Past Abstracts
1,037 abstracts found
CULTURE COLLECTOR Ferenc Tobak [90-min. documentary film]
Music/FolkloreCULTURE COLLECTOR is about the Csángó (Hungarians) of Moldavia and Transylvania in Romania. FERENC TOBAK, a Hungarian-American, goes on an exotic road trip in search of old bagpipe tunes and finds folk musicians, Gypsies, songs, dances, tales, superstitions, customs, & costumes. He encounters such craftspeople as a potter, a wood-turner, & bagpipe, flute, and spoon-makers. While it’s the story of a man and his love for the music and people he collected from, we also see the struggles and thrills of collecting folklore. (90 min. documentary film)
Current Tendencies in Married Name Choice in Hungary
Cultural Studies/ArtsThis paper presents the results of a study about current tendencies in married name choice in Hungary, exploring the practice of what married names are chosen and the motivating factors of the expression of identity that underlie it. Married names, have an important function in representing self-identity, whether traditional or compromise names are chosen by the members of the couple, and also if they decide to keep their birth names. This is also shown by the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in 2017. All the 70 participants had university degrees and lived in Budapest or in other large cities of Hungary. Sampling can by no means be taken to be representative but recurring response motifs draw an unambiguous picture of the motivations of the main trends of name choice, with components acting against one another with respect to the individual name types. These frequency components, as processed by content analysis, can be arranged along a scale from the intention to express togetherness, motivating the married name forms taken to be traditional, to the insistence on unique self-expression of the individual, with less typical name forms positioned in between. The background of the motifs of responses is very complex, multidimensional, and involves family traditions, social expectations, job market possibilities and psycho-sociological patterns of naming fashions, too.
Dada and Futurist Soundscapes in Hungary
Cultural Studies/ArtsWhere does contemporary and postmodern art get its visual flair and drama? What are the roots of performance art and “noise” in classical music? Just over one hundred years ago in Berlin, something radical and new began to appear as comedic cabaret entertainment and visual art. This set in motion Zürich’s Cabaret Voltaire and a series of modernist, democratic responses to established art canons, encouraging new kinds of participatory art. Popular cabarets became virulently nationalistic and democratic. Italian Futurism inspired anti-war artistic movements in both Berlin, Moscow, and the Hungarian literary avant-garde. Dada poetry and sound movements flourished during the Russian Revolution, and artists in socialist Hungary, Yugoslavia, occupied Prague succeeded in publishing Dada journals. In each location that Dada flourished, it achieved a form particular to its surroundings. Parisian Dada co-opted local cabaret culture and combined anti-German (though rarely anti-war) themes into performances. Hungarian and Berlin Dada criticized war and “high art,” glorified anti-war democratic ideas: they merged populist Kitsch with revolutionary speech. This paper presents new research on Hungarian Dada, the Eight, Kineticism, the Activists, Kurt Schwitters, the journal Ma, and conferences sponsored by the Kassák Museum.
Dancer or Musician: Contrasting Relationships to Improvisation, Rural and Urban
Music/FolkloreThe process of transferring Hungarian music and dance from a rural setting to a new social context, that of the urban táncház or dance party (from 1972 to the present), has resulted in a new code of improvisation, different from that of the village people it is meant to closely emulate. In addition, while both táncház dancers and musicians hone close to their rural models, the differing social roles and responsibilities of dancers and musicians in the village suggest to táncház participants improvisational approaches that are similar, but freer in contrasting ways from their models.
Táncház dancers have imposed on themselves the directive to learn the improvisational rules of their village models and follow them, but also to not do anything they have not seen a village person do, whether live or on film, in the belief that only a person raised in a culture can authentically create new dance figures. Musical improvisation, while coming from the same impulse, stems from a difference in focus and source—musicians tend to be Roma/Gypsy, in the position of providing service music. They must structure the dance, play at the proper tempo with the right intensity, and give appropriate musical cues, but beyond this, both rural and táncház musicians tend to have more freedom in what they play.
