Past Abstracts
1,037 abstracts found
Christian Translational Crossroads. James Joyce <i>Ulysses</i> című regényének legújabb magyar fordításáról.
Language/LiteratureJames Joyce Ulysses című műve a XX. századi világirodalom legfontosabb alkotásainak az egyikeként több magyar nyelvű fordítást is megért már. Legutóbb a Magyar James Joyce Műhely vállalkozott 2012-ben a magnum opus közvetítésére az Európa Kiadónál. Nemcsak indokolt, hanem a megjelenést követően méltán ünnepelt is ez a fordítás. Előadásomban egyetlen szempontból, a keresztény és azon belül kitüntetetten a katolikus teológia és liturgia gazdagon szőtt intertextualitásának a fordítási eredményeit vizsgálom. A Joyce szövegben alapmintázatok egyikeként jelenlévő zsidó-keresztény vallási tradíció sorsa a magyar fordításban egyszerre elméleti, interkulturális és értelmezői szempontok mentén is kikérdezhető. A fordítás nyelvi és kulturális értékelése egyúttal a regény hazai irodalomtudományos értelmezéséhez is hozzá kíván járulni.
Civic Participation in Saving Szabadka’s (Subotica) Building Heritage
Cultural Studies/ArtsSzabadka (Subotica), located near the Hungarian border in Serbia, was part of Hungary until the First World War. The town developed its specific character during the 19th century, and was able to preserve it to the present day. Owing to socio–political changes and urban plans made according to communist ideology in the period after the Second World War, until the 1980’s, the value and importance of 19th century buildings heritage was not recognized. There was, however, a period of recognition of the importance of 19th century Szabadka building heritage just before the Yugoslav war started in 1991. Because of the struggle for survival during the war the care for building heritage was again forgotten. Recently a small group of people organized and devoted themselves to preserve Subotica’s building heritage and specific town character. Through a number of activities they managed to draw attention of a great number of citizens to the importance of their identity and valuable building heritage. This presentation will focus on the efforts, objectives and achievements of a small group of citizens who named themselves “Smile at Subotica” (Nasmei se Subotici -- Mosolyogj Szabadkára), to raise awareness and change behavior in creating he future for Szabadka’s building heritage.
Cleveland and Budapest: Correspondence and Cooperation between József Reményi and Dezső Kosztolányi
Language/LiteratureJózsef Reményi and Dezső Kosztolányi maintained a rich correspondence and dynamic collaboration throughout the 1920s and 1930s, a period marked by intensified transatlantic cultural exchange between Hungary and the United States. Their friendship, grounded in mutual respect and intellectual curiosity, evolved into a productive partnership that bridged literary cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. Following Reményi’s visit to Hungary in the 1920s, Kosztolányi became a key advocate for his friend’s literary ambitions, facilitating Reményi’s publications in Nyugat and offering a favorable review of his Cleveland-based novel Emberek, ne sírjatok! (“People, Don’t Cry!”).
Kosztolányi’s engagement with American literature also deepened through Reményi’s influence. He translated short stories by William Faulkner and Evelyn Scott, both of which appeared in Reményi’s 1929 anthology Mai amerikai dekameron (“Modern American Decameron”), published by Nyugat. These translations not only introduced contemporary American voices to Hungarian readers but also reflected Kosztolányi’s growing appreciation for the modernist sensibilities emerging from American fiction. Mentions of Cleveland and Ohio in Kosztolányi’s later writings further attest to the transnational impact of this exchange.
Ultimately, the Reményi–Kosztolányi correspondence illuminates a neglected dimension of early twentieth-century Hungarian literary modernism: its dialogic engagement with American cultural narratives. Both writers shared a profound commitment to the idea of world literature (világirodalom), viewing translation, critique, and correspondence as vehicles for intellectual expansion and cross-cultural understanding. Their collaboration stands as a testament to the permeability of national literatures and to the enduring power of literary friendship in shaping transnational modernist discourse.
