Cultural Studies paper by Magdó, Zsuzsánna
Living in Modernity: Ferenc Balázs, Global Utopia and the Transylvanian Village, 1923-1927
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
In 1923-1928, the Transylvanian Hungarian intellectual and Unitarian minister Ferenc Balázs observed the global landscape of his historical present as he crossed the trans-imperial and colonial landscapes of Western Europe, North America, East and South Asia. During his travels, Balázs personally examined the radical socio-political initiatives that pacifist and anti-colonial intellectuals such as Toyohiko Kagawa, Rabindranath Tagore, and Mohandas Gandhi embraced in response to the post-war crisis of global modernity. After his return to Greater Romania, Balázs embarked on the rural development of Transylvanian micro-region in the pursuit of a new world society that would transcend a global system structured in his time by politics of difference indebted to empire, colonialism, the nation-state and minority-building.
By retracing how he capitalized on the flow of ideas and people across Protestant missionary, anti-colonial, and pacifist networks, this paper inserts Balázs's social reforms into a history of worldwide mobility, cultural exchange and connectivity.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zsuzsanna Magdo is the Assistant Director for Partnerships and Programs at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian and East European Studies. Before her appointment to Pitt, Zsuzsa served at the Center for Global Studies and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. At Illinois, she has taught on Eastern Europe and Russia, modernity and religion, utopianism and empires in world history - themes that are also central to her research and publication. Zsuzsa holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois.
https://pitt.academia.edu/ZsuzsannaMagdo zsuzsannamagdo@pitt.edu