Balogh, Balázs

MTA - Néprajztudományi Intézet

BURDOSHÁZ AMERIKÁBÓL: Balogh Balázs néprajzkutató nyomában

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
A film a magyar emigránsok nehéz életét mutatja be egy pennsylvaniai magyar bányásztelepülésen, Vintondale-ben, az ott összegyűjtött tárgyi emlékeken és a rekonstruált burdosházon (bányász férfiaknak fenntartott személyenkénti félnapos ágybérletet nyújtó panzión) keresztül. A település egykoron jelentős lélekszámú magyar lakossága elsősorban a Bereg megyei Bátyuból származik. Bagu Balázs falutársaival az agrárnyomor elől tántorgott ki Amerikába, majd a nyugat-pennsylvaniai bányavidék világtól elzárt kis telepén éjjel-nappal az aknákban görnyedve, centet centre rakva vásárolt egy burdosházat. A világgazdasági válság következtében a bánya bezárt. A lakosság többsége nem tudott visszatérni a szülőföldre és szétszóródott. A film egy családtörténeten keresztül – mint cseppben a tengert – igyekszik bemutatni az amerikai magyarok első nemzedékének életvilágát.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zsigmond Dezső, Balázs Béla-díjas rendező, a Magyar Művészeti Akadémia tagja, eddig 59 filmet készített. Dokumentumfilmjei és játékfilmjei a magyar emberi sorsot mutatják be lakhelytől függetlenül. Filmjeivel elismerést aratott, díjakat nyert Magyarországon és külföldön egyaránt.

Balogh Balázs, PhD, Magyarország egyik legjelesebb néprajzkutatója, a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Néprajztudományi Intézet igazgatója. Egyik néprajzkutatási területe a magyar diaszpóra Észak Amerikában. Az amerikai közép-nyugaton, a 19-20. század fordulóján kivándorolt magyarság kultúráját kutatta. Ekkor fedezte fel a burdosházat és az alatta lévő szatócsboltot, Az ő érdeme a burdosháznak és teljes eredeti berendezésének a szentendrei Skanzenbe (Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeumba) szállítása és részben eredeti szerkezeti elemeket felhasználó rekonstrukciója. A film elkészítésében konzultánsként működött közre.




Bartfay, Arthur A.

Independent Scholar

The History of Hungarian Life in Columbus, Ohio

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Columbus Ohio is America's 15th largest city with over 800,000 residents. The 2014 US census estimate says there are over 20,000 self-identified Hungarians in the Columbus metro area.

In the early 1900s, there were many factories on the South Side. It attracted many Hungarian immigrants. In 1906 a Hungarian Reformed church was established on Woodrow. Two streets away, a Hungarian Roman Catholic church was built on Reeb. It was named for St. Ladislas, an early Hungarian king and saint. In 1974, the City Council officially designated a part of the South Side as Hungarian Village.

By the mid-1980s, St. Ladislas ended its monthly Hungarian masses. Hungarian events were discontinued as Hungarian Catholics moved & chose to attend various other Catholic churches in the area. The Reformed church remained in Hungarian Village. The area has deteriorated & today only one 90 year old Hungarian is in Hungarian Village.

In 2008, the Columbus Reformed church, a member of th Calvin Synod, lost its full time minister. The Calvin Synod has 23 member churches in 11 states. Twenty two were founded around 1900. Most are struggling to survive. After seven years, the synod has been unable to find a suitable minister for member churches in Columbus, Dayton, & two other locations. The newly elected bishop presides over a church that has lost its building. There are 37 other Reformed churches in 17 states & DC that do not belong to the synod. Most are newer churches in major cities.
All Reformed churches are listed with contact information in the annual Bethlen Almanac published in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

A major force in Columbus Hungarian Life has been the non-denominational Hungarian Cultural Association. In 2010, the HCA began holding monthly programs at the Reformed church. Even today, HCA holds well-attended dinners, a July festival, plus Soup & Learn programs on Hungarian topics. One of our popular programs is "Life Stories of Local Hungarians"--with one presenter born in the US & one born overseas. Eighteen Magyars have already presented their stories to interested audiences. HCA has shown that we can bring Hungarians to the South Side church, though events held in nicer neighborhoods draw bigger numbers.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Arthur Allan Bartfay graduated from Central High School in Flint, Michigan; earned a BA and MA from Michigan State University in East Lansing. He served on the faculties of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant. Arthur earned ABD credits at The Ohio State University in Columbus and, after 25 years, retired from the staff of The Ohio State University.




Bern, Andrea

Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

The Horthy-Archive: Unpublished Documents of the Horthy-Family from 1956

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
It has been part of the Hungarian cultural memory for several decades, that the indirect cause of Miklós Horthy’s death in January, 1957 was the depression he fell into when the Hungarian revolution was overpowered and defeated by the Soviet invasion. According the memoir of his daughter-in-law, Ilona Edelsheim Gyulai, “he did everything mechanically” since November 1956. “He neither read the papers nor listened to the radio any more.”

Ilona Edesheim-Gyulay passed away in South England three years ago, at the age of 93. Since that time I have been sorting, digitalizing, researching and publishing her papers. The collection contains several volumes of diaries, from different periods of the 20th century, written by various members of the family. Most of the papers are still unknown in Hungary. According to plans they will be published in the forthcoming years, edited by me. First part of this series: Diary of Magda Horthy (spouse of the regent), was published in Hungary by Libri in my edition in November 2015.

In my lecture I intend to analyze the contemporary entries of Ilona Edelsheim Gyulai’s diary. Besides the narrative text of the diary I will demonstrate and analyze contemporary correspondences of the former regent with relevant actors of the Hungarian emigrant community, like Miklós Kállay, Ferenc Chorin, and Pongrácz Sommsich. These documents are also part of the archives of Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai; none of them have been published or even researched before.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Andrea Bern is a PhD student at the Department of Modern and Recent Hungarian History of ELTE and researcher, archivist, and editor of the Descendants of Admiral Nicholas Horthy papers in Lewes, United Kingdom. She is also editor at Libri Publishing, Budapest.




Biro, Ruth and Christina Levicky

Duquesne University; Pine Trail Elementary School Ormond Beach, Florida

Displaced Persons in the American Zone After the Hungarian Holocaust: Literature By, About, and For Youth in the USA

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Focus is Hungarian Jews in Displaced Persons camps in the aftermath of the Holocaust and Jewish youth ( ages 12-21) in the camps liberated by Americans or who voluntarily moved to DP camps in the American zone and later emigrated to the USA. Post-Holocaust experiences from 1945-1952 found in the literature of those in their formative and young adult years will be presented and include topics pertaining to Allied liberators, locating family/friends, interrupted education, support systems, interaction with US military, camp conditions, attempts to return home, options for emigration, immigration difficulties, and establishing a new life in the USA.

