A conversation about national promotion and the (re)branding of post-communist Romania
As the technological revolution is transforming every aspect of our lives, making age-old ways obsolete and putting strategic communication at the heart of foreign affairs, the last Feraru conversation of the spring/summer season 2021 focused on national promotion, international marketing and country image creation as crucial tools in the new diplomatic toolkit in the company of Dr. Alina Elena Dolea of Bournemouth University, the author of Twenty Years of (Re)branding Post-Communist Romania, an eye-opening account of Romanian efforts to shake off a damaging symbolic legacy and align the country's international reputation with its democratic realities.
ALINA DOLEA holds a PhD in Communication Sciences and her research interests span public diplomacy, nation branding, migration, strategic communication, and political communication. She is the recipient of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) 2015 PhD Award for Excellent Doctoral Theses. She was Fulbright Senior Scholar 2015-2016 at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Visiting Scholar at the University of Fribourg (2015). Alina joined Bournemouth University in 2017. Her publications include "Twenty Years of (Re)branding Post-Communist Romania. Actors, discourses, perspectives - 1990-2010" (2015) and "Branding Romania. Cum (ne) promovăm imaginea de țară" ("How we promote our country image") (co-author, 2009).