Turda discusses Romanian anthropological and serological research during the interwar period. At the time, the physical contours of the nation captured the attention of specialists and lay commentators alike, from skeptical believers in the historical destiny of the nation to those obsessed with national essence. In this context, anthropology and serology provided scientific legitimacy to the assumption that there was a ra…
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
This revealing and informative study traces the convoluted history of medical experimentation on Black Americans in the USA since the middle of the eighteenth century. In an engaging narrative, Harriet A. Washington forcefully argues that diverse forms of racial discrimination have shaped both the relationship between white physicians and black patients and the attitude of the latter towards modern medicine in general. The book is divided into th…
Entangled traditions of race
This article discusses the relationship between race and physical anthropology in Hungary and Romania between 1900 and 1940. It begins by looking at institutional developments in both countries and how these influenced the most important Hungarian and Romanian anthropologists' professional and research agendas. Drawing from a wide range of primary sources, the article reveals the significant role the concept of race played in articulating anthrop…
Colonialism, eugenics and ‘race’ in Central and Eastern Europe
The legacies of eugenics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and their connections to global colonialism remain uncharted. Therefore, it is worth pondering over this relationship, which requires a historical perspective and a repositioning of the recent postcolonial ‘turn’ in CEE to include the history of eugenics. For the most part of the 20th century, eugenics took shape within both colonial and nation-building projects. Eugenic strategies devi…
Romanian Eugenic Sub-Culture and the Allure of Biopolitics, 1918–39
By the late 1920s a considerable body of eugenic literature in Romanian, Hungarian and German had been produced in Romania, illustrating the growing importance afforded to science and evolutionary theories of human improvement in this country. Engaging with this literature, this article investigates the emergence of a Romanian sub-culture in Transylvania and the Banat, sanctioned through eugenics and biopolitics, and promoted by cultural associat…
In Pursuit of Greater Hungary: Eugenic Ideas of Social and Biological Improvement, 1940-1941
In search of racial types: Soldiers and the anthropological mapping of the Romanian nation, 1914–44
Turda's article explores the diverse ways in which racial research conducted on prisoners-of-war (POWs) and soldiers contributed to the emergence of anthropological narratives of national identity in Romania between 1914 and 1944. It first discusses racial typologies produced by Austrian, German, Italian and Polish anthropologists investigating POWs during the First World War, and then examines how Romanian physicians and anthropologists engaged …
The Magyars: A Ruling Race': The Idea of National Superiority in Fin-de-Sie ¤ cle Hungary
This article focuses on the ways in which racial and Social Darwinist discourses affected and shaped nationalism in fin-de-sie ¤ cle Hungary. Many debates on assimilation and Magyarisation have used racial ingredients not only to strengthen their argumentation, but also as a reflection of the changing nature of national identification. When one thinks about the tense relationship between Hungarian assimilationist rhetoric and Romanian nationalism…
The “Yellow Spot” on Europe’s “Snow White Body”
This essay is written in response to Böröcz’s (2021) essay on race in Europe
New Perspectives on Race and Eugenics
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
From craniology to serology: Racial anthropology in interwar Hungary and Romania
Eugenics and the Racialisation of ‘White Eastern Europeans
The ambiguous victim: Miklós Nyiszli's narrative of medical experimentation in Auschwitz-Birkenau
While recent scholarship has – for the past two decades – endeavoured to transcend initial reservations about memoirs of Holocaust survivors, the difficulty with some of these memoirs – namely their authors’ implicit complicity in unethical medical research and in the Nazi Holocaust in general – remains however problematic. To address this thorny issue, this article considers the memoirs of a Jewish inmate doctor, Miklós Nyiszli, who worked with …
András Gerő, Public Space in Budapest: The History of Kossuth Square
The Magyars: A Ruling Race': The Idea of National Superiority in Fin-de-Sie ¤ cle Hungary
This article focuses on the ways in which racial and Social Darwinist discourses affected and shaped nationalism in fin-de-sie ¤ cle Hungary. Many debates on assimilation and Magyarisation have used racial ingredients not only to strengthen their argumentation, but also as a reflection of the changing nature of national identification. When one thinks about the tense relationship between Hungarian assimilationist rhetoric and Romanian nationalism…
New perspectives on Romanian fascism: Themes and options
‘A New Religion’? Eugenics and Racial Scientism in Pre‐First World War Hungary
This article discusses developments in eugenic thinking which animated Hungarian scientific community before the First World War. One case in particular is relevant in this context: the 1911 debate on racial improvement and heredity. The debate marked a major turning point in the evolution of eugenics and the emergence of racial scientism in Hungary. Both discourses were formulated as totalising responses to a number of scientific topics, like he…
Blood and Homeland: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900-1940
The history of eugenics and racial nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe is a neglected topic of analysis in contemporary scholarship. The 20 essays in this volume, written by distinguished scholars of eugenics and fascism alongside a new generation of scholars, excavate the hitherto unknown eugenics movements in Central and Southeast Europe, including Austria and Germany. Eugenics and racial nationalism are topics that have constantly been…
