Mihaela Ursa (born September 25, 1971) is a Romanian literary critic.
She was born in Sangeorz- Bai, Romania, and lives in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is married to Doru Pop (Romanian media and political analyst) and they have two children. She graduated the Faculty of Letters in Cluj Napoca, "Babes-Bolyai" University, in 1995, got her M. A. at the same faculty in 1996 and became a Ph. D. in 2004. She was an assistant researcher on the Lexicology-Lexicography Department of the "Sextil Puscariu" Institute of Linguistics in Cluj, collaborator in the Romanian Dictionary of the Academy and in the completing of The Romanian Language Database, between 1996 and 1998. Since 1998 she has worked as a teaching assistant ("preparator", in the Romanian system) at the Department of Romanian Literature, Literary Theory and Folklore of the Faculty of Letters in Cluj (1998 - 1999), an instructor non-tenure ("asistent", in the Romanian system) at the same Department (1999 - 2002), and an assistant professor tenure ("lector", in the Romanian system) at the Comparative Literature Department (2002 to present day). She has taught courses on the evolution of the European novel, on erotic literature, on gender identity in literature, on author and authoriality and on postmodern literature and theories. She was awarded the Romanian Writers' Union Award, in 1999, for her first book of literary criticism, Optzecismul si promisiunile postmodernismului [Romanian Literature of the '80-ies and the Promises of Postmodernism], the Romanian Writers' Union (Cluj Branch) Award, in 2005, for
Scriitopia [Writerutopia], the "Babes-Bolyai University" Award, in 2005, and the Romanian Association of Comparative Literature Award, in 2006, for the same book. She is member of the Romanian Writers' Union, the Romanian Association of Comparative Literature, and a founding member of the Center for the Research of the Imaginary, "Phantasma", Cluj. She is the author of Scriitopia sau Fictionalizarea subiectului auctorial in discursul teoretic [Writerutopia or Fictionalizing the Authorial Subject in the Theoretical Imaginary] Cluj: Dacia, 2005, Gheorghe Craciun - monografie [Gheorghe Craciun - A Monography]. Brasov: Aula, 2000, Optzecismul sau promisiunile postmodernismului [Romanian Literature of the '80-ies and the Promises of Postmodernism], Pitesti: Paralela 45, 1999, and a co-author of Concepte si metode in cercetarea imaginarului. Dezbaterile "Phantasma" [Concepts and Methods in the Research of the Imaginary. Debates at 'Phantasma'], Iasi: Editura Polirom, 2007, Tzara mea. Stereotipii si prejudecati [My country. Romanian stereotypes], Bucuresti: Institutul Cultural Roman, 20006, Dictionar analitic de opere literare romanesti [The Analytic Dictionary of Romanian Literary Works], Volumes I-IV. Cluj: Casa Cartii de Stiinta,1999-2003. She has also written more than four hundred articles, essays, studies, reviews on literature in Romanian cultural publications ("Steaua", "Apostrof", "Vatra", "Caietele Echinox", "Familia", "Orizont", "Observator cultural" etc.). Several authors have written on her criticism: Dan C. Mihailescu, Andrei Terian,
Sanda Cordos, Horea Poenar,
Iulian Boldea,
Doina Curticapean,
Diana Adamek, Dorin Petrisor, Ovidiu Mircean, Maria Irod, Constantin M. Popa, Mircea Popa,
Grigore Gazdac, etc.
