Anca Glont-Ulfhrafn

I studied abroad throughout my college career (I’m from Transylvania in Romania, but took my B.A. in Bulgaria, my M.A. in Hungary and my Ph.D. in America), and if my degrees let me consider the world in new ways, they were also part of larger challenges and experiences as I negotiated new cultures. I thus value holistic advising, looking to academic elements of a student’s university experience as interlinked with wider elements of intellectual, social and personal growth. This approach leads me to encourage multiple paths forward with my advisees — setting personal end goals and thinking about how different academic, extra-curricular and community paths can lead to that goal. My joy in this role is to see how advisees discover their passions in the process.

Before I joined UVA, I taught history for over a decade, most recently as an associate professor of history at the University of Dayton. In my research, I look to how people work within larger structures of ideas and of power — whether coal miners in Transylvania, the contemporary far-right in Eastern Europe, or depictions of identity and violence in video games. My next project looks at the forms of antisemitism in the interwar Romanian press.

When not in my office, I argue about history with my husband (who is also a historian), play with my kids, and think of ways to surreptitiously slip off at home to get in an hour of gaming.