The History doctoral field at the University of Oradea was established in 2000, and since the academic year 2011-2012 it has been operating under the name of Doctoral School of History.

Within this structure of excellence, the following PhD supervisors who were tenured at the University of Oradea have carried out their activities: Sever Dumitrașcu, Mihai Drecin, Barbu Ștefănescu, Viorel Faur, Ion Zainea, Ioan Godea, Sorin Șipoș, Gabriel Moisa, Antonio Faur, and for a short period Ioan Horga. Professors from other university centres were also co-opted, namely Corneliu Pădurean, from Arad, and for a shorter period Dumitru Țeicu, from Reșița. The directors of the Doctoral School of History have been since its foundation and until now Mihai Drecin (2006-2012), Ion Zainea (2012-2017) and Sorin Șipoș (2017-present).

At present, the Doctoral School of History has six professors working as doctoral supervisors, three of whom are full professors and the rest are associate professors, all of them with an outstanding research activity in their fields. Thus, Professor Mihai Drecin's research interests include the following topics: financial-banking history of the Saxons, Hungarians and Romanians in Transylvania in the modern era, banking history of the nations of the Habsburg and Austro-Hungarian Empire (Northern Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia), financial-banking links between the Romanian banking system in Transylvania and the Kingdom of Romania (1868-1916), banking life in Romania (1918-2000). Professor Ion Zainea, in turn, coordinates PhDs on the research topics that have made him famous, namely: the communist censorship (1949-1977), the Sovietization of north-western Romania (1945-1948), the purging of society according to the Soviet model, the economy and society of Biarritz in the interwar period. Professor Sorin Șipoș has the following research directions: power and political imaginary in the Romanian Lands in the Middle Ages, the image of the Romanian Lands in the accounts of foreign travellers (16th-19th centuries), the history of Romanian historiography. Professor Gabriel Moisa is a specialist in the contemporary history of Romania, the interwar and post-war period, and in the history of Romanian historiography, with special emphasis on the history of the communist regime. Professor Antonio Faur is a specialist in contemporary Romanian history and world history, the anti-communist resistance movement in Bihor, diplomatic documents on the history of Transylvania in the 20th century, ethnic minorities in western Romania (the Jews of Oradea and Bihor in the 20th century), the Holocaust in western Romania, and Professor Corneliu Pădurean is researching the ethnic and confessional structure of the population in western Romania after the Great Union and personalities of the Great Union.

In the academic year 2020-2021, 50 doctoral students are enrolled at the Doctoral School of History, and in the 20 years of operation, more than 150 doctoral theses have been defended in our Doctoral School, with topics concerning, in particular, the history of Crișana and western Romania.

Within the Doctoral School of History, the scientific research activity is carried out within the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies Oradea-Chisinau, directed by Professor Dr. Sorin Șipoș. The research centre was established in 2012, with the main objectives of elaborating and publishing scientific volumes, organizing national and international conferences, publishing articles and studies in journals listed in BDI, participating in national and international conferences and scientific sessions. Since 2013, the centre operates under the scientific aegis of the Romanian Academy. The members of the centre are PhD coordinators, teaching staff of the Department of History, PhD students, as full members, but also important collaborators from Romania and abroad, as associate members.

The themes we proposed to investigate, namely the border issue, the concept of Europe, the image of the other, were conceived in the form of conferences, symposia, round tables, presentations of scientific publications. In addition, we have proposed that the papers presented at the scientific events be published in volumes of studies, first in Romanian and then in international languages.

Thus, in collaboration with the Centre for Transylvanian Studies in Cluj-Napoca and the State University of Moldova, 16 scientific events have been organised since 2008[1]. In addition to specialists from the two universities, researchers and university professors from Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Bucharest, Budapest, Miskolc, Padua, Reims, Amiens, Nanterre, etc. participated in these events. The conferences were soon followed by the publication of conference volumes.

Another important research direction, which we have taken on, is to investigate the notion of historical document, the relationship between history and philology, the status of history in our contemporaneity. The main idea, from which the previous debates started and which was also at the basis of the present collection of studies, was to put into dialogue methods and interpretative strategies coming from two different disciplinary fields, that of historiography and philology, confronting them, in particular, in the field of textual analysis of the historical document, in its multiple aspects and dimensions. The encounter between history and philology can be found in positivist historiography, with all that the new trend entailed, namely text criticism, the development of the auxiliary sciences and the relationship between philology and history. Today, the historiography promoted by the Analects School broadens the scope of the historical document and proposes new interpretations. Even if the classical form of historical-philological collaboration is abandoned, the written text retains its importance.

We believe that this critical perspective can offer interesting interpretative openings also for the analysis of the symbolic and political imaginary of Power throughout European history. In this direction we have organized 11 scientific events in which colleagues from the University of Padua, Department of Romance Philology, and later the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, the State University of Moldova, the CaʼFoscari University of Venice have participated. The conferences represent, without any doubt, novel approaches to the relationship between history and philology, to the notion of historical document, but also classical approaches to the concept of document, of nation, and to the status of history as a discipline and of historiography as a scientific product[1]. These were organised with the help of colleagues in the Department of History. The conferences were followed by the publication of the papers in volumes published by prestigious publishers at home and abroad[2].