Kosztolányi’s engagement with American literature also deepened through Reményi’s influence. He translated short stories by William Faulkner and Evelyn Scott, both of which appeared in Reményi’s 1929 anthology Mai amerikai dekameron (“Modern American Decameron”), published by Nyugat. These translations not only introduced contemporary American voices to Hungarian readers but also reflected Kosztolányi’s growing appreciation for the modernist sensibilities emerging from American fiction. Mentions of Cleveland and Ohio in Kosztolányi’s later writings further attest to the transnational impact of this exchange.
Ultimately, the Reményi–Kosztolányi correspondence illuminates a neglected dimension of early twentieth-century Hungarian literary modernism: its dialogic engagement with American cultural narratives. Both writers shared a profound commitment to the idea of world literature (világirodalom), viewing translation, critique, and correspondence as vehicles for intellectual expansion and cross-cultural understanding. Their collaboration stands as a testament to the permeability of national literatures and to the enduring power of literary friendship in shaping transnational modernist discourse.
Cleveland’s Hungarian School: Strengthening a Diaspora Community since 1958
Cultural Studies/ArtsCleveland’s heritage language school has been meeting weekly and imparting Hungarian language, history, geography, literature, and culture to second- and third-generation Cleveland Hungarians since its founding in 1958. With an all-volunteer staff and teaching kindergarten through high school, its students learn to read and write in the language of their parents and grandparents, many of whom were born in Cleveland and also attended the Hungarian school as children themselves; the students also participate in poetry recitation competitions. With a close relationship to Cleveland’s Hungarian scouting troops, the school has weathered multiple locations and political eras in its 67-year history, remaining a mainstay of diaspora culture and slowing language assimilation one week at a time. This presentation will trace the community’s context and the school’s history, share highlights of its curriculum, and describe the current makeup of its classes, as well as highlighting challenges faced by the school, its teachers, and its students.
Cold War Flashpoint? Hungarian Christians and the Evanston Assembly of 1954
History/Political ScienceSeveral Protestant churches in Hungary were members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) since its creation at the Amsterdam Assembly in 1948. By the time the WCC’s second assembly convened in Evanston, Illinois six years later, the Cold War was in full bloom. Despite international tension, a handful of churchmen from behind the Iron Curtain joined the thousands of attendees at this heavily reported two-week meeting on the campus of Northwestern University with its associated events in Chicago and the surrounding region. The delegation from Hungary was the largest of any from the Soviet bloc: the Hungarian government made use of this forum to break out of its political and ideological isolation and make propaganda for the purported religious freedom in the country. What was the contribution of Hungarian attendees to the meeting and its aftermath? How was this contribution perceived in the US and in Hungary? Finally, how can we understand this contribution in the context of the history of the WCC? My investigation of these questions will draw upon evidence from the archival record and contemporary press coverage. As in the present day, there was a complex relationship between faith, organized religion, political ideologies, and international relations.
Collaborating with Higher Education Faculty in Hungary: Similarities and Differences in Training Special Educators to use HLPs.
Education/Social SciencesSpecial educators should be trained to implement High Leverage Practices (HLPs) to support students they serve. Is the training different in countries where inclusion is in its infancy? The goal of this session is to discuss the experiences of teaching from the perspective of a US Fulbright Scholar & a Hungarian Faculty member.
The Council for Exceptional Children partnered with the CEEDAR Center at the University of Florida to form a group of scholars who were tasked to establish the criteria for identifying HLPs and for elaborating on the process of educating teacher candidates on how to use the HLPs (see https://highleveragepractices.org/about-hlps/ )
Especially during this current political climate there is no better time for IHE faculty to understand and accept international educational perspectives concerning students with disabilities. Teacher educators should understand the environments in which special educators across the globe are asked to serve students with disabilities. We should be prepared to present not only the US guidelines in terms of inclusive practices but also, specific high leverage practices that we know will work regardless of the country in which they are implemented.
The purpose of this presentation is twofold: 1) to discuss a faculty member’s recent Fulbright experience teaching special educators in Hungary and 2) to provide the perspective of a Hungarian Faculty member in terms of training special educators and the differences between the two countries.
