Vintilă Mihăilescu (23 May 1951 – 22 March 2020) was a leading Romanian cultural anthropologist, and a professor at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration.
He obtained a six-month grant from the "Mission du Patrimoine Ethnologique de France", and he was the founding director of the Social Observatory at the University of Bucharest.
From 1998 he regularly wrote for the cultural weekly magazine Dilema, and in 2000 he became full professor at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, and head of the master program in anthropology.
His major anthropological work was presented in Fascinația Diferenței (The Fascination of Difference), which is a synthesis of more than 20 years of practical research in a Romanian village.
The book is a testimony of the efforts of conserving and saving the rural tradition of the Romanian village, preventing it from losing its identity, and it also offers many tools for anthropological understanding and research.