At the end of WWII in Europe May 8, 1945, over seven million people had been displaced from their native lands, including some 100,000 Jewish camp survivors from locales such as Buchenwald April 11, Dachau April 29, and Mauthausen May 5-6, one of the last liberated. The number of Jewish DP's increased as those in hiding emerged, partisans stepped forward, and those who would not or could not return home and had nowhere to go were identified.
The Allies helped the surviving remnant reunite with families through the Red Cross, which provided housing, food, and Medical care, and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and various Jewish agencies provided other needed assistance. DP camps originally housed on nationality divisions were changed to accommodate Jews only, thereby preventing Jews from living with perpetrators or collaborators, with Feldafing becoming the first all-Jewish facility.
Emigration to the USA was hampered by a quota system. By 1950, more than 100,000 Jews had entered the United States. Leonard Dinnerstein in his book on America and the Survivors of the Holocaust stated that little was known about the DP's after they left the camps, therefore, the literature noted in this presentation provides invaluable insights into the tribulations, adjustments, and accomplishments they experienced and the study model devised offers interesting points of comparison and contrast with other Hungarian Holocaust accounts. Memoirs and autobiographical works by Bitton-Jackson, Hersh, Isaacson, Orenstein, Roszner, and Singer will be described and several other author/DP emigres who experienced the American Zone and resulted in the USA will be mentioned. These and other Hungarians residing in their transplanted land of the USA were soon to greet the next wave of emigres from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ruth G. Biro, retired from Duquesne University, taught courses in children's and adolescent literature, multicultural and international literature, and an interdisciplinary course on Perspectives on the Holocaust, among others. Earned two certificates from the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vahem in Jerusalem, where she studied selected rescuers of Jews in the Hungarian Holocaust from documentation in the Department of the Righteous. Dr. Biro also has investigated youth resistance against the Nazis in Budapest, resiliency of Hungarian teenagers caught in the Holocaust, Holocaust literature by women emigres to the USA, role of the neutral nationsnin Hungary in 1944-1945, and other topics. Inspired by the moral courage and leadership of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg sent to Hungary under the auspices of the US War Refugee Board of President Roosevelt's administration to save Hungarian Jews, she studies the personal attributes and other factors of influence deemed relevant to the prosocial action of rescuers. She is a founding member of the AHEA.

Christina Levicky served as a research assistant on Hungarian children's literature and on youth in the Hungarian Holocaust whilma staff member in the Department of Instruction and Leadership in the School of Education at Duquesne University, where she earned her M.S. Ed. In 2006 she conducted research in Budapest, Hungary which generated presentations and published papers regarding resources on the Hungarian Holocaust for K-12 and college education programs, Hungary as a refuge for Polish Jews prior to the Nazi occupation of Hungary, and literature on Budapest youth in the Holocaust. With Dr. Biro, Levicky coordinated materials on Raoul Wallenberg for the International Reading Association Conference at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. She also researches relevant statements by theorists Kohlber(moral reasoning), Maslow (self-actualization), Bandura (modeling), Likona (character education), and Eisenberg (prosocial development) as they relate to actions by Hungarian Holocaust rescuers and provide strategies for Holocaust education. Levicky, former administrative assistant at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, teacher in the gifted program at Pine Trail Elementary School in Ormond Beach, Florida.




Corbett, Joyce Berczik

Independent Scholar

"A Considerable Degree of Beauty": Nickolas Muray's Photography

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The photographer Nickolas Muray (1892-1965) occupies a lesser-known place in the pantheon of famous 20th century Hungarian emigré photographers. While other Hungarians, including Kertész, Capa, Munkácsi and Moholy-Nagy, still enjoy celebrity status, Muray’s work has remained relatively obscure. He enjoyed a notably successful lifelong career, both as a portrait photographer and as an innovator in the development of color photography and its commercial applications.

Born in Szeged in 1892, Muray emigrated to the US in 1913. Once he began working in New York City, he became an active participant in the lively group of Hungarian expatriate Greenwich Village artists in the 1920’s.

His early photographic work brought him great success. Vanity Fair magazine frequently commissioned him to make portraits of well known contemporary subjects, including dignitaries both in the US and abroad, writers, artists, dancers and actors from stage and screen, including Hollywood stars.

He traveled to Mexico in the 1930’s. where he met Frida Kahlo. Their clandestine love affair lasted over 30 years. His portraits of the now iconic artist Frida are among his finest and best known works.

Nickolas Muray’s contributions to the field of photography are now long overdue and deserving of re-evaluation.




Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Joyce Berczik Corbett is a research scholar specializing in the decorative arts and folk art of Central Europe, She has curated exhibitions at Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA and Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA including: "Between East and West: Folk Art Treasures of Romania" (2010-2011)(co-authored catalog), Hungarian Folk Magic: the Art of Joseph Domjan" (2008)(directed documentary video accompanying exhibition), "Eva Zeisel: Extraordinary Designer Craftsman at 100” (2006-2007) traveled to the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles. CA. (2007) “Dowry: Eastern European Painted Furniture, Textiles and Folk Art” (1999)(co-authored catalog), She is on the International Advisory Board of Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA.She received an M.F.A in Art History and Studio Art, from the University of Washington, Seattle, where she held a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship. She has received IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) research grants for Romania and Hungary and was a Fulbright Research Scholar to Hungary and the Slovak Republic. She is currently conducts independent research on 20th century Hungarian expatriate artists.




Csorba, Mrea

University of Pittsburgh

Analyzing Agency of Iron Age Migrants in Construction of the Hungary’s Golden Stag Plaques

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
For nearly one hundred years, Hungarian research of ancient nomadism has been energized by the discoveries of a gold stag plaque, among other items, from two Carpathian burials. In this paper I trace cultural ties through the extant art buried with the Carpathian herders and similar material associated with coeval Iron Age groups from the steppes of southern Siberia, Kazakhstan and classical populations around the Black Sea. Comparative analysis of the buried objects suggest a hyphenated route of passage taken out of Inner Asia by the Carpathian herders. Closer analysis of key iconographic elements reveal careful crafting of key steppe imagery to affirm deep cultural roots with steppe culture of Inner Asian. At the same time, stylistic execution of the commissioning objects suggest the personal agency of the owners to convey a cosmopolitan image, one that advertises cross-cultural fluency between the mobile and the settled communities of the Scythian and Classical world. The evidence from the Carpathian burials suggest a loaded composite of visual vernacular that signals mixed affiliations enabling passage through the obverse/reverse worlds of the civilized and the migrant to expand into western territories of the Eurasian steppes. At a time when the contemporary world is seeing mass shifts of peoples, understanding the historic vortex of ancient migrations and the use of visual imagery that signals intersecting affiliations seems especially pertinent.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Mrea Csorba received all three of her academic degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been teaching art history at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University as adjunct Assistant Professor since the early 90’s. Dr. Csorba's MA thesis (1987) investigated horse-reliant cultures associated with Scythian steppe culture. Her Ph.D. (1997) expanded research of pastoral groups to non-Chinese dynastic populations documented in northern China. Dr. Csorba's current research continues the theme documenting diagnostic artifacts of Scythian culture into the peripheral reaches of the Eurasian steppes. She first discussed the stag plaques of Hungary at an International Conference on China’s Northern Zone held at the University of Pittsburgh in 2012. She presented the Hungarian material with parallel material recently excavated in northeast China at the International Symposium hosted by the 1st Emperor’s Institute of Archeology in Xian, China, in 2013.




Deák, Nóra

ELTE SEAS Library

Operation Mercy – Hungarian Refugee Resettlement Mission: Not Impossible

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
What lessons can be learnt from the refugee crisis of the Cold War, following the infamous crushing of the 1956 Hungarian revolution and freedom fight by Soviet tanks? According to various sources, nearly 200,000 refugees fled Hungary to the West through Austria and Yugoslavia, for various reasons and different motivations. For the two neighboring countries – and the members of the United Nations –, the mission seemed almost impossible: provide temporary shelter/food, make interviews, process, register and resettle the masses of desperate refugees who crossed the borders illegally during that late-autumn and winter of 1956-57.
Despite the existing strict immigration quotas and the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, the United States received some 40,000 refugees until 1959. How was it possible? A series of legal, political, military and humanitarian steps were taken, decisions made, and UN Security Council Resolutions adopted – but not enforced - in order to fulfill this mission. Although there was no war officially declared, yet the scene was a former military camp used for embarkation and processing of US troops during WWII at Camp Kilmer, NJ; and the main characters were military personnel such as (retired) colonels, and reservist soldiers apart from c. 2,000 volunteers and 31,225 refugees who were all processed, interviewed and registered at the Army base, turned into a Reception Center. Contributions to the success both on a local and national level included, but not exclusively, financial and in-kind donations, job offers, even punch-card Remington Rand computers from IBM, while others served as sponsors, interpreters, typists, language teachers, and priests.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Nóra Deák is pursuing PhD studies in American Studies at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Her research topic is the reception of the 1956 Hungarian refugees in the United States. She graduated in English and Russian languages and literatures in 1990 in Debrecen, then received a LIS MA in 1997 in Budapest. She has been working as Head of the Library at the School of English and American Studies Library, ELTE, in Budapest, since 1995. Her research was supported by a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholarship at the American Hungarian Foundation, and by Rutgers University Libraries as a Visiting Research Student during 2014 and 2015 in New Brunswick, NJ.