This discussion will use recorded examples to illustrate, discuss, and contrast improvisational techniques for dancers and musicians, both in the village and in a táncház context.
Táncház dancers have imposed on themselves the directive to learn the improvisational rules of their village models and follow them, but also to not do anything they have not seen a village person do, whether live or on film, in the belief that only a person raised in a culture can authentically create new dance figures. Musical improvisation, while coming from the same impulse, stems from a difference in focus and source—musicians tend to be Roma/Gypsy, in the position of providing service music. They must structure the dance, play at the proper tempo with the right intensity, and give appropriate musical cues, but beyond this, both rural and táncház musicians tend to have more freedom in what they play.
This discussion will use recorded examples to illustrate, discuss, and contrast improvisational techniques for dancers and musicians, both in the village and in a táncház context.
Darkness at Noon. The Changing Status of International Law in the Kadar Era
History/Political ScienceThe discipline of International Law is generally par excellence politically motivated. Hungarian theory and scholarship in the post-56 era was heavily determined by Marxism-Leninism, the defining basis of Soviet theory, the limits of which were drawn by the CPSU. In the seventies Hungarian approaches reflected this reality including libraries, teaching and scholarship. Beginning in the second part of the seventies, a slow but gradual fermentation took place and the international field showed a hesitant revisionism, reflecting the weakening of Soviet theory in the aftermath of the XX Congress of the CPSU. Key theses of International Law influenced formerly by dogma, opened up in Hungarian literature. Based on this development the analysis shows the inherent tendencies of all dogmas, including past and present to erode and splinter. If there is a future for human survival an international legal order ought to evolve. At present this is not likely, international order relies more predominately on power. Hungary and Europe have to find their ways for survival operating within these tight confines.
Dayton Hungarians: Their Stories, Glories and Folklore
Cultural Studies/ArtsABSTRACT FOR 50TH AMERICAN HUNGARIAN EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE:
What: Individual Book Presentation for: Dayton Hungarians: Their Stories, Glories and Folklore.
Author: Mike Sakal, Award-winning journalist, columnist and communications professional, who is a second-generation American Hungarian, member of the Magyar Club of Dayton and Hungarian Reformed Church of Lorain, Ohio.
Dayton Hungarians is a two-volume set chronicling a comprehensive history of the Hungarian community in Dayton, Ohio from the late 1890s to the present.
The books contain histories of Dayton’s three former Hungarian churches, histories from families, stories about Dayton’s West Side and North Side Hungarian neighborhoods, its longtime businesses, sports, interviews with Freedom Fighters and Refugees from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and a chapter about how the current Dayton Hungarian community is maintaining its heritage and culture.
Following the conference’s theme of 250 years of Hungarians’ contributions in the United States, the Dayton Hungarian community has a significant one: Back in 1902-1903, Charles Taylor, who built the engine for Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first airplane, demonstrated the engine in a back room of Hungarian-Jewish Labor Contractor J.D. Moskowitz’s Clubhouse and Saloon in Dayton’s West Side Hungarian neighborhood.
Seeking financial support from the Dayton Hungarian community, the West Side Hungarians provided $300 that went toward the Wright Brothers’ Airplane engine that flew in their “aeroplane” in the first historic flight in Kittyhawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903.
Thus, the Dayton Hungarian community played a significant role in one of the world’s biggest inventions – Aviation.
Author Mike Sakal
Dayton, Ohio
What: Individual Book Presentation for: Dayton Hungarians: Their Stories, Glories and Folklore.
Author: Mike Sakal, Award-winning journalist, columnist and communications professional, who is a second-generation American Hungarian, member of the Magyar Club of Dayton and Hungarian Reformed Church of Lorain, Ohio.
Dayton Hungarians is a two-volume set chronicling a comprehensive history of the Hungarian community in Dayton, Ohio from the late 1890s to the present.