Another major area of research is that of financial-banking history, entitled Labour, Money, Banks, Culture and Politics (18th-20th centuries), launched at the University of Oradea in 1991. The symposium Work, Money, Banks, Culture and Politics (18th-20th centuries), was scheduled to take place every two years, so that researchers would have time to study in archives, press and other unpublished sources and edit new data on this important segment - credit cooperatives and banks, joint stock companies - of the economic history of any geographical area, from Eastern, Greek and Roman antiquity, the Middle Ages, pre-modern, modern and contemporary periods - has become thoroughly institutionalised and is known in our country and abroad.

Since 1997, since the 3rd edition, the Symposium has become international. It is attended by academics, researchers and bank officials from Central Europe, and later from Western European countries. So far, over 400 papers have been presented from the modern (18th - 1918) and contemporary (1918-1989) periods. At one point we also opened the Section "Banks and Stock Exchanges in the Age of Transition" (1990 - to date), dedicated to the particular transformations that European national banking systems are undergoing in the age of globalisation. Here we have sought to highlight both the positive and negative effects they are having to the detriment of national interests.

All major academic centres were represented in the thirteen editions, by historians, economists, museographers and archivists. Researchers from abroad came from the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Russian Federation and Italy. This year, for the first time, colleagues from Germany, Spain and the USA were also present.

Part of the papers presented were published in two volumes published in 1996 and 2001 and in a specialized journal on financial-banking history published in Oradea in 2011. The journal appears under the aegis of the "Romanian Association of Banking History - Oradea", also published in 2011, which aims to boost research in the field. It is an independent, non-profit legal entity under private law, organized according to the laws in force, with six founding members from universities in Bucharest, Târgu Mureș, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Oradea (here Professors Mihai D. Drecin and Ion Zainea) with interests in the field of economic history, including banking history.

As a result of the scientific research activity, over almost two decades, a group of researchers faithful to the subject, coming from different generations, has been built up.

In addition to these activities, there are the scientific conferences of PhD students organized so far, the most recent being the XIV edition, held in Oradea on 14-15 October 2019. The scientific conferences organized by the Doctoral School of History have been followed by the publication of works in the doctoral students' volumes, namely: Mihai Drecin, Barbu Ștefănescu, Ioan Horga, (coordinators), The papers of the scientific session of doctoral students in history, 1st edition, Oradea, University of Oradea Publishing House, 2013, 484p; Ion Zainea (coordinator), Institutions and places, people and facts in Romanian history (The papers of the scientific session of doctoral students in history, 7th edition, Oradea, 2012), Oradea, Cris Country Museum Publishing House, 2012, 238 p. ; Ion Zainea (coordinator), History - Traditions - Destinies (Papers of the scientific session of doctoral students in history, 8th edition, Oradea, 2013), Oradea, University of Oradea Publishing House, 2013, 285 p. ; Ion Zainea (coordinator), De la biserică și cultură la securitate și cenzura (Proceedings of the scientific session of doctoral students in history, 9th edition, Oradea, 2014), Oradea, University of Oradea Publishing House, 2014, 187 p. Ion Zainea (coordinator), Identities-Portretes-Mentalités (Proceedings of the scientific session of doctoral students in history, 10th edition, Oradea, 2015), Oradea, University of Oradea Publishing House, 2015.

After 20 years of activity of the Doctoral School of History, we believe that it has established itself among the centres with similar tradition in Romania in its research activity. Recently, the CNFIS has been published the results of the research activity for the year 2019 which placed the historians of Oradea on the first place in scientific activity and quality of human resources, among 14 similar fields in the country.

In conclusion, we can say that the Doctoral School of History at the University of Oradea honors with dignity and professionalism its mission to promote excellence in teaching and research in the field of history.

[1] International Symposium Frontiers of the Romanian Space in the European Context, Oradea-Chisinau, 8-11 May 2008 (chairs of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș and Ion Gumenâi); International Scientific Seminar Istoriography and Politics in the East and West of the Romanian Space, Chisinau, 12 September 2008 (chairs of the organizing committee: Svetlana Suveică and Sorin Șipoș); International Symposium Imperial Politics in the East and West of the Romanian Space, Oradea, 10-13 June 2010 (chairs of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș and Igor Șarov); Romanian Society between Imperial Frontiers. Centru și periferie în istoria românilor, Chișinău, 7-9 October 2010 (presidents of the organizing committee: Ion Gumenâi and Sorin Șipoș); Nazione, Autodeterminazione e Integrazione nell'Europa Centro-Meridionale, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia ; From Periphery to Center. The Image of Europe at the Eastern Border of Europe, Oradea 4-8 June 2013 (president of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș); International Scientific Session The Image of Central Europe and of the European Union in the Narrations of Foreign Travellers, 17-26 July, Oradea-Chisinau, 2014 (president of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș); International Scientific Symposium Historical Tradition and European Perspectives, Chisinau, 21-23 July 2014 (presidents of the organizing committee: Ion Gumenâi and Sorin Șipoș); Latinitate. Romanity. Romanianity, Chisinau, 2017, 2019, 2020.