Fabos, Bettina

University of Northern Iowa

Interactive Photo-History Project On Rural Hungarian Life, 20AD-1956

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Proud and Torn: A History of Life in Hungary is a unique interactive timeline that visualizes Hungarian history (20 CE-1956) through archival photographs, maps, illustrations, animation, and short film clips. Combining the stylistic genres of photomontage, graphic memoir, and parallax scrolling, the timeline ultimately tells the story of immigration—the many circumstances that led a young Hungarian farmer to leave Hungary for a new life in America, and his sister (and best friend) to remain in Hungary. Told with the narrative perspective of the Hungarian immigrant’s American daughter, the project helps readers make sense of the dramatic and often horrific events that led to his immigration: two World Wars, the Holocaust, and more than a century of instability with competing regimes of capitalism, fascism, and communism. The family narrative perspective explores history from the ground up (rather than the top down), utilizes family photos and documents alongside archival findings, and challenges the dominant and narrow portrayals of Hungarian and European history by placing a greater emphasis on rural and agricultural history and using fresh visual sources from amateur and underutilized collections, both digital and archival.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Bettina Fabos, Ph.D., is the project director of Proud and Torn. She is Associate Professor of Visual Communication and Interactive Digital Studies at the University of Northern Iowa, where she is also engaged with the University’s public history program. Both a scholar and award-winning producer of digital content, her current work revolves around digital culture, digital visualization, digital photo archiving, and public memory. Her particular knowledge of media pedagogy and interactive digital studies is valuable to the Proud and Torn project insofar as communicating historical narrative and collective photographic identity. As a Presidential Scholar at the University of Iowa (where she received her Ph.D.), she won the University’s top dissertation award; she was also a recipient of a Spencer Fellowship. In 2013, she conducted research as a Fulbright Research Fellow in Hungary for Proud and Torn. She is the co-author of three significant textbooks: Media and Culture (the leading textbook for mass communication survey classes across the U.S.), Media Essentials, and Media IN Society, all with Bedford/St. Martin’s Press. She is also co-founder of FORTEPAN IOWA (fortepan.us), a digital archive of amateur photographs on 20th-century Iowa life based on the Hungarian FORTEPAN (fortepan.hu).




Freifeld, Alice

University of Florida, Gainesville

Hungarian Infiltrees: Mass Migration 1945-48

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Between 1945 and 1948 Europe experienced the largest mass migration of people in Modern European history before today. This paper will follow the illegal trafficking of people across Hungary’s borders, the administrative decisions that made it possible to cross “illegally,” especially in the mass movement in 1947, and the exigencies of travel and refugee maintenance in a war torn continent. The paper will explore the work of NGOs in Hungary and in the DP camps and touch on the fear that often dictated refugee actions as well as the response of the majority communities to their presence.

This period of migration has been subsumed into the Cold War pathos of the peoples fleeing the Soviets, or in the case of Holocaust survivors as an “interlude”, a limbo for those suspended between the Holocaust and new lives elsewhere. The present refugee crisis reminds us of the impact of this interlude on the political and medical structures, internal national/nationalist politics, and of course, the lives of the migrants.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Alice Freifeld received her PhD (1992), M.A. and B.A. from University of California, Berkeley. She joined the University of Florida in 1994 after teaching at Wheaton College, University of New Hampshire-Durham, University of Connecticut-Storrs, University of Nebraska, and Transylvania University, Lexington, KY. Professor Freifeld has published Nationalism and the Crowd in Liberal Hungary, 1848-1914 (2000), which won the Barbara Jelavich Book Prize in 2001. She also coedited East Europe Reads Nietzsche with Peter Bergmann and Bernice Rosenthal (1998). She has published numerous articles and is currently working on a manuscript entitled Displaced Hungarian Jewry, 1945-48.




Fülöp, Mihály

National University of Public Service (Nemzeti Közszolgálati Egyetem)

The Great Powers and the Forced Transfer of Hungarians

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the peace preparation of the victorious Great Powers, at the initiative of Stalin, the expulsion of Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia played an important role to fix the new borders in the Eastern part of Europe. Benes exploited the Soviet aims to settle the Slovakian question -i.e. to realize the fusion of Czech and Slovakian lands and to get rid from the entire Hungarian population by a forced transfer on the German pattern. My paper will expose the inter-allied negotiations on the forced transfer of Hungarians from Czechoslovakia, including Stalin's presidential archives new sources, to be published in Moscow in the autumn 2016.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
University Professor and Zoltán Magyary Chair in the University of Public Service (Ecole Nationale d'Administration), Budapest a responsible for a network of Hungarian Diplomatic Historians, former Fulbright and Campbell National Fellow at Stanford University, I thought courses of the History of International Relations and the History of Hungarian Diplomacy in Hungary, France in the last four decades.




Gáti, Sally

Gati Productions

STARTING OVER IN AMERICA: The Story of the Hungarian 56ers

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
"STARTING OVER IN AMERICA: The Story of the Hungarian 56ers" is a 57-min. documentary of personal stories told by thirteen Hungarian refugees who came to the United States following their failed 1956 Revolution against the Soviets. Of the 200,000 who left Hungary, 40,000 were welcomed to the United States to make this country their home. As they tell their stories, we see footage of the Revolution and hear of their disappointment at the outcome and the defeat of their dream for a free Hungary. But their funny, sad, and uplifting stories can now be looked at from a 60-year perspective. We, as viewers, are able to hear these men and women’s first-hand reflections and memories of oppression, communism, revolution, immigration and assimilation. It is a privilege, too, since both the actress Eva Szöreny and Academy-award-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond are in the movie and have since died, to hear them recall their experiences in light of this topic.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
City College of San Francisco
ESL Instructor l975 - 2012

Filmmaker 1969- present
http://gatiproductions.blogspot.com





Gáti, Sally

Gati Productions

Traditions for Sale

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Traditions for Sale (1996) is a 50-minute documentary directed and edited by folklorist and filmmaker Sally Gati, focusing on some very special folk artists living in an area of Hungary known as Matyó. Hungary had already been looking westward when the Berlin Wall fell in l989, so for the traditional arts, Hungarian capitalism signaled the loss of government support. The village folk artists realized they would have to be entrepreneurial and sell the work themselves. It was not such an easy transition, but they did it. You will meet some very talented folk artists. We talk to a woman who creates the designs. We see older women who make the detailed embroidery goods to be sold in souvenir shops in their own town and in Budapest. We meet a woodcarver who makes furniture to sell overseas, and we watch his son paint the colorful flowers that will decorate items to be sold in their folk art store. We also hear lively Hungarian folk music as young costumed men and women put on a wedding for tourists. Spurred on by the marketplace, we see the dynamics of folklore and the revival of cultural traditions. It is a document with historical roots as well as present-day significance.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Sally Gáti received her Master of Arts degree from the Ethnographic film program at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1969. She was a language instructor at City College of San Francisco until her retirement in 2012. Sally Gáti's documentary video productions include Traditions for Sale (1996), STARTING OVER IN AMERICA: The Story of the Hungarian 56ers (2003), BAY CITY LUV: Singin’ ‘n Livin’ on the Edge (2005), DAN CYTRON: One Artist’s POV (2011), ABOUT MY FATHER Sam Cytron: A Life in Music (2013). http://gatiproductions.blogspot.com/




Hargitai, Peter J.