The books contain histories of Dayton’s three former Hungarian churches, histories from families, stories about Dayton’s West Side and North Side Hungarian neighborhoods, its longtime businesses, sports, interviews with Freedom Fighters and Refugees from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and a chapter about how the current Dayton Hungarian community is maintaining its heritage and culture.
Following the conference’s theme of 250 years of Hungarians’ contributions in the United States, the Dayton Hungarian community has a significant one: Back in 1902-1903, Charles Taylor, who built the engine for Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first airplane, demonstrated the engine in a back room of Hungarian-Jewish Labor Contractor J.D. Moskowitz’s Clubhouse and Saloon in Dayton’s West Side Hungarian neighborhood.
Seeking financial support from the Dayton Hungarian community, the West Side Hungarians provided $300 that went toward the Wright Brothers’ Airplane engine that flew in their “aeroplane” in the first historic flight in Kittyhawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903.
Thus, the Dayton Hungarian community played a significant role in one of the world’s biggest inventions – Aviation.
Author Mike Sakal
Dayton, Ohio
Declining Hungarian Birth Rate seen in Hungarian Literature
History/Political ScienceFalling birth rates had already been recorded as early as the late-eighteenth century in south-western Hungary, in the Ormánság. Low birth rate, population loss remained one of the main topics focused on by writers and sociologists in the twentieth century. The issue of decreasing Hungarian population was highlighted among the social ills in the interwar period and this was one of several subjects, which divided intellectuals into ‘populists’ and ‘urbanites’. Following the impact of the low birth rate figures in the 1960s, the populist’s views of the 1930s reappeared in the public debates in the 1960s and 1970s, till the present day. The concern of the increasing trend of the one-child families in rural settlements as well as in urban areas appeared in the various works of Hungarian writers, publicist throughout the last century. The current paper intends to focus on the intellectual background to the public debate on the population issue, outlining the accounts of the interwar ‘village explorers’ briefly, and the way they are related to the pre-Second World War populist movement. Finally the reappearance of the populists and non-populists debates of the 1970s are discussed, a debate that is still continuing.
Keywords: low birth rates, one-child families, populist, non-populists.
Keywords: low birth rates, one-child families, populist, non-populists.
Decoding the Name of Buda: Its Historical Meaning and “Histo(ric)-Linguistic Embedding”
Language/LiteratureThe primary goal of this paper is to establish the correct “histor(ic)-linguistic embedding” of the name Buda (as part of [the name] Buda-pest) What does this name mean and from which language does it take its origin ?
To get a clear picture of the linguistic situation in which the name came into being (did occur for the first time ) the whole inventory of names which were present at that time within Hungary (and well beyond its borders) should be understood (the right way) -- an impossible task, so far. Moreover, we have to look outside the borders of Hungary (especially Romania ) to support our findings .
But to know the right meaning of Buda and its linguistical background (as well as of numerous related names ) is a condicio-sine-qua-non before we will be able to arrive at sound conclusions; it gives us a general outlook on the linguistical situation in a previous stage ; though with the caveat: primarily of those who were literate.
To get a clear picture of the linguistic situation in which the name came into being (did occur for the first time ) the whole inventory of names which were present at that time within Hungary (and well beyond its borders) should be understood (the right way) -- an impossible task, so far. Moreover, we have to look outside the borders of Hungary (especially Romania ) to support our findings .
But to know the right meaning of Buda and its linguistical background (as well as of numerous related names ) is a condicio-sine-qua-non before we will be able to arrive at sound conclusions; it gives us a general outlook on the linguistical situation in a previous stage ; though with the caveat: primarily of those who were literate.