The Council for Exceptional Children partnered with the CEEDAR Center at the University of Florida to form a group of scholars who were tasked to establish the criteria for identifying HLPs and for elaborating on the process of educating teacher candidates on how to use the HLPs (see https://highleveragepractices.org/about-hlps/ )
Especially during this current political climate there is no better time for IHE faculty to understand and accept international educational perspectives concerning students with disabilities. Teacher educators should understand the environments in which special educators across the globe are asked to serve students with disabilities. We should be prepared to present not only the US guidelines in terms of inclusive practices but also, specific high leverage practices that we know will work regardless of the country in which they are implemented.
The purpose of this presentation is twofold: 1) to discuss a faculty member’s recent Fulbright experience teaching special educators in Hungary and 2) to provide the perspective of a Hungarian Faculty member in terms of training special educators and the differences between the two countries.
Collections Without Walls: Art Libraries Collaborate to Build Digital Repositories
Science/EconomicsAs libraries’ roles are gradually shifting from serving as physical repositories for printed material towards becoming discovery portals for a digital world, new opportunities are opening up for building collections that are not confined to single institutions. The NYARC partnership, a consortium of art museum libraries in New York, has made headway in collaborative collection development. Two examples will be presented: the Macbeth Gallery Collection, a collaborative project the Frick Art Reference Library and the Thomas J. Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to digitize the exhibition checklists and pamphlets of an important New York art gallery, and the ’Documenting the Gilded Age’ project of the Frick and the Brooklyn Museum Library, featuring documents from small galleries, societies and art clubs from the late 19th – early 20th centuries. By virtually combining collections originally held in separate repositories, these institutions pave the way for dismantling physical and geographical borders between libraries. Implications to further cooperation with libraries in East Central Europe will be examined, and some initial efforts to enhance the discovery of Hungarian collections will be explored.
Collective Covid Diaries in Hungary and the US
Cultural Studies/ArtsBased on my 2022 book Story Revolutions (https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5758/) I will discuss current trends in collective diary-writing in Hungary and the US, with a specific focus on online Covid diaries. My presentation will first sketch the historical origins of crowd-sourced collective diaries in the Enlightenment and the 1930s. I will also contrast the "forgotten" 1918 flu pandemic with the heavily documented 2020 pandemic.
In examining contemporary cases of collective digital diaries, I will mostly focus on the issue of data privacy, and the ethical and legal implications of sharing one's personal story on public platforms.
In examining contemporary cases of collective digital diaries, I will mostly focus on the issue of data privacy, and the ethical and legal implications of sharing one's personal story on public platforms.
Coming to America: A Portrait of Hungarian Family and the 1948 Displaced Persons Act
Cultural Studies/ArtsMy parents, Miklos and Maria Leovey, were World War II Hungarian refugees who were assigned the status of "Displaced Persons" or "D.P.s" and who, along with my two older sisters, were able to immigrate to the United States in February 1950 after spending several years in refugee camps in Austria. My parents came from long-established Hungarian families in eastern Hungary, with close ties to the land, culture, and people of the region. Why did they flee their homeland and refuse to return after World War II? Why did they settle in Oregon, where few Hungarians lived, instead of settling into a well-established Hungarian American community in the Midwest or the Northeast? What factors made it possible for their immigration when other members of my extended family could not, even though they met the requirement of fear of persecution? How did factors such as ethnicity, gender, age, familial status, religion, personal decisions, political, economic, and social considerations, personal narratives, and geographical dispersion enter the decisions of various governmental and non-governmental agencies enabling them to immigrate? My extensive research includes examining my parents' personal records, such as letters, photographs, government documents, family members' personal memories, and genealogy records. In addition, research on the treatment of Hungarian Displaced Persons by United Nations authorities, British and United States governmental agencies, humanitarian organizations, and contemporary newspaper reports presents a complex picture of the intersection of historical events with the realities of the immigrant experience. Included with the presentation will be family artifacts of the era.
Commemorating János Bolyai, the World-Famous Hungarian Mathematician
History/Political ScienceJános Bolyai (1802-1860) was the man who put Hungary on the map of international science. By the discovery of Non-Euclidean geometry he changed the course of mathematics, made possible the formulation of the modern physical theories of the 20th century, changed our way of thinking and had an impact on the universal human culture. He is also the greatest figure in Hungarian science. He first reported about the discovery in a letter written on November 3rd to his father, Farkas Bolyai: “Out of nothing I have created a new, different world”. Two years ago was the 150th anniversary of his death and we commemorated it by an international conference held in Budapest and Marosvásárhely between August 30-September 4. At the same time there was a pilgrimage to the grave of this great man, who, in his life, received no recognition at all, even though he was aware of the significance of his scientific discovery. The purpose of this lecture is to pay tribute to him abroad as well, and present to a wide audience, in an easily understandable way, a brief summary of his life and scientific achievements.
