Publication History

With a history of more than six decades, Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Philologia is one of the leading academic journals in Romania. Published as early as 1956 as part of the “Social Sciences” series of the Newsletter of “V. Babeș” and “Bolyai” Universities, Cluj, the journal merged, between 1958-1961, with the Historia branch of the Fourth Series of the new publication entitled Studia Universitatis “Babes-Bolyai”. Since 1962, Studia Philologia has been published as a separate series (with a brief hiatus in 1974, when it was again reunited with Historia and Oeconomica).

As the main academic journal managed by the Faculty of Letters, Studia Philologia has consistently served as one of the most important platforms for the dissemination of philological research conducted by prominent academics from “Babeș-Bolyai” University, Transylvania, and Romania. Traditionally divided, until the late 1990s, into Studia Lingvistica and Studia Litteraria, the journal was gradually modernised after 2000, reflecting its inclusion into a broader, global academic culture, a diversification of research areas, an openness to more varied theoretical approaches, as well as hospitality to cutting-edge, innovative studies.

This period also witnessed the launching of issues on special themes (Romanian comparative studies and world literature, gender studies, translation theories, semiotics, pragmatics or sociolinguistics, etc.), cultures (from European cultures and literatures to those of Japan, Norway, Ireland, etc.), or emblematic figures (such as Mircea Eliade, or Knut Hamsun). Thus came to fruition an effort to reflect the research concerns of an ever expanding and diversifying academic community.

Consequently, the publishing languages have changed radically over the last thirty years. Romanian predominated in the beginning, with French and English being at first sporadically, but then more frequently used in the late 1990s. Since 2005 the journal has published studies solely in major international languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian), while sometimes hosting issues in other languages as well (Norwegian, Portuguese).

It should also be noted that in recent years, while continuing to promote the research of the Cluj academics, the journal has gradually become appealing to leading field specialists from the highest-ranking universities in the world, from a variety of (sub)domains. Its simultaneous openness to young and experienced scholars from Romania and abroad recommends it as a space of vibrant and rigorous scientific dialogue.