Defining Factors of the Ethnic and Linguistic Identity of the Moldavian Csángós — A moldvai csángók etnikai és nyelvi identitásának meghatározó tényezői Linguistic Identity of Moldavian Csángós
Cultural Studies/ArtsThe presentation will outline the main components of the ethnic and linguistic identity of the Moldavian Csángó Catholic community (comprising approx. 186 000 people living in seven counties, of which roughly 40 000 speak also Hungarian). It will pose the following questions: which are the factors which determine this complex identity structure within the conditions of postmodernity (e.g. amid the presence of new ideologies, the phenomenon of migration, the use of electronic media, etc.), given that this identity is not uniform even within this community. The factors influencing linguistic and ethnic identity will be discussed separately, although these two areas of communal identity is interrelated, in fact they can be regarded as parts of a single cognitive system. Regarding the linguistic and ethnic identity of the Moldavian Csángós the Hungarian and Romanian intellectual elite have formulated their own, diverse ideological constructions beginning from the middle of the 19th century, and new ideologies have emerged more recently in the international scientific and political life, as well. The presentation will show how these ideologies influenced and shaped the self-awareness and identity of the Moldavian Csángós.
Az előadásban a moldvai csángó katolikus közösség (hét megyében kb. 186 000 fő, ebből magyarul is beszélő kb. 40 000 fő) nyelvi és etnikai identitásának legfontosabb összetevőit mutatom be. Arra kérdésre keresem a választ, hogy melyek azok a belső tudati tényezők, amelyek ezt az összetett és a közösségen belül sem egységes identitásszerkezetet a posztmodernitás viszonyai (pl. új ideológiák, migrációs jelenségek, elektronikus médiumok stb.) között meghatározzák. Külön tárgyalom a nyelvi identitásra és az etnikai identitásra vonatkozó tudati összetevőket, noha a közösségi identitásnak ez a két területe szoros kölcsönhatásban áll egymással, olyannyira, hogy voltaképpen egyetlen tudati rendszer működéséről van szó.
A moldvai csángók nyelvi és etnikai identitásáról a magyar és a román értelmiségi elit a 19. század közepétől különféle ideológiai konstrukciókat alakított ki, és újabban a nemzetközi tudományos és politikai közegben is megfogalmaztak ilyen ideológiákat. Az előadás bemutatja azt is, hogy ezeknek az ideológiáknak milyen hatásuk volt a moldvai csángók tényleges közösségi identitástudatára.
Az előadásban a moldvai csángó katolikus közösség (hét megyében kb. 186 000 fő, ebből magyarul is beszélő kb. 40 000 fő) nyelvi és etnikai identitásának legfontosabb összetevőit mutatom be. Arra kérdésre keresem a választ, hogy melyek azok a belső tudati tényezők, amelyek ezt az összetett és a közösségen belül sem egységes identitásszerkezetet a posztmodernitás viszonyai (pl. új ideológiák, migrációs jelenségek, elektronikus médiumok stb.) között meghatározzák. Külön tárgyalom a nyelvi identitásra és az etnikai identitásra vonatkozó tudati összetevőket, noha a közösségi identitásnak ez a két területe szoros kölcsönhatásban áll egymással, olyannyira, hogy voltaképpen egyetlen tudati rendszer működéséről van szó.
A moldvai csángók nyelvi és etnikai identitásáról a magyar és a román értelmiségi elit a 19. század közepétől különféle ideológiai konstrukciókat alakított ki, és újabban a nemzetközi tudományos és politikai közegben is megfogalmaztak ilyen ideológiákat. Az előadás bemutatja azt is, hogy ezeknek az ideológiáknak milyen hatásuk volt a moldvai csángók tényleges közösségi identitástudatára.
Dehumanization in Zsigmond Móricz’s <i>Árvácska</i>
Language/LiteratureWritten in 1941, Árvácska is one of Hungarian author Zsigmond Móricz’s last, and most important, novels (the author died in 1942). It depicts, in dark and devastating terms, the miserable life of an orphan of the state (“orphan of the state” could be considered a rough translation of the title). In this paper I will address how Móricz offers, in condensed form, an intensely emotional exhibit of the various mechanisms of dehumanization that all too often accompany modernity, particularly as it impacts people who are reduced to objects by economic and governmental forces. In particular, Móricz depicts here a society where ethics and morals have been corrupted to the point where they no longer exist. His assumptions regarding how this state of affairs came about will be investigated and analyzed in light of theoretical concepts surrounding the modern state and dehumanization in the work of thinkers including Val Plumwood, Emile Durkheim, and Julia Kristeva. This glimpse of a traumatizing past in mid-20th-century Hungary will make it possible to appreciate Móricz’s contributions as an outspoken social critic.