Florida International University

Inclusion and Exclusion: A Lesson From the Hungarian Revolution

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper will deal with the physical, ideological and psychological aspects of dislocation in migrant and emigre communities, specifically Hungarians who had to flee their homeland in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and settle in the United States. As a child witness who lived through that cataclysmic time, I offer unique insights into the dynamics of ethnic communities and the process of acculturation.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Peter J. Hargitai is a retired Senior Lecturer in English from Florida International University, and more recently the Poet Laureate in Gulfport, Florida. He has written an historical novel in the juvenile fiction genre about the Hungarian Revolution titled Daughter of the Revolution published both in English and Hungarian in 2006. His most recent monograph, If Attila Jozsef Were Alive Today is coming out in the Hungarian Quarterly in Budapest. Hargitai is an Associate member of the Academy of American Poets and the Hungarian Writers Union.




Havas, Judit

Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum, Budapest

A művészi beszéd oktatása és felhasználásának lehetőségei a gyakorlatban

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
A vers olyan emberi beszéd, ami a dallal, az ősi dallal rokon. (…) A vers az ember legtöményebb megnyilvánulása, leganyagtalanabb röpülése, legforróbb vallomása a létről. A legszebb játék. A kifejezhetetlen körbetáncolása, megidézése, ritka szertartás, míves fohász. Valami, ami születésének pillnatában a halhatatlanságra tart igényt. Latinovits Zoltán

A nagyvilágban s Magyarországon is a nyelv romlása, az élőszóbeli megnyilvánulások fogyatékossága nap mint nap lemérhető minden fórumon; a rádiók, televízió műsorok megszólalóit hallgatva nem ritkán elképedünk a fülsértő beszédmodortalanságtól. A felnövekvő nemzedék helytelen hanglejtésű, helytelen artikulációs, sok esetben beszédhibás dikciót néznek-hallgatnak a világon mindenütt a TV ezerféle csatornáján, silány DVD-ken,éppen ezért, elengedhetetlenül fontosnak tartom a művészi beszéd tanítását egy speciális képzési formában, amelynek mintáját a Duna Televízió A vers az, amit mondani kell című 12 részes műsoromban egyetemi hallgatóim körében be is mutattam.
A beszéd és vers tanításának célja, hogy hozzásegítse a tanulókat a beszédük oldottá és természetessé válásához és segítse őket akár a Magyar Iskolai oktatás fórumain való megszólalásban, akár a közönség előtt való szereplésben, amely lehet egyéni produkció vagy közösségi, vagyis a színdarabban való szerepformálásban.
A cél, hogy mind a magyar nyelven és az adott élettér megkövetelte nyelven való megszólalás könnyen érthető és élményszerű legyen. Ennek elérését szolgálja a módszer: a hallgatók, a tanulók különböző képességfejlesztő gyakorlatokon, légzéstechnika, beszédtechnika, koncentráció fejlesztő játékos feladatokon, szövegértelmezéseken és memoritereken keresztül képessé válnak a nyelv magas szintű, tudatos használatára, az irodalmi műalkotások értő befogadására és értelmezésére. A technikai alapok elsajátításával eljutnak a lírai és prózai szövegek interpretálásának magas színvonaláig.
Nem lesz mindenki művész, s ez nem is feladat és cél, de a programsoron keresztül képesek lesznek a diákok kisiskolás koruktól fogva kapcsolatokat teremteni a környezetükkel; érzéseiket, véleményüket kifejezően megfogalmazni mind a tanórákon, mind a személyes életükben s nem utolsó sorban erősödni fog mind a befogadói, mind az előadói képességük.
S az sem elhanyagolható, hogy valamennyien művészeteket értő felnőttekké válnak az elsajátított nagyszülői-szülői nyelven, a magyar nyelven ugyanúgy mint a mindennapi életterük nyelvén.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Havas Judit irodalomtörténész, előadóművész felsőfokú tanulmányait az Eötvös Loránd Tudomány Egyetem Bölcsészettudományi Karán magyar-könyvtár szakon végezte. 1975 óta előadóművész. 2003-ban PhD fokozatot szerzett az ELTE Irodalomtörténeti Intézetében. Témavezetője Dr. Kenyeres Zoltán professzor volt. Jelenleg a Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum tudományos főmunkatársa. 2006. március 15-én a Köztársasági Elnök a Magyar Köztársaság Érdemrend Lovagkeresztje kitüntetésben részesítette irodalmi munkássága elismeréseként.




Havas, Judit

Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum, Budapest

Menni, maradni...Kolozsváról Izraelbe emigrálva is ott lebeg a kérdés

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
A séta: Emlékek a gyerekkorból és a Holocaust idejéből s az azt követő évekből. Földes Mária (1925-1976)
Menni, maradni...Kolozsváról Izraelbe emigrálva is ott lebeg a kérdés: "Tessék mondani hova kell ezután menni? Tessék mondani mit kell ezentúl csinálni? "Kérdések, válaszkeresések az írónő s a kortársak, barátok életében akár Kolozsváron, akár Budapesten, akár Izraelben.
Előadásom oknyomozási látlelet ma, a 21. században a történész, a fotóművész, az irodalomtörténész, a színművészek, az orvos és a helytörténész szemével - segítőtársaimmal, Radó Gyula rendezővel és Sibalin György operatőrrel. Miért e vállalkozás? Mert évtizedek óta fontosnak és feladatomnak tartom a közös gondolkodást sorskérdésekről és most a Holocaust 70. évfordulóján különösképpen, egy olyan írónő sorsának megidézésével, aki katolikus zárdában nevelkedett s megőrizte a humorát a legnagyobb rettenetben is. "Felszabadulva" minden politikai viharban Ember maradt, a démonaival küzdött - amelyek végül legyőzték. A sorsa példa ma is.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Havas Judit irodalomtörténész, előadóművész felsőfokú tanulmányait az Eötvös Loránd Tudomány Egyetem Bölcsészettudományi Karán magyar-könyvtár szakon végezte. 1975 óta előadóművész. 2003-ban PhD fokozatot szerzett az ELTE Irodalomtörténeti Intézetében. Témavezetője Dr. Kenyeres Zoltán professzor volt. Jelenleg a Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum tudományos főmunkatársa. 2006. március 15-én a Köztársasági Elnök a Magyar Köztársaság Érdemrend Lovagkeresztje kitüntetésben részesítette irodalmi munkássága elismeréseként.




Kim, Hyun Joo

Indiana University

Interpretive Fidelity to Gypsy Creativity: Liszt’s Representations of Hungarian-Gypsy Cimbalom Playing

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies I–XV (1846–1853) draw our attention immediately to the pianist-composer’s indulging in showmanship through the predominant display of technical brilliance. At the other end of the spectrum of his Rhapsodies, nevertheless, Liszt faithfully emulates the elements of Hungarian popular Gypsy bands. Then what is the meaning of his fidelity to Gypsy-band music in the midst of these highly brilliant piano pieces? Throughout his Rhapsodies, Liszt effectively captures the distinctive sounds and effects of cimbalom playing in his creative pianistic renderings. Liszt’s own remarks on the cimbalom in his Des bohémiens (1859) and his continuous relationships with cimbalom players, makers, and pedagogues provide context for his connections to the instrument. The contemporary articles about the cimbalom evocations, “Die Musik der Ungarn” from Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (1852), as well as the method book Cimbalom iskola [Cimbalom School] (1889) by Géza Allaga provide useful examples to explore several essential techniques of the cimbalom in a systematic manner. Liszt’s renderings evoke five salient features associated with the instrument’s timbres and techniques: (1) visually stunning cimbalom trills, (2) rebounding hammers on the cimbalom, (3) the unique texture of the cimbalom when it interacts with the violinist, and (4) cimbalom improvisation. All of his cimbalom evocations illuminate how meticulously Liszt expresses each technique and effect with a particular type of notation and how convincingly his reworking methods approximate the instrument’s distinctive sounds and techniques. The result of his reworkings is a skillful coalescence of his sensitive attention to the integrity of the instrument and his inventive pianistic solutions.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Hyun Joo Kim received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in musicology from Indiana University. Her dissertation, “The Dynamics of Fidelity and Creativity: Liszt’s Reworkings of Orchestral and Gypsy-Band Music” (December 2015), is a study of Franz Liszt and musical borrowing. She minored in music theory and also studied piano performance at IU with the celebrated pianist Edward Auer. Her current research focuses primarily on keyboard music, musical borrowing, sound reproduction, and Hungarian-Gypsy [Romani]-style music. She is writing a book that analyzes Liszt’s approach to instrumental timbres on the keyboard, drawing on parallels between piano sound reproduction and its counterpart in the visual arts.