‘Clerical Fascism’ in Interwar Europe: An Introduction
In 1934 Frederick L. Schuman, financed by an American Academy of Political and Social Sciences fellowship, set about conducting an ambitious field work project in Germany: a study of the recent Nat
Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland (review)
Reviewed by: Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland Marius Turda Gunnar Broberg and Nils Roll-Hansen , eds. Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. 2nd ed. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2005. xviii + 294 pp. Tables. $24.95 (paperbound, 0-87013-758-1). The Scandinavian welfare state is often glorified as an ideal model of so…
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
This revealing and informative study traces the convoluted history of medical experimentation on Black Americans in the USA since the middle of the eighteenth century. In an engaging narrative, Harriet A. Washington forcefully argues that diverse forms of racial discrimination have shaped both the relationship between white physicians and black patients and the attitude of the latter towards modern medicine in general. The book is divided into th…
Blood And Homeland: Eugenics And Racial Nationalism in Central And Southeast Europe, 1900-1940
The Nation as Object: Race, Blood, and Biopolitics in Interwar Romania
In this article, Marius Turda discusses Romanian anthropological and serological research during the interwar period. At the time, the physical contours of the nation captured the attention of specialists and lay commentators alike, from skeptical believers in the historical destiny of the nation to those obsessed with national essence. In this context, anthropology and serology provided scientific legitimacy to the assumption that there was a ra…
From craniology to serology: Racial anthropology in interwar Hungary and Romania
Politics, Religion, Gender, and Historiography: Eastern European Perspectives
Conservative Palingenesis and Cultural Modernism in Early Twentieth‐century Romania 1
The scholarship on fascism has routinely explored the relationship between anti‐Enlightenment critiques of liberal modernity and democracy and the emergence of concepts of cultural, political and biological regeneration before the First World War. This is powerfully illustrated by Roger Griffin’s recent book on modernity and fascism. This article applies Griffin’s conceptual framework to ideas of conservative palingenesis and cultural modernist c…
Need and Care: Glimpses into the Beginnings of Eastern Europe's Professional Welfare * Guardians of the Poor, Custodians of the Public: Welfare History in Eastern Europe, 1900-1960 * Eugenik in Osterr…
Journal Article Need and Care: Glimpses into the Beginnings of Eastern Europe's Professional WelfareGuardians of the Poor, Custodians of the Public: Welfare History in Eastern Europe, 1900–1960Eugenik in Österreich. Biopolitische Strukturen von 1900–1945Nebunia. O antropologie istorică româneascăO antropologie a marginalului. Psihiatria judiciară românească, 1860–1940Iresponsabilitatea. Aspecte medico-legale, psihiatrice cu aplicaţii în dreptul p…
New Perspectives on Race and Eugenics
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Entangled traditions of race
This article discusses the relationship between race and physical anthropology in Hungary and Romania between 1900 and 1940. It begins by looking at institutional developments in both countries and how these influenced the most important Hungarian and Romanian anthropologists' professional and research agendas. Drawing from a wide range of primary sources, the article reveals the significant role the concept of race played in articulating anthrop…
Doing anthropology in wartime and war zones edited by Johler, Reinhard, Christian Marchetti and Monique Scheer
András Gerő, Public Space in Budapest: The History of Kossuth Square
In search of racial types: Soldiers and the anthropological mapping of the Romanian nation, 1914–44
Turda's article explores the diverse ways in which racial research conducted on prisoners-of-war (POWs) and soldiers contributed to the emergence of anthropological narratives of national identity in Romania between 1914 and 1944. It first discusses racial typologies produced by Austrian, German, Italian and Polish anthropologists investigating POWs during the First World War, and then examines how Romanian physicians and anthropologists engaged …
Crafting a Healthy Nation: European Eugenics in Historical Context
Crafting Humans: From Genesis to Eugenics and Beyond
Clerical Fascism in Interwar Europe
This edited volume arose from an international workshop convened in 2006 by Feldman and Turda with Tudor Georgescu, supported by Routledge, and the universities of Oxford, Brookes, Northampton and CEU (Budapest). As the field of fascist studies continues to integrate more fully into pan-European studies of the twentieth century, and given the increasing importance of secular ‘political religion’ as a taxonomic tool for understanding such revoluti…
In Pursuit of Greater Hungary: Eugenic Ideas of Social and Biological Improvement, 1940-1941
Eugenics and Nation in Early 20th Century Hungary
In 1900 Hungary was a regional power in Europe with imperial pretensions; by 1919 it was crippled by profound territorial, social and national transformations. This book chronicles the development of
The ambiguous victim: Miklós Nyiszli's narrative of medical experimentation in Auschwitz-Birkenau
While recent scholarship has – for the past two decades – endeavoured to transcend initial reservations about memoirs of Holocaust survivors, the difficulty with some of these memoirs – namely their authors’ implicit complicity in unethical medical research and in the Nazi Holocaust in general – remains however problematic. To address this thorny issue, this article considers the memoirs of a Jewish inmate doctor, Miklós Nyiszli, who worked with …
Eugenics, History of
Political science (32 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Law (27 works) · History (21 works) · Medical History and Research (19 works) · Eugenics (17 works) · European history and politics (15 works) · Gender Studies (15 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Politics (14 works)