Delicate Depictions of Bloody Women: Domján’s Folk Art Heroines
Cultural Studies/ArtsThe artist József Domján drew inspiration from the folk traditions of his native Hungary, especially during his lengthy--and challenging--life outside its borders. Like his countrymen Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, Domján incorporated elements of Hungarian folk art into his own work. Those familiar with his masterful woodcuts will know that his images were filled with decorative lacy details similar to motifs found on Hungarian folk textiles, pottery, and furniture. They might also be aware that some of these same motifs came to adorn a series of magnificent tapestries modeled on Domján woodcuts. Domján devotees are sure to be acquainted with his spectacular trio of monumental color woodcuts on the theme of Bluebeard's Castle (a tribute to Bartók's opera), whose hapless heroine Judith was to have the same bloody end as her husband's previous wives. What they might be surprised to learn is that Domján also depicted other, less celebrated bloody female protagonists. This presentation will introduce four of them, selected from the suite of woodcuts that illustrate the text of TÍZ MAGYAR NÉPBALLADA 'Ten Hungarian Folk Ballads': "Clement Mason" (or "The Walled-Up Wife"), " Kate Kádár (or "The Two Chapel Flowers"), "Anna Molnár (or "The Enticed Wife"), and "The Dishonored Girl" (or "A Woman in Trouble"). The source for these images is a slim volume that has all but disappeared from circulation since its 1982 publication.
Equipment needed: Computer set-up for PowerPoint on thumb drive and/or CD.
Equipment needed: Computer set-up for PowerPoint on thumb drive and/or CD.
Democratic Politics, Democratic Media? A Political Economic History of Post-Transition Hungary
History/Political ScienceThree decades after the transition from communist one-party state to democracy, the question still arises whether Hungarians have come to terms with the workings of free electoral politics. This study makes the case that the relationship between parties and mass media outlets explains electoral dynamics on Hungary in the 1990s — but also, far beyond that. The relationship is demonstrated on the political economy of mass media in Hungary 1989–2002. The ownership and decisionmaking structures of social networks among media outlets and parties are scrutinized. Their structural changes are compared to electoral support of political parties to explain electoral outcomes in Hungary in the 1990s. This study finds a strong correlation between political parties’ electoral support and their media networks’ relative social cohesion. “Media balance” did not ensue after constituting the right to freedom of expression and a free press in 1989. Rather, free media had been converted to partisan media — a powerful tool for parties to sway public opinion in their favor. However, this is not solely a Hungarian phenomenon; in fact, parallel developments can be found on globally from the United States to Europe, Russia, all the way to China. Concentrating media and controlling them have become an ever-stronger intention of influential interest groups, political parties, and leaders. This underscores the need for transparently monitoring and democratically regulating media ownership and concentration in order to preserve free and fair elections and the rule of law.
Democratization and Nationalism in Hungary after 1989
History/Political ScienceDemocracy is not only the institution or institutionalization, but originally demos and kratos, people's good governance in the given society. At that time Nationalism/populism will be the important role of democracy to mobilize the people.
Hungary was the "honor student" of Democratization and Marketization in Central Europe before and after 1989, or even historically. The experiments of Democratization as the theory, policy, and performance were repeated in Hungary collaborated with other Central Europeans, western and American researchers and politicians. Pragmatic Democratization were brought up under the Kadar era, or already in 1848, 1918, 1946-, and 1956, as well.
The author will investigate the democratization in Hungary comparing other Central and Eastern Europe after the transformation in 1989 around 25 years, under so called “Anglo-Saxon” Two major party system, between Socialist Party and FIDESZ.