Komlódi, Anita

University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)

Talent Migration: Trends and Personal Experiences in Transatlantic Researcher Mobility

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Research funding from the European Union has been increasing researcher mobility between the US and European countries. In this talk I will report on personal experiences from a 15-month Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE). In the framework of this project our team at BUTE worked with the Institute for Computer Science and Control of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to study collaboration and information sharing in immersive virtual environments. The data collection was carried out in the Institute’s Virtual Collaborative Arena (VirCA). VirCA provides an immersive collaborative platform where users can build, share and manipulate 3D content. They can collaboratively work with this content while being geographically dispersed. The results of the research showed that the immersive space can successfully support collaborative activities and problem solving. The results led to several publications, further research funding, and a continued collaboration.

In addition to the description of this particular project and experience, I will briefly describe recent trends in Trans-Atlantic researcher mobility and review funding opportunities available to US-based researchers. I will discuss the differences in the funding systems and describe lessons learned in applying for and implementing an EU-funded Trans-Atlantic Research Fellowship.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Anita Komlodi is an Associate Professor and the Graduate Program Director for Human-Centered Computing in the Department of Information Systems, University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her research areas span the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Human Information Behavior. She studies information behavior in various contexts and designs user interaction with information-intensive applications. In her current projects she focuses on information behavior and literacy across cultures and collaborative information behaviors in virtual reality environments. Dr. Komlodi received her Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Library and Information Science degrees from the University of Maryland and a Masters-equivalent degree from the Kossuth Lajos University in Library and Information Science and English.




Kovács, Ilona

Hungarian National Library (OSzK), Budapest

Contribution of American Public Library Service to Integration and Assimilation of Hungarian Immigrants between 1890 and 1940. Sources, statistical information and methods not identified for immigrant studies.

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
By the turn of the 19th and 20th century America faced the problem of immigrants’ integration. The manpower needs of the industry as priority covered the problem for a while. A debate on the issue lasted decades and offered a great variety of solutions. Among the different views the belief that it can be solved by education was strong. A certain extent it worked for second generation and foreign born immigrant child by the public school system, but not for the immigrant adult. They could communicate and read only on their mother tongue. That created a special situation for public libraries. Following an extensive debate in the professional periodicals and at conferences of librarians, they joined the progressive democrat’s neighborhood program and found their own solution. As a response to the demographic changes they launched a movement for developing “foreign language collections” and trained specialists, the “foreign language librarians” to provide service for immigrants including Hungarians. Until now not much research was made on this movement although archival sources of libraries and their neighborhood studies or annual reports constitute rich sources for immigrant studies and makes trends measurable. The present study analyses and evaluates their debates, their political and philosophical basis regarding integration and assimilation. It presents their methods, the results in the case of Hungarians, and the reactions from the Hungarian communities and from Hungary. The research is based mainly on US and Hungarian archival sources and contemporary published material concerning of the period from 1890’s to the1940’s.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Kovacs Ilona librarian, retired department head of the National Széchényi Library, Budapest.
She gained her diplomas at the Budapest University (ELTE, 1961) and at Kent State University, Ohio (MLS, 1975), and her doctoral degree at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA 1993). Her research area is Hungarians abroad focusing on American Hungarians. As head of the Hungarica Documentation she was director of grants for collecting information and documentation and build up Hungarica databases and also conducting surveys to publish a series of publications on Hungarica material of libraries in Europe, Australia and Canada. She attended several international conferences in Europe, USA, Canada and Hungary and published over 100 articles, studies and books. She was a Fulbright scholar at the American Hungarian Foundation in the AYs 1995 and 2001/03.





Lázár, George

Independent scholar

The “Forgotten Generation” - Hungarian refugees in the US 1960-1989

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):

Following the 1956 Revolution forty thousand Hungarian refugees were admitted to the United States in a relatively short period of time. This immigration wave was well organized and supported by the US authorities.


After the brutal suppression of the revolution, Hungary was ruled by the Communist Kádár-regime for several decades. Travel to West was severely limited and only a couple of hundred refugees arrived to the US in this time period, spanning from the 1960s thru 1989, the collapse of Hungary’s Socialist system.


As one of those who left Hungary illegally in this period, I explore why this generation of immigrants is different. How do they see Hungary differently than the 56-ers? I call them the “Forgotten Generation” of Hungarian-American immigrants.


Although refugees of this period were generally better educated than previous immigrant groups, they received less or no US support for resettlement. Many of them felt neglected or sometimes misunderstood by the Hungarian-American community and they harbored conflicted feelings about the Kádár-regime. They had to fight various additional obstacles, among them, Socialist Hungary’s ongoing legal and political maneuvers to convince (or force) them to return to Hungary.


Little research has been done about the Hungarian immigration of this period, and although the number of refugees in this period is much smaller than after 1956, their story and struggles deserve attention.




Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
After receiving degrees in Engineering and Economy, György Lázár came to the US in 1980 on a UNESCO fellowship to complete his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina. He later moved to California’s Silicon Valley and spent the next decades in high-tech consulting. After his retirement he became a contributor to several Hungarian and English language publications. His pieces appear in Élet és Irodalom in Hungarian and at the Hungarian Free Press in English. In the past, he also contributed to galamus.hu and New York based Amerikai Magyar Népszava. He and his wife enjoy spending time in Hungary.




Leafstedt, Carl

Trinity University

High Stakes Cultural Politics: The Cold War and the New York Bartók Estate in the 1950s

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Béla Bartók lived in the New York City area for the last five years of his life. His American estate dates its origins to 1943, when he entrusted his music manuscript collection to the care of two fellow Hungarian émigrés, Gyula Báron and Victor Bator, both then living in the United States. After his death, in September 1945, the estate devolved into their care. By 1960, thanks to Bator’s astute management, the Bartók estate had become one of the largest collections of unique autograph materials anywhere in the world devoted to a single artistic figure – a cultural treasure of intense interest for Hungarians and for the Hungarian Communist government.
The onset of Cold War politics in the late 1940s presented numerous challenges to the estate, particularly when its beneficiaries – Bartók’s two sons and wife -- became separated by the Iron Curtain. Documents and letters recently located in Massachusetts allow us to reconstruct the inner workings of the Bartók estate for the first time. Victor Bator emerges as a fierce defender of democratic ideals, recognized by President Harry Truman as an important ally in the American foreign relations battle against Communism. As I’ll demonstrate, Bator neatly parried attempts by the Communist party to gain control over the estate and its royalty stream in international courts. The New York Bartók Estate emerges as another important arena for Cold War cultural battles in the 1950s and 60s.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Carl Leafstedt is a music historian on the faculty of the Music Department of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He received his Ph.D. in music from Harvard University. He has taught at Southwestern University, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Duke University. He’s been on the faculty at Trinity University since 2001. His book on Bartók’s opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was published by Oxford University Press. From 2005-7 he served as President of the Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society.