Commodification and the Repression of Agency in Zsigmond Móricz’s Novel <i>Gold in the Mud</i>
Language/LiteratureWith a focus on the aspirations of the protagonist of "Gold in the Mud," Dani Turi, and his wife Erzsi, this paper will demonstrate Móricz’s accomplishment in showing how reasonable agentic projects intended primarily to ensure the happiness and flourishing of the fictional agents who desire and act on their fulfillment are thwarted by social, legal, and economic structures imposed largely from the outside, structures they are powerless to counter in any substantive manner, and will thus argue Móricz’s status as a key contributor to the literary Realism that thematizes figures who find their agency obliterated by circumstances over which they have no control. In Gold in the Mud, Móricz successfully transforms erotic motifs from Naturalism that emphasize sexual transgression as a manifestation of biological determinism and moral decay, and uses them to demonstrate how potentially alterable social and economic structures conditioning the mechanism of commodification in the flawed international capitalist system doom aspiring agricultural entrepreneurs to rely on illicit and socially unacceptable means to engage in the economy, thereby thwarting their success in achieving a stable and secure life for themselves and their families, and undermining the overall progress of Hungary’s agricultural economy. The revealing light he thereby sheds on the rural Hungarian society of his day assures Móricz’s uniquely important status as an author of European Realism.
Communicative Practices of First, Second and Third-generation American-Hungarians in the United States
Cultural Studies/ArtsThis study examines the contemporary communicative practices of first, second and third-generation American-Hungarians in the United States, specifically asking what role do communication variables play in the role of cultural heritage maintenance and decline (Perlman and Waldinger, 1996)? The relevance of communication speech codes (Philipsen,1975), communication events (Saville-Troike, 1982), and cultural production and meaning (Erez, 1993) is sought across generational contexts. Given contemporary issues of consideration around immigration, of particular concern are those ethnic communities at risk of losing cultural heritage, identity, and representation, a phenomenon advanced in recent years by the work of Portes (2002), Zhou (1997), and others. Recent anomalies in the assimilation process beginning with the immigrant waves in the 1960s suggest alternate assimilation patterns (Zhou, p. 978), including what Perlmann and Waldinger (1996) term the “second generation revolt” in which second and third generation children of immigrants are unable to fully capitalize on the assimilation process due to economic, educational, and societal restrictions. This author suggests advancements in communicative practices including the evolution of the internet, computer mediated communication, and social networking sites, must also be considered as potential influencers on the assimilation/acculturation process. Further explication is needed to better understand linguistic, symbolic and practical application of communication within the context of a hybrid culture between each generation.
Communism, Religious Ecumenism, and the Prelude to Revolution
History/Political ScienceIn 1954 Reformed Bishop Albert Bereczky invited the World Council of Churches to hold a meeting of its Central Committee in Hungary. More than a hundred committee members and visitors convened in Galyatető near the Slovak border in July-August 1956 amidst loosening authority both within and outside the churches. The meeting and the changes it stimulated may have contributed to the outbreak of the revolution. My AHEA paper a year ago focused on this meeting and the ensuing accusation by the Kádár regime of WCC collusion in the counterrevolution. This year I will move back in time to ask why Bereczky extended the invitation in the first place. The date and place of the invitation, the WCC’s Evanston Assembly in August 1954, suggests a connection with the New Course (Új szakasz) of Imre Nagy. My paper will look at Hungarian policy toward the ecumenical churches, and especially toward the WCC, under Nagy as well as before and after his first premiership. Who were the Protestant békepapok collaborating with the government in its opening toward the WCC, and were they the chief partners of the WCC leadership in this opening? For my answers I will take a fresh look at the posthumous memoir of Reformed leader László Pap (1908-83) and records in Hungarian church and government archives.
