Alexandra Masgras

Professional Background

Alexandra Masgras is a PhD candidate in art history at Duke University. Her research interests include architecture and material culture, especially as they intersect with politics and with the history of science, medicine, and public health. Masgras' research focuses on material infrastructures founded on scientifically-derived forms of marginalization, such as scientific racism and ableism. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Masgras received a master's degree in art history from Duke University and a bachelor's degree with Honors of the First Class from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

Ms. Masgras is committed to sharing her research with general audiences and, as such, has held several museum education positions, including at the Hunterian Art Gallery (Glasgow, Scotland), the National Museum of Romanian History (Bucharest, Romania), and the Nasher Museum of Art (Durham, NC).

Fellowship Research

Ms. Masgras was awarded the Sosland Foundation Fellowship for her dissertation project, “Eugenic Architecture in Romania, 1920-1944.” Her dissertation examines interactions between modern architecture, eugenics, and right-wing politics in Romania during the interwar period. Drawing upon the disciplines of architectural, social, and political history, her research endeavors to map the evolution of eugenic architecture against the backdrop of Romania’s rightward shift, in line with the global rise of fascism and total mobilization. Focusing on material infrastructures of public health and social assistance, her research proposes a nuanced understanding of how the state instrumentalized architecture in order to enforce normative conceptions of productivity, reproduction, gender roles, and ability. Her dissertation highlights the role of the built environment as an essential source for understanding how eugenics shaped the lives of diverse social and ethnic groups living under fascism. In particular, her research foregrounds Romania's increasingly racialized public health agenda, which accompanied the state's progressive turn towards fascism and closer ties to Nazi Germany.

During her fellowship at the Mandel Center, Masgras will utilize the vast archival resources available at the USHMM to complete her dissertation research, including records of Romanian governmental agencies, most notably the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Protection, as well as those of Centrala Evreilor. Moreover, the USHMM archives allow her to expand her research beyond the purview of perpetrator-created sources, enabling her to gain further insight into the experiences of victims under the state's racialized welfarism. To this end, she will be conducting research in the ACMEOR Records, the Filderman Collection, and the Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive, among others.

Residency Period: October 1, 2023 – May 31, 2024