Mátyás, Dénes

Cleveland State University

Sándor Márai and the Emigration in "Funeral Oration"

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
There were various factors that led Sándor Márai (1900-1989) to his decision to leave his native land in 1948. Among these were the siege of Budapest, in which his apartment was also destroyed, and – primarily – the evolution of the Communist regime in Hungary. When he finally decided to emigrate, he moved first to Italy, and later settled in the United States. Nevertheless, he never quit writing, and what is more, he always kept doing so in Hungarian, even though he pledged not to publish any of his works in Hungary as long as the country was under foreign domination. This fact is already in itself a clear evidence of the deep allegiance Márai held toward his Hungarian (and bourgeois) consciousness, to his Hungarian identity, and to the Hungarian language, as much before as after his emigration. No wonder he found the preservation of these values as of great, even vital importance.
The present paper intends to analyze Sándor Márai’s "Halotti beszéd" (Funeral Oration, 1951) written when he had already left his homeland and was living in Naples, Italy, and to explore the thoughts and ideas the poem reveals concerning the emigrant’s existential situation and possible future. While doing so, it also aims to study the various, more or less hidden, cultural and literary references in Funeral Oration, as well as to offer an interpretation of their application in terms of the possibility, if any, to preserve one’s identity (Hungarian or otherwise) abroad in emigration.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dénes Mátyás works as a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Cleveland State University during the academic year 2015-‘16. He earned his Master’s degrees (American Studies, Italian Studies, Hungarian Studies Instruction for Foreigners) and PhD in Literature at the University of Szeged, Hungary. He held courses at the Central European International Studies Center and the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Szeged for years, and he was also a Visiting Assistant Lecturer (2009-‘10) at the Department of East European Studies at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Italy.




Medalis, Christopher

Institute of International Education (IIE)

An Immigrant Gives Back: Andrew Romay’s Support of New Immigrants in New York City

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The contributions of Hungarian immigrants in enriching cultural, scientific, economic, artistic, and academic life of the U.S. is significant. This paper will examine the impact of one Hungarian-American immigrant, Andrew Romay. Born in Miskolc, a survivor of labor brigades and Mauthausen Camp during World War II, and a 1956 Refugee, as an immigrant Dr. Romay became a successful businessman in New York City.

Thanks to his philanthropy, the Andrew Romay New Immigrant Center (ARNIC) was founded in New York City in 2013 to improve the lives of recent immigrants, and since inception has served more than 500 immigrants from 70 countries. Free of charge for its participants, ARNIC is a successful model of immigrant integration, providing English language and career skills, as well as cultural integration through contact with American volunteers. Participants receive English language classes; advice and assistance on practical issues such as personal finances, health insurance, and the U.S. legal system; career counseling such as CV writing, interview practice, and business mentorships; and cultural activities including theater, museum, and sports events, films, and book clubs.

This paper will trace the genesis and evolution of the Romay’s support for immigrants, explore how his life experiences in Hungary contributed to this position, and elaborate on the successes of the ARNIC program in integrating new immigrants. The author will use sources including oral history interviews – including with Andrew Romay - and transcripts, and ARNIC program data.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Christopher Medalis is Regional Director (REAC) for Europe for EducationUSA, a U.S. State Department network which promotes U.S. higher education abroad. He has held various positions at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York and Budapest. He holds a PhD in History from Columbia University (2009), where his dissertation focused on the role of the Fulbright Program in higher education and societal transformation in Hungary. He also holds a MA in History (Columbia, 1993) and a BA in International Relations (George Washington University, 1989). His research interests include Hungarian-American relations, public diplomacy, and comparative and international education.




Niessen, James P.

Rutgers University

Opening the Door for Refugees: The Decision to Accept 56ers in Switzerland, Israel, Canada, and the US

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The nearly 200,000 refugees who streamed across the border after the failed revolution found new homes in many countries around the world. The US and Canada accepted the largest number in absolute terms, and Switzerland and Canada the most in relation to their population. By a calculation in summer 1957, Canada and Switzerland had each admitted 214 refugees per 100,000 population, and Israel 111. When calculated by refugees per $100 million national income, the corresponding figures were 215 for Israel, 196 for Switzerland, and 158 for Canada. The same ratio for the 34,000 US admissions at that date were 22 and 10, respectively. But the US was the biggest financial contributor: $71 million to ICEM, the Red Cross, and the Austrian government. The reasons behind these countries’ disproportionate representation will be the focus of my paper.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Jim Niessen is the President of the AHEA for 2014-2016. He earned his Ph.D at Indiana University with a dissertation on Transylvania in the 1860s. He has published widely on Hungarian and Romanian religious history, libraries, and archives. He has worked as World History Librarian at Rutgers University since 2001, and coordinated the digital project that placed selected records of the President's Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief online at http://hi.rutgers.edu/56-ers-collection . The proposed paper is part of a series exploring aspects of the 56er story at successive AHEA meetings.




Papp, Susan M.

University of Toronto

The Politics of Exclusion: The Hungarian Theatrical Arts and Film Arts Chamber, 1939-1945

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungarians have always been fascinated with storytelling through the art of film, the country has consistently produced generations of talented filmmakers. The first films were produced in Hungary around the turn-of-the-century and, from that point onwards, cinemas began to be built all over Budapest. By 1914, there were over 110 permanent cinemas, more than in many other major European capitals.
Each successive Hungarian government has tried to politicize, to regimentalize the film industry, in fact to mold the film industry to do the regime’s bidding. The inter-war government of Miklos Horthy tried to mold the film industry as well.
This paper will examine how the theatre and film community (both Christian and Jewish) were affected by the implementation of the Jewish laws. It will be examining the human cost of the losses within the film and theatre arts community through the prism of historical events and reactions: of the Jewish and Christian theatre and film community, of self-help organizations established to aid the unemployed, within the business of film itself, of government and institutional actions and reactions. This paper will examine the impact of the Jewish laws through examining the “micro” history of how Jewish and Christian actors, actresses, producers, directors and those involved in the film and theatre community were affected by these laws.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Susan M. Papp, Director/Producer, earned a Master of Arts in North American Social History at York University in Toronto in 1985. She began her career in journalism at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Drama department in 1981 as a historical researcher. In 1988, Ms. Papp became a current affairs producer in the regional news department at the CBC. Susan Papp developed a profile and reputation as an on-camera current affairs reporter specializing in social issues for CBC TV. In 1991, she was chosen to work as field producer for The Journal, and its subsequent retitled version Prime Time News. While at the CBC, she was awarded two of the top journalism awards in Canada: The Michener Award and the Best Investigative Award by the Canadian Journalists Association.

In 1993, while on leave of absence from the BBC, Ms. Papp founded her own television production company, Postmodern Productions, and has since produced documentaries for CBC, BRAVO, WTN, Discovery Channel and OMNI Television. She has published extensively in the field of Hungarian immigration and settlement in North America. Presently, Ms. Papp teaches Hungarian Studies at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.




Parapatics, Andrea

University of Pannonia, Faculty of Modern Philology and Social Sciences, Institute of Hungarian and Applied Linguistics

Regional Language Features – Attitudes and Their Effects on Mother Tongue Education in Hungary

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The status of Hungarian dialects have changed due to mobilisation – urbanisation and internal migration – and globalisation over the past few decades. Previously conspicuous dialectical features have been forced back, and a new phenomenon: regional standard has been formed and it is forming nowadays, too. But we still should not talk about dying – just changing – dialects.
Since stigmatization of dialects can lead to severe psychological and sociological consequences, the paper discusses the theory and practice of teaching dialectology within the framework of Hungarian Grammar subject in elementary and secondary-grammar school. The paper argues that the common ideas of the Hungarian dialect-speaker (old, illiterate, lives in a village and/or transborder) are still just stereotypes nowadays, and regionalisms also typify younger, educated city-people. The research is based on the answers to questionnaires of teachers (on language attitudes and their practice) and pupils (on dialectal vocabulary) and lots of personal experiences, since the author teaches in a secondary-grammar school, too.
The main goal of the research is to develop the discussion on teaching dialectology – to teach actual, real and useful knowledge about dialects and not to stigmatize it by correcting in youngsters language use (laboring under a delusion).