[2] Conferences Textus testis. Valore documentario e dimensioni letterarie del testo storico, Padova, 17 November 2009 (chairs of the organizing committee: Dan Octavian Cepraga and Sorin Șipoș); International Symposium Istorie. Literature. Politics, Oradea, 4-7 November 2010 (president of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș); History and Archaeology in Central Europe. Noi interpretări istoriografice, Oradea, 4-8 May 2011 (president of the organizing committee: Florin Sfrengeu); Nazione, Autodeterminazione e Integrazione nell'Europa Centro-Meridionale, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia ; The Historian's Workshop: Sources, Methods, Interpretations, the 5th Edition, Oradea-Chișinău, 26-28 May 2011 (president of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș); UnʾIdea dʾEuropa. Prospettive storiche e filologiche da est e da Ovest, Padova, 10-11 November 2011 (organizing committee chairs: Dan Octavian Cepraga and Sorin Șipoș); The status of history and historians in contemporary times, Oradea-Băile Felix, 17-20 October 2013 (organizing committee chair: Gabriel Moisa); International Symposium The Imagined Nation, Deva, June, 2016 (president of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș); International Symposium Hermeneutics of Medieval Documents, Oradea, 4-7 November 2015 (president of the organizing committee: Sorin Șipoș); Oltre i confini. Il dialogo transnazionale nelle discipline storiche e filologiche, Padova, (2017), (organizing committee chairs: Dan Octavian Cepraga and Sorin Șipoș), Temi e metodi della ricerca storica e filologica. Nuove riflessioni tra Est ed Ovest, Oradea, 2018 (organizing committee chair: Sorin Șipoș); De la centro la marginile imperiului. Ideea imperială în spazio europeo entre istorie e literatură, Padova, 11-12 November 2019, (organizing committee chairs: Dan Octavian Cepraga and Sorin Șipoș).

[3] Let us mention only a few of our publications, namely: Frontierele spazioului românesc în context european, Oradea, 2008, 483 p. (in collaboration with Mircea Brie, Florin Sfrengeu, Ion Gumenâi); Politici imperiale in Estul și Vestul spazio românesc, Oradea, 2010, 483 p. (in collaboration with Mircea Brie, Florin Sfrengeu, Ion Gumenâi). with Mircea Brie, Ioan Horga, Ion Gumenâi); The Historian's Atelier: Sources, Methods, Interpretations, Cluj-Napoca, 2012, 280 p. (in collaboration with Gabriel Moisa, Florin Sfrengeu, Mircea Brie, Ion Gumenâi); The Historian's Atelier: Sources, Methods, Interpretations, Cluj-Napoca, 2012, 280 p.. (in collaboration with Gabriel Moisa, Florin Sfrengeu, Mircea Brie, Ion Gumenâi); Silviu Dragomir, Vlahii din nordul Peninsula Balcanice în Evul Mediu, edited and introductory study by Sorin Șipoș, Cluj-Napoca, 2012, 289 p. ; Silviu Dragomir, Istoria desrobirei religiosa a românilor din Ardeal în secolul XVIII, vol. I-II, edited by Sorin Șipoș, Cluj-Napoca, 2012, 542 + 320 p.; From Periphery to Centre. The Image of Europe at the Eastern Border of Europe, Cluj-Napoca, 2014, 292 p. (in colab. with Gabriel Moisa, Dan Octavian Cepraga, Mircea Brie, Teodor Mateoc); Categorie europee. Rappresentazioni storiche e letterarie del "Politico", TR, XXIII, Suppl., 1, 2014, 319 p. (in collaboration with Federico Donatiello, Dan Octavian Cepraga, Aurel Chiriac); Potere e imaginari politico in Europa. Radici Storiche, modelli antropologici, representazioni letterare, TR, XXIV, Suppl. 1, 2015, no. 2 320 p. (in collaboration with Dan Octavian Cepraga, Giulia Ambrosi); Națiunea imaginată, Cluj-Napoca, 2019, 560 p. (in collaboration with Dan Octavian Cepraga, Giulia Ambrosi). with Gabriel Moisa, Laura Ardelean, Ion Eremia, Radu Românașu, Dan Octavian Cepraga); Temi e metodi della ricerca storica e filologica. Nuove riflessioni tra Est ed Ovest, TR, XXIX, Suppl. 1, 2020, 320 p. (in collaboration with Dan Octavian Cepraga, Laura Ardelean, Iulia Cosma).