Community Development and Civil Society – The Work of Project Harvest Hope in Transylvania
Education/Social SciencesIn our interconnected and interdependent world, the framework of civil society -- trust, respect, honesty, transparency, self-determination, collaboration and a sense of human agency -- is necessary for healthy and sustainable community life. Our world has become a global village in which the close proximity of differences -- racial, ethnic, religious, cultural and economic -- is magnified by rapid changes in technology and communication.
Since 1993, Project Harvest Hope has partnered with Unitarian communities in Transylvania seeking to renew their economic, civil and religious base in a post-Communist, early-stage capitalist environment. We capitalized a mill, a bakery and a ninety cow dairy farm in the Homorod Valley. We have established a donor-advised fund with the Szekelyudvarhely Community Foundation (szka.org) to support local initiatives in Unitarian communities. This paper explores the history, successes and challenges of Project Harvest Hope.
Since 1993, Project Harvest Hope has partnered with Unitarian communities in Transylvania seeking to renew their economic, civil and religious base in a post-Communist, early-stage capitalist environment. We capitalized a mill, a bakery and a ninety cow dairy farm in the Homorod Valley. We have established a donor-advised fund with the Szekelyudvarhely Community Foundation (szka.org) to support local initiatives in Unitarian communities. This paper explores the history, successes and challenges of Project Harvest Hope.
Comparison of the Hungarian, American and Chinese banking systems to the banking habits of the Hungarian diaspora living in the USA
Science/EconomicsAmerica and China are currently the major powers of the world's two largest economies and geopolitical positions. The research work carried out is an examination of this aspect of how the two banking systems respond to these challenges and what reforms have gone through over the past decades. Researchers from several Chinese economists already analyze, presenting in detail the banking system and data and impacts on the economy affecting the country. The focus of the analysis is also on what foreign banks are and what impact the foreign banking system has on foreign investors. In addition, the study covers economic and banking data, the challenges, problems and successes that arise. The study discusses how banking habits change for the Hungarian diaspora.
Competence-Based Language Teaching and Testing in Digital Environments
Education/Social SciencesAs the Hungarian diaspora in the US in is expanding, a deeper understanding of the needs Hungarian as Heritage Language (HHL) learners and a systematic approach to addressing these needs are imperative. This paper examines the possibilities of aligning the competence-based framework of the European Consortium for the Certificate of Attainment in Modern Languages (ECL) language exam with the goals of Hungarian schools with special attention to online education.
Following Brown’s six components of curriculum development (Brown, 1995), valuable insights and trends arise at the early phases of the development process. The needs assessment, for example, revealed a desire for online education delivery and accredited testing. Therefore, the objective clearly emerged to develop HHL teaching and testing materials for digital Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Leveraging a body of knowledge about the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in language education, reflections on online teaching practices in the Hungarian Diaspora communities, and test-administration experiences in the ECL framework, testing materials were developed in three competency areas: reading, writing, listening. The pilot testing of these online materials inform us about how suitable the platform and the contents are to the needs of heritage speakers. Our findings will be instrumental in further development of teaching and testing materials for HHL education, and they will benefit educators working in diaspora communities and interested in online teaching technologies.
Following Brown’s six components of curriculum development (Brown, 1995), valuable insights and trends arise at the early phases of the development process. The needs assessment, for example, revealed a desire for online education delivery and accredited testing. Therefore, the objective clearly emerged to develop HHL teaching and testing materials for digital Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Leveraging a body of knowledge about the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in language education, reflections on online teaching practices in the Hungarian Diaspora communities, and test-administration experiences in the ECL framework, testing materials were developed in three competency areas: reading, writing, listening. The pilot testing of these online materials inform us about how suitable the platform and the contents are to the needs of heritage speakers. Our findings will be instrumental in further development of teaching and testing materials for HHL education, and they will benefit educators working in diaspora communities and interested in online teaching technologies.
