Vintilă Mihăilescu (23 May 1951 – 22 March 2020) was a leading

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...

, and a professor at the

National University of Political Studies and Public Administration The National School of Political Science and Public Administration ( ro, Școala Națională de Studii Politice și Administrative din București, SNSPA) is a public university in Bucharest, Romania, founded in 1991. SNSPA is a public institutio ...

. He was the brother of mathematician

Preda Mihăilescu Preda V. Mihăilescu (born 23 May 1955) is a Romanian mathematician, best known for his proof of the 158-year-old Catalan's conjecture. Biography Born in Bucharest,Stewart 2013 he is the brother of Vintilă Mihăilescu. After leaving Romania in ...

Biography

He was born and grew up in the Buzești neighborhood of

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. He attended School no. 11 on Șoseaua Kiseleff, and then graduated from the nearby Petru Groza High School. In 1974, he graduated from the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

with a master's degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

. Between 1974 and 1978 he worked as a researcher at the National Institute of Gerontology. Between 1979 and 1991 he was a researcher at the Center for Anthropological Researches of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

, where he eventually headed the department of cultural anthropology. In 1991 he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology, Psychology and Pedagogy of the University of Bucharest. He obtained a six-month grant from the "Mission du Patrimoine Ethnologique de France", and he was the founding director of the Social Observatory at the University of Bucharest. In 1993, he earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in psychology from that university. Starting in 1995, Mihăilescu held a chair as a professor in the department of sociology. In 1997 he became head of the master program in anthropology at the University of Bucharest, Director of the Bucharest Rural Observatory, PHARE Rural Development Project, and director of a

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

/CNCSU project on community development. From 1998 he regularly wrote for the cultural weekly magazine '' Dilema'', and in 2000 he became full professor at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, and head of the master program in anthropology. From 2005 to 2010, he served as the Director of the

Museum of the Romanian Peasant The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant ( ro, Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român) is a museum in Bucharest, Romania, with a collection of textiles (especially costumes), icons, ceramics, and other artifacts of Romanian peasant life. One ...

. Mihăilescu was considered a leading cultural anthropologist in Romania. His major anthropological work was presented in '' Fascinația Diferenței'' (''The Fascination of Difference''), which is a synthesis of more than 20 years of practical research in a Romanian village. The book is a testimony of the efforts of conserving and saving the rural tradition of the Romanian village, preventing it from losing its identity, and it also offers many tools for anthropological understanding and research. In September 2018 he was diagnosed with

acute myeloid leukemia Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may inclu ...

. He underwent

stem cell transplant Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood in order to replicate inside of a patient and to produce ...

at the Jean Minjoz Hospital in

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, but died there in March 2020. He was buried at the Sfântă Vineri Cemetery in Bucharest.

Reference

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihailescu, Vintila 1951 births 2020 deaths Cultural anthropologists Romanian anthropologists Romanian psychologists Romanian sociologists Directors of museums in Romania University of Bucharest alumni Academic staff of the University of Bucharest Deaths from leukemia Deaths from cancer in France Burials at Sfânta Vineri Cemetery