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Andrea Parapatics is a lecturer at the University of Pannonia, Faculty of Modern Philology and Social Sciences, Institute of Hungarian and Applied Linguistics. She received her Ph.D.in 2013 at ELTE Doctoral School of Linguistics, Hungarian Linguistics.
She is a founding member and editor of Anyanyelv-pedagógia journal.




Pataky, Adrienn

ELTE BTK

István Lakatos and 1956

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
István Lakatos (1927-2002) was a Hungarian Kossuth Prize-winner poet, writer and one of the founding members of Digital Literary Academy (DIA). In 1949 he was awarded the Baumgarten Prize, but between 1949 and 1972 he was unable to have a volume of his poems published. After 1956 he was in prison (until 1959). He was considered an “counter-revolutionary” because of his "anti-regime poems" in the journal called Igazság and because he was a board member of Hungarian Writer’s Association in 1956-57. While in prison he translated Virgil’s Aeneid. I will talk about Lakatos’s literary significance and will analyze Lakatos's poems and essays. After the regime change in 1991 Lakatos was awarded the “1956 Commemorative Medal”.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Adrienn Pataky is a PhD-candidate in Loránd Eötvös University (PhD Program of General Literary and Cultural Studies) and she is assistant research fellow in MTA-ELTE Association for the General Study of Literature Research Group. She is interested in modern Hungarian lyric, especially sonnets. She is a teacher, a literary columnist and also writes critiques and edits books. She is one of members of the Free Academy of Humanities – Budapest (Voluntary Open University). http://www.aitk.hu/pataky_adrienn/





Pigniczky, Réka and Andrea Lauer

Independent filmmaker

Recording Visual Histories of Hungarian American Immigrants Arriving after WWII and 1956

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, some 35,000 Hungarians immigrated to the United States. They were often referred to as the “cream of the crop,” passionate members of society in Hungary who were actively involved in 1956 and forced to flee when the Revolution failed. In their new country, many held tight to their strong heritage, went on to establish new cultural and community organizations and are now considered the grand elders of the Hungarian American community.

In 2015, Réka Pigniczky and Andrea Lauer Rice, both daughters of 56ers, launched the Memory Project: Hungarian American Visual History Archive (https://vimeo.com/channels/memoryproject), with the goal of recording personal interviews with 56ers and Displaced Persons (immigrants after WWII). As Phase I of their project, they have completed 35 interviews across the United States and in Hungary.

Modeled on the methodology utilized by the Shoah Foundation, they set about interviewing 56ers with the same set of questions focusing on three themes. They were: life in Hungary before immigration; the personal story of escape or immigration; and the experience of coming to and settling in America. The discussions almost always turned to the issue of cultural identity, particularly interesting since many of the participants have lived more than half their lives in the US.

Our presentation will focus on the overview and scope of this new visual history archive and its preliminary observations based on the first 35 interviews.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):

Réka Pigniczky is a television journalist, producer and independent documentary filmmaker. A second generation American Hungarian, she created 3 films dealing with 1956, immigration, and dual-identity. Journey Home won awards in Hungary and was invited to screen at a number of international film festivals. Inkubátor was voted one of the 25 best films released in Hungary in 2010. Heritage is the prequel to the Memory Project. Réka Pigniczky has an MA in international affairs and journalism from Columbia University in New York, an MA in Political Science from the Central European University and a BA in Political Science from University of California, San Diego.

Andrea Lauer Rice is a multimedia producer, author and speaker who focuses on teaching the next generation through new and innovative ways. The author of several books and a graphic novel, she produced an educational computer game and created numerous educational websites, including an oral history site and visual history project. Rice actively manages several social media accounts, all with the goal of teaching and reaching young people with the stories of heritage and cultural traditions. Lauer Rice earned an MBA at Goizueta Business School at Emory University.




Poznan, Kristina

College of William & Mary

Emigration in the Aftermath of the Trianon Treaty and the US Immigration Restrictions Act

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The post-World War I era featured new borders in Central and Eastern Europe under the Trianon Treaty as well as the passage of restrictive immigration laws in the United States in 1921 and 1924. While scholars have examined the effects on Hungarian migration of the Trianon Treaty and U.S. quotas separately, rarely do we consider the effect that these two major post-war developments had on each other happening at the same time. Especially in borderlands areas, people’s home villages might not end up in the state they identified with nationally. This had tremendous effects on the likeliness of migrants already in the US to return to Europe. It also closed off the option of going to the United States for many individuals at the very comment that they might be seeking to move because of new political borders. This paper will examine the interplay between the Trianon borders and American immigration restriction legislation in the migration decisions of Hungarians in the 1920s.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Kristina Poznan is a Ph.D. candidate in History at the College of William & Mary. She is completing her dissertation, "Becoming Immigration Nation-Builders: The Development of Austria-Hungary's National Projects in the United States, 1880s-1920s." The project has been supported by a Fulbright Austrian-Hungarian Joint Research Award, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Poznan has offered courses at William & Mary, the Károli Gáspar Reformed University, Christopher Newport University, and Randolph-Macon College. She is a historical consultant for Bettina Fabos's "Proud and Torn," an online interactive visual timeline of Hungarian history, and secretary of the Hungarian Studies Association.




Rajec, Elizabeth Molnár

Independent scholar

A 1956 Refugee Remembers

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
A personal report of a Hungarian asylum seeker - after the Soviet Union crushed the rebellion in 1956, reporting on difficulties crossing the Iron Curtain, on camp life experience in Vienna, on difficulties crossing the ocean on the U.S. military boat named after General Walker, on arrival in Camp Kilmer in New Jersey and on adjusting to western life style in New York. The illustrated report is based on my book entitled CLIMBING OUT FROM UNDER THE SHADOW, published in 2010.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Elizabeth Molnar Rajec is a retired professor emerita,Fulbright scholar, PEN member, academic librarian from City College CUNY, published author on Franz Kafka and Ferenc Molnar. The latest among her many publications is Climbing Out From Under the Shadow, New York, 2010.




Sohar, Paul

Independent Scholar

The Birth of Modern Hungarian Poetry

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The twenty-year period between the two world wars saw rapid urbanization and then economic depression; both generated great political tension and transformations, all reflected in the arts and letters of the time, from German expressionist paintings to Berthold Brecht, Thomas Mann, and other writers who tried to make sense of the dizzying changes around them. The artistic ferment had one unifying note: alienation from society on an unprecedented scale. Hungarian poetry was very much caught up in the mood of the times, and this will be illustrated here with lesser known but quite authentic examples, poems by Jenő Dsida, Lörinc Szabó, and Sandor Marai in this author’s translation.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Paul Sohar drifted to the US as a young student refugee from Hungary but ended his higher education with a BA in philosophy and took a day job in a research lab while writing in every genre; poetry, prose, essays, reviews, translation. His bibliography includes eleven volumes of translations, including "Dancing Embers", his Kanyadi translations (Twisted Spoon Press, 2002). His own poetry can be found in “Homing Poems” (Iniquity Press, 2006) and “The Wayward Orchard”, a Wordrunner Prize winner (2011). Other awards: first prize in the Lincoln Poets Society contest (2012), second prize for prose in Rhode Island Writers Circle contest (2014) and a translation prize from Irodalmi Jelen in Budapest (2014). Latest translation volumes: "Silver Pirouettes" (TheWriteDeal 2012) and “In Contemporary Tense” ( more Kanyadi poems; Iniquity Press, 2013). Prose works: “True Tales of a Fictitious Spy” (Synergebooks, 2006) and a collection of three one-act plays from One Act Depot (Canada, 2014).His magazine credits include Agni, Gargoyle, Kenyon Review, Pedestal, Rattle, Salzburg Poetry Review, Seneca Review, etc.




Stark, Tamás

Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Center for Humanities

Hungary and the Refugee Question, 1914 – 2015

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
During the past century, Hungary has confronted the challenge of refugee crises four times.