Concert Pianist Ági Jámbor’s War Memoir Considered in Its Broader Historical Context
Music/FolkloreIn 1949 Ági Jámbor wrote a memoir of survival in wartime Budapest, but it was only in 2020 that it was published as Escaping Extermination. Hungarian Prodigy to American Musician, Feminist, and Activist, Jámbor studied in Hungary with Zoltán Kodály and later in Berlin with Edwin Fischer, with whom she performed in Europe, but in her postwar refugee life in the U.S. she was able to reestablished only a limited musical career. As in her memoir there is little of substance about her musical life, I have tried to reconstruct fragments of her personal and professional life. It is elucidating to move beyond the author's personal limitations of memory, as well as her silences and gaps, juxtaposing later documentation related to her life. I will discuss her performance work, such as her recitals of all of Bach's keyboard music, her performances with fellow Hungarian refugees Eugene Ormandi and Nicholas Harsányi, her compositions of children's music, and her collaboration with Albert Szent Györgyi in the Psalmus Humanus, for which Jámbor composed the music and Szent-Györgyi wrote and spoke the lyrics, as well as her interest in the then still fledgling discipline of ethnomusicology and Hungarian gypsy music, which was then little known in the West. Jámbor's prewar cosmopolitan European life, as well as her long and difficult postwar émigré life, can take on additional interest as exemplary of refugee artists in the tumultuous intellectual history of Central Europe in the twentieth century.
Conflicted Identities and Art Therapy: Practices and Case Studies in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Science/EconomicsThis paper reports on the way in which the authors practice art therapy in order to provide useful experiences to children and youths who encounter the stigma of cultural differences. The art therapy team is interdisciplinary and includes additional professionals in europsychiatry, psychology, and social work. Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, Romania, is a leading city for computer and web-based technologies. The city has a historically multiethnic population who maintain their language-based cultural identities. Although Hungarians are the largest minority in the city, keeping traditions alive is contentious, even as Hungarian-language schools and cultural establishments provide anchors. Conflicts between Hungarian and Romanian ethnic populations are often subtle, sometimes pronounced, and largely expressed in adult society. But the effects of such conflicts can be severe on children and youths with disabilities, whose self-image and social skills are less robust. The therapists use all media, especially clay and virtual experiences in a multimedia setting. 3D multimedia installations are found to be effective in creating environments in which parent-child and child-and-peers interactions can be visualized and rehearsed. These transformational experiences help to increase self-confidence, tolerance and resilience for effected children and youths. The case studies presented here derive from three locations in Cluj: the Mental Health Center for Children and Adolescents at the Children’s Hospital (132 cases per year), from the “Romulus Vuia” summer camp at the outdoor Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania, and the clay studio of Emilia Chirila. Benefits arise from experiences based in artistic creativity: materializing ideas and coping with unexpected outcomes.
Confronting Legacies of Ethnic-National Discourse in Scholarship and Practice: Traditional Music and Dance in Central Transylvania
Music/FolkloreEthnic-national discourse in traditional music and dance practice and theory in Central Transylvania is pervasive and persistent. Scholarship in the field has been deeply implicated in the elaboration and imposition of national ideologies by cultural elites and, while ethnicity is a naturalized category, the local practice of music and dance in social life need not be primarily so marked. The identification of traditional music and dance in this region as Romanian, Hungarian or Gypsy as established by 20th century scholarship and as institutionalized in practice is examined and critiqued. The beginnings of a re-theorization moving away from the re-iteration of these divisions is noted and the possibility of escaping from them in practice is considered.
Content Analysis of Hungarian Folktales
Education/Social SciencesThe purpose of this study is to analyze the contents of Hungarian folktales compiled in a popular book by Illyés Gyula, titled "Hetvenhét Magyar Népmese" Móra Könyvkiadó, 2015. Our purpose is to identify the themes addressed in the 77 folktales selected for inclusion in this book. The thematic analysis was guided by previous research on folktales seeking to identify patterns of altruism, qualities of character, themes of morality, emphasis on mate preferences, and differing emphases on male and female physical attractiveness. The analysis consisted of several steps, namely, choosing the collections of folktales, developing the coding form, coding the folktales, analyzing the results, assessing reliability, and providing illustrative examples. A coding form was developed to identify and qualify the characters of the folktales. The paper provides an overview of the scope of the themes in popular Hungarian folktales and considers whether these themes are relevant today in helping children develop their moral compass and whether these themes may still be viewed as important in today’s culture and merit retelling.
