History paper by Hegedűs, István
Turning Point in the Research of Hungarica Collections?
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
Researchers of Hungarian emigrant history, for various reasons (earlier political taboos, fragmented worldwide diaspora, lack of sources and expertise) have been struggling with a backlog for at least two generations. The discipline of emigrnt literature, both in Hungary and abroad, is still painfully lacking its own research institute or any kind of scientific infrastructure. Much of its primary sources are not properly explored, though they are more and more endangered by the passing away of the most active emigré generation, that of the onetime young ’56-ers. The failed efforts of the past two or three decades for saving what could be saved have clearly proven by now. Without an overall, systhematic resource exploration of scientific standards both in Hungary and worldwide there is no chance to preserve the rich and far branching herritage of the Hungarian diaspora in the West. Our planned OTKA-project from Fall 2014 may well be the next extanded phase of such a field research work with similar explorations of Hungarica diasporas. Our main goal is to conduct a new systematic research project in order to explore, save, and publish resources – mostly manuscripts – of the Hungarian western diaspora. During the past decades there have been a number of initiatives by researchers with a similar purpose; however these mostly remained sporadic, ad hoc, and only partial, often ending with not much success. The rescue of archival emigrant documents, in the meantime, has become more and more compelling both morally and practically, due to the rapid loss of the emigré generation. Thus we are fully convinced that it is high time to expand and speed up our efforts.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
István Hegedűs (MA in History, Eszterházy Károly College, Eger; MA in Library Science, Eszterházy Károly College, Eger; Msc in agricultural engineer specialized to rural development, Károly Róbert College) working as research assistant at the Institute for Minority Studies Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is working on his doctoral thesis in History (about the estates and possessions of the Andrássy family during 19th-20th century). He is also interested in the preservation and development of Hungarica collections of the US. He spent half a year in New Brunswick, NJ with the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor scholarship.