During World War I, tens of thousands of Galician Jews fled to Hungary, mainly to Budapest, ahead of the advancing Russian imperial army. The Hungarian government provided social, medical, and housing assistance for these refugees. Despite the protection of the state, the Galician Jews were the target of criticism, and newspapers and politicians waged discrediting campaigns against them.

In autumn 1939, more than one hundred thousand Polish refugees arrived in Hungary. Most of them left for the Mediterranean region, but thousands remained and found shelter here during the war.

In 1989, thousands of East Germans gathered in Budapest because Hungary had given up the mines and barbed wire sealing the border with Austria. They demanded to be let through to democratic West Germany and, in an extraordinary historic moment, the government heeded their wish.

In 2015 more than three hundred thousand refugees from the Middle East and Afghanistan crossed Hungary for Germany and Sweden. The Hungarian government replied to this latest crisis with a vehement anti-migrant campaign, and built a barricade along Hungary's southern border in late summer to keep newly arriving refugees out of the country.

The proposed paper would compare government policy in these four situations. The paper would then examine the factors that affected the government behavior and public opinion in these cases.

After two of these four refugee crises, Hungarians themselves needed international support as 200 hundred thousands out-migrated with the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Issue: did Hungary treat their in-migrants with the support that so many Hungarian out-migrants sought?



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tamás Stark received his PhD from the University of Budapest in 1993. From 1983 he was a researcher at the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2000 he was appointed a senior research fellow. His specialization is forced population movement in East-Central Europe in the period 1938-1956, with special regard to the history of the Holocaust, the fate of civilian internees and prisoners of war, and the postwar migrations. In 1995 he was visiting fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. In 2014 he was Fulbright professor at the Nazareth College in Rochester NY. USA. His main publications include: Hungary’s Human Losses in World War II. (Uppsala, 1995), Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust and after the Second World War (Boulder, CO, 2000), Magyarok szovjet fogságban (Budapest, 2006).




Szpura, Beata

Queensborough Community College

Csontváry -- The Master of Mystical Ambiguities and of Light

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Csontvary's work is hard to categorize. He is a painter who followed his inner voice and left us many paintings that touch upon surrealism, symbolism, post impressionism, fauvism, and something that is uniquely his own, mysterious and strangely beautiful.
Light is the crucial element in several of his paintings. It changes the reality and transports the viewer into emotionally charged realms: some peaceful and dreamlike, others reflecting the inner turmoil of the master.
The overview of some of Csontvary's works -from the perspective of a working artist-may provide some of the insights into his unique use of light and symbolic elements that so strongly appeal to contemporary viewers.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Beata Szpura is a substitute full time lecturer at Queensborough Community College and Part Time Assistant Professor at Parsons the New School for Design. She is a working fine artist and an illustrator.
Artist's website: bszpura.com




Tyeklar, Nora

The University of Texas at Austin

Szégyelld Magad Orbán!: The poetics of oratory in a performance of Romani Hungarian nation-building

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
On September 13, 2015 as part of a demonstration organized by the Együtt Party to protest the Hungarian government’s handling of the ongoing refugee crisis, Jenő Setét, a prominent Romani Hungarian activist, delivers the speech that is the focus of my ethnopoetic analysis. In this paper, I analyze the occasion of an ethnically marked man (a Romani activist in Hungary) delivering a speech through a marked channel (a political demonstration) via a marked discursive form (oratory) in a performance of Romani Hungarian nation-building composed through the poetics of oratory. Throughout his speech, Setét moves between directly addressing the audience in front of him, quoting politicians who are not present at the demonstration, and performs the sending of messages to the absent politicians whom he quotes. He uses metaphor, parallelisms, and quoted speech to create and break ties between various groups of people and welcomes his audience to respond. Setét is able to display solidarity with all Hungarians – Roma, non-Roma, Hungarians of the past, present, and future (refugees) and even with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at several points – and show that they all belong to Hungary together because of how he poetically indexes the common ground they share. Rather than doing the work of nation-building by emphasizing a friend-enemy binary, but nevertheless pointing out difference along the way, Setét ultimately uses the delivery design of his speech to keep his audience motivated in working together with all Hungarians for a united Hungary and understanding difference as a resource for it.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Nora Tyeklar is a Ph.D. student in linguistic anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. In her work, she considers the forms of language as social action that take place in and through popular representations of refugees alongside refugees’ narratives as performances of remembered violence. That is, through an ethnopoetic approach to assessing refugee narratives, her research examines how such narratives are framed via individual biography and larger social and national discourses in the contexts of resettlement and removal. She has a chapter included in an edited volume entitled Refugee Resettlement in the United States: Language, Policy, Pedagogy published in 2015 by Multilingual Matters.




Varga, Valéria

Indiana University

Approaches to Grammar Teaching in Hungarian Language Instruction

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Even though specialists in second language acquisition agree that adults cannot learn a foreign language without consciously paying attention to form as part of their learning process, this does not mean that the traditional “Presentation/Controlled Practice/Free practice” model should be the basic structure of teaching grammar in a foreign language class. Instead I would like to explore alternative approaches to teaching grammar. How can we incorporate new approaches on teaching grammar in a Hungarian language class, where an agglutinative language is being taught, a language really different from English? How can we avoid the big mistakes we make as language teachers when we present our students long and complicated explanations of grammar points thus turning them into passive recipients of information rather than active participants in the process of learning? How can we give our students the opportunity to play with the language being learned, and to create with it?
In my presentation I would like to show some components of planning a Hungarian grammar class based on communicative approaches and will discuss ways of structuring the teaching of grammar of the Hungarian language in a reflective way.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Valeria Varga has been a visiting lecturer, later a lecturer, and is currently senior lecturer of Hungarian language at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She graduated from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest with degrees in Hungarian, English and Russian language and literature. She received her Professional Teacher's Degree in 2005, with specialization in mentoring, teacher training, testing and test developing and is also a certified ILR tester. She first taught Hungarian at IU between 1995 and 1998 and then again since 2005.




Veizer, Keith

Independent Scholar

VeizerVizerWieserWiezer: The Granite City-Kompolt Connection

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
My presentation will be based on a book I published in April 2015 with the above title. In the early 1900s my grandparents and many others from Kompolt and Hevesmegye came to a neighborhood in Granite City, Illinois--then called Hungary Hollow, now known as Lincoln Place--to work in newly established factories there. Three of my father’s siblings were born in Hungary; he and five others were born in the United States. For more than two generations there was a vibrant Hungarian-American community in Lincoln Place. Its Magyarhaz, constructed in 1926 and still used by the Mexican Honorary Commission, was a center for many cultural events: dances, plays, weddings, and performances by the Hungarian-American Band. It was also used by the other ethnic communities in the neighborhood: Armenians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Mexicans.
I spent a good deal of my childhood listening to stories about the community from my father, who was in 1937 the first ethnic citizen elected to the city’s Board of Aldermen. The first section of the book is a memoir of my father’s family and an account of the early years of the community based on my father’s stories, interviews of Lincoln Place residents conducted by members of an oral history class from SIU-Edwardsville, and wide-ranging research.
The second section of the book recounts my three visits to Kompolt--from 2003 when I found several relatives with whom I have stayed in contact, to 2014 when I studied Hungarian at the Balassi Institute in Budapest for a month before returning to the village. Each visit yielded more information about those who emigrated, those who remained in Kompolt, and those who returned to Kompolt from Granite City. In September the last two years, I have set up a booth at the Lincoln Place Heritage Festival where I share my research with descendants of the original families from Kompolt and others.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Keith Veizer taught literature, composition and creative writing for forty years in the colleges and secondary schools of New Orleans and am now retired. I received a BA in English from the University of Illinois in 1965, an MA in English from the University of Virginia in 1967, and an MFA in Fiction from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1983. Over the years I have published eight short stories and one poem in literary magazines and journals.