Project leader
Oana Matei
Oana Matei is lecturer at the Vasile Goldis Western Univeristy of Arad and researcher in early modern history and philosophy of science at ICUB, University of Bucharest. She defended her PhD in 2010 at the University of Bucharest, with a thesis on the relations between cynical philosophy and ethics in politics. Her recent research has focused on the reception of Baconianism in the mid-seventeenth century England and the methodology of experimentation with particular focus on experiments with plants. Her publications focus on the relation between experiments and the underlying theoretical assumptions in the case of, among others, Ralph Austen, John Evelyn, John Beale, Nehemiah Grew. In the current project she will investigate the aggregation of a scientia of plants and vegetation among the early members of the Royal Society.
Postdoctoral researcher
Doina-Cristina Rusu
Doina-Cristina Rusu is a researcher in the field of early modern philosophy and science. She published on, among others, Francis Bacon, Giambattista della Porta, and Anne Conway. She is interested in the relation between experimental practices and their underlying theoretical commitments; the impact of the scientific endeavour on conceptions of gender, race, and ecology; and the dialogue between diverse philosophical traditions. Doina held research and teaching positions at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Groningen, University of Bucharest, and the Romanian Academy of Sciences. As a member of the project “The Anatomy of Vegetation,” she will be investigating the impact of the American encounter on the study of plants, with a particular focus on the attempts to create new species, improve the existing ones, and to acculturalise foreign species. Special attention will be given to the interplay between experimental practices, theoretical assumptions, and indigenous knowledge.
PhD student
Alexandru Mexi
Alexandru Mexi is a landscape architect and has a master degree in cultural studies. Currently he is enrolled in a PhD program with a thesis concerning the history and evolution of Romanian municipal public parks. Mexi is a scientific researcher at the Department of World Heritage within the National Institute of Heritage in Romania and an associate professor at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest where he teaches garden and landscape history. Throughout the years Mexi has been part of national and international cultural, educational and research projects, most of which dedicated to cultural heritage, natural history and to the history of landscapes and of gardens. His publications deal with historic parks and gardens in Romania, their conservation and restoration, and he was actively involved in projects, actions and interventions regarding the preservation of landscape heritage. In 2020, Mexi became a heritage specialist of the Romanian Ministry of Culture in the field of the protection of historic monuments. In the current project Mexi will study the role of gardens in the development of an early modern scientia of vegetation.
PhD student
Sabin Coroian
Sabin Coroian is PhD student in Philosophy at the West University of Timişoara, with a thesis concerning the early modern utopian projects for the prolongation of life. Previously he was part of the research project Collaborative Research, Technological Advancement and Experimental Philosophy in the 17th Century: The Hartlib Circle and the Rise of “The New Science.” In the current project he will investigate the role of treatments and recipes with plants for the emergence of an early modern scientia of plants.