Author, essayist, and historian Stella Ghervas ― a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Center for European Studies ― was born in Moldova; studied in Russia, Romania, and Switzerland; and until recently taught in France.
Her transnational background, along with a mastery of six languages, makes Ghervas a living embodiment of one of her favorite ideas: that Europe is more expansive than most of us think. It’s a region, she said, that historically, culturally, and geographically includes not just the Western Europe of Britain, France, and Germany, but also Russia and a multitude of nations between the Baltic and the Black Sea. Of European history, she said, “We have to have this enlarged understanding.”
