CONTACT
Email: mariadraghici@unatc.ro
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nhRIlIsAAAAJ&hl=en
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4636-0477
Website: https://axunatc.org/posts/dialogue-table-method
POSITION
Researcher (CSIII)
Research, Development and Innovation Department (DCDI)
National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” (UNATC), Bucharest
BIO
Maria Drăghici is a visual artist, researcher, and community art practitioner working at the intersection of participatory art, action research, cultural infrastructures, and experimental pedagogies.
She holds a PhD in Visual Arts from the National University of Arts Bucharest (2018), where her doctoral research explored the relationships between socially engaged artistic practices, participatory methodologies, action research, and artistic pedagogy. Her work combines artistic practice, collaborative inquiry, and institutional innovation, focusing on how cultural and educational institutions can become platforms for democratic knowledge production, social innovation, and civic engagement.
Between 2006 and 2013, she coordinated educational programmes within Ofensiva Generozității (O2G), a platform dedicated to participatory artistic practices and community-based cultural work. Since 2012, she has collaborated within interdisciplinary research teams investigating socio-political realities and issues of public interest through the expanded concept of the school as a space for collective learning and social transformation.
Currently, she is a researcher within the Research, Development and Innovation Department (DCDI) at UNATC, where she develops action-research frameworks connecting universities, cultural institutions, public administration, and civil society. Her recent work focuses on the institutional development of the university’s Third Mission, participatory governance, cultural infrastructures, and the application of the Quintuple Helix model in cultural and educational ecosystems.
CURRENT RESEARCH
Maria Drăghici’s current research, developed within the MAIC framework (CeArFi – UNATC), focuses on the role of cultural infrastructures as strategic instruments for social innovation, territorial cohesion, and democratic resilience.
Her work investigates how culture, education, public administration, civil society, and local ecosystems can operate as an integrated system within the Quintuple Helix model, generating new forms of collaboration between institutions, communities, and policy actors.
She develops and tests action-research and participatory design methodologies for the creation of adaptive cultural infrastructures embedded in local contexts. These infrastructures function as living laboratories for co-creation, community engagement, and policy experimentation, contributing to scalable models of cultural regeneration and inclusive urban transformation.
A central objective of her research is to translate experimental cultural practices into transferable institutional frameworks relevant to the New European Bauhaus agenda, sustainable urban development, and community-led innovation.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Participatory Art / Community Art / Socially Engaged Artistic Practices / Action Research / Participatory Design / Artistic Research / Cultural Infrastructures / Democratic Creativity / Critical and Experimental Pedagogies / Cultural Mediation / Knowledge Transfer and Co-Creation / The Third Mission of Universities / Hybrid and Transdisciplinary Teams / Social Innovation Quintuple Helix Framework / Community-Based / Urban Development
EDUCATION
PhD in Visual Arts, 2018
National University of Arts Bucharest
Doctoral Thesis
Active Art, Action Research and Artistic Pedagogy: Reflections Based on Personal Experience in Active Art Projects (Artă activă, cercetare acțiune și pedagogie artistică. Reflecţii pornind de la experienţa personală a lucrului în proiecte de artă activă)
The dissertation explored the relationships between socially engaged artistic practices, participatory methodologies, action research, and artistic pedagogy, drawing on the author’s direct experience in collaborative and community-based art projects.
MA in Visual Arts, 2003–2005
National University of Arts Bucharest
Research focus:
The Memory of the Object (Human–Tool Interrelation)
Exhibition:
Kamera Red, Galeria Posibilă, Bucharest
Artistic Research Residency, 2011–2012
V.ARC Residency, Valand Academy, Gothenburg
Development of the Active Art methodology and the Dialogue Table participatory method; completion of the documentary project Komettorget Odlingslotter.
North/South Summer Course, 2011
School of Photography, University of Gothenburg
Contemporary photography and visual research methodologies.
PROJECTS
Helix@MASCA
Founder and coordinator of an action-research framework exploring cultural institutions as platforms for participatory governance, collaborative learning, and social innovation through the Quintuple Helix model.
Urboteca Fellowship (2024)
Participatory diagnosis and co-design process developed for Masca Theatre, investigating relationships between cultural infrastructure, local communities, and institutional transformation.
MAIC 3 – Urban Room: The Negotiated City
Co-editor (with Alina Apostu) of a publication dedicated to participatory urban practices, collaborative knowledge production, and community-based cultural infrastructures.
Ofensiva Generozității (2006–2013)
Coordinator of educational and community-based programmes focused on participatory art, social engagement, and alternative pedagogical models.
TEACHING AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
Action Research Methodologies
Participatory and Collaborative Practices
Community-Based Artistic Interventions
Artistic Research
Cultural Mediation
Democratic Creativity
Knowledge Transfer Between Academia and Society
Educational Programme Design and Facilitation
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Apostu, A., & Drăghici, M. (2026). A public theatre as a living lab to create resilience. Buildings & Cities, 7(1), 232–253. https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.623
Drăghici, M. (2022). The Dialogue Table: A Hybrid Method of ActiveArt and Citizenship. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Dramatica, 67(1), 81–98.
Drăghici, M. (2022). Transpedagogy. In Artistic Education – Cultural Dimensions. Chișinău: Institutul Patrimoniului Cultural. https://doi.org/10.55383/iadc2022.32
Drăghici, M., & Apostu, A. (Eds.). (2026). MAIC 3: Urban Room. The Negotiated City. Bucharest: UNATC Press.
SELECTED TALKS, WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES
2026
“Imagining Future Directions for Helix@MASCA” (workshop co-organizer and facilitator)
“What Is Action Research?” – Off-Campus Studies@ University of Bucharest, Carleton College, One North College St Northfield, MN 55057, USA
2025
Organizer and speaker, International Conference on Action Research, UNATC
2024
“Quintuple Helix: Action Research on Culture – Education – Government”, INURA Malaga
“Mapping in the HELIX Relational Urban Design”, Harnessing Archives in Artistic Research, UNATC
“The Dialog Table Method – Performative Tool for Solution Modeling in Participatory Design HELIX”, Research–Art–Technology–Society, UNATC
Organizer and speaker, “Art and Cultural Interventions as Instruments of Social Modelling”, Babeș-Bolyai University
2023
“Active Art: The Engaged Artist”, University of Bucharest
AWARDS
2026 – AX-UNATC Award (FDI 2025) for the publication and research project Community Cultural Infrastructures: Urban Room. The Negotiated City.
RESEARCH LEADERSHIP
Founder and Coordinator, Helix@MASCA
Co-organizer, International Conference on Action Research (UNATC, 2025)
Co-editor, MAIC 3: Urban Room. The Negotiated City
Developer of participatory research methodologies focused on democratic creativity, cultural infrastructures, and the Third Mission of universities