The author would like to investigate the Democratization with Nationalism more concretely after transition era, considering political participation, accountability and transparency, minority rights, social welfare and poverty and others. The author wishes to consider as well, why Hungary became relatively lower developed country comparing other Central Europe in the EU during these 14 years after 21st century even under the development of Democracy. And how is it possible to change for further Hungarian development.
Hungary was the "honor student" of Democratization and Marketization in Central Europe before and after 1989, or even historically. The experiments of Democratization as the theory, policy, and performance were repeated in Hungary collaborated with other Central Europeans, western and American researchers and politicians. Pragmatic Democratization were brought up under the Kadar era, or already in 1848, 1918, 1946-, and 1956, as well.
The author will investigate the democratization in Hungary comparing other Central and Eastern Europe after the transformation in 1989 around 25 years, under so called “Anglo-Saxon” Two major party system, between Socialist Party and FIDESZ.
The author would like to investigate the Democratization with Nationalism more concretely after transition era, considering political participation, accountability and transparency, minority rights, social welfare and poverty and others. The author wishes to consider as well, why Hungary became relatively lower developed country comparing other Central Europe in the EU during these 14 years after 21st century even under the development of Democracy. And how is it possible to change for further Hungarian development.
Deportation of the Hungarian Minority from Czechoslovakia to Hungary
History/Political ScienceUnder the leadership of President Eduard Beneš of Czechoslovakia on February 27, 1946 a “Czechoslovak-Hungarian Population Exchange Agreement” was proposed and was reluctantly signed by the Hungarian Government whereby Slovaks from Hungary would voluntarily relocate to Slovakia but Hungarians from Slovakia would forcefully be deported to Hungary. The agreement demanded to cleanse Slovakia from Hungarian minorities. Slovakia was striving to become a monolingual national state. About 200,000 Hungarians from Slovakia, aka Felvidék were targeted to be deported. The civil rights of law-abiding Hungarians citizens were severely abused. Atrocities and crimes were committed under the pressure of nationalistic political decisions. The forced deportation committed against Hungarians was a tribulation that defines the suffering of human dignity. 71,787 Slovaks voluntarily left Hungary while 86,616 Hungarians were forcefully taken away in army trucks or freight wagons to be relocated from Slovakia to Hungary. The deportation came to a final halt on June 1, 1949.
Deportations During the Worst Communist Terror in Romania (1948-1964)
History/Political ScienceAfter World War II, the forced abdication of the king, and the complete communist takeover, intensive sovietization started in Romania. This included, just as in other satellite countries, the persecution of the ”class enemies” and of course anybody who did not agree in any way with the regime. The objective of the different deportations and other retaliations was to liquidate these people. The lecture is about the mass deportation of former landowners, the then so-called kulaks in 1949; deportations to the Danube-Delta and Dobrudja starting from 1950; deportations from the Yugoslav border area in 1951; the deportees in forced labor camps at the construction of the Danube Channel. There was a partial amnesty in Romania in 1954, but the release of all deportees came only in 1964. However, the communist dictatorship continued with the horrors of the Ceausescu regime.
Deportations in Hungary During the Rákosi Dictatorship
History/Political ScienceAfter the Soviet occupation of Hungary in 1945, in 1948 the communist takeover was complete in Hungary and the Rákosi dictatorship (1948-1956) followed. Stalin demanded faster sovietization of the satellite countries. Deportation was a form of persecution of ”class enemies” and their families. Mass deportations to forced labor camps in Hortobágy and 137 villages in Eastern Hungary took place between 1949-1953. Different forms of deportations were used with the same objective: to ruin and liquidate class enemies from the elderly to young children. After Stalin’s death in 1953 Prime Minister Imre Nagy released the deportees with certain restrictions. Surveillance and discrimination continued.
Detecting Borders in Contemporary Hungarian Crime Fiction
Language/LiteratureVojvodina/Délvidék is the border region between present-day Hungary and Serbia that my city, Szeged, is a gateway to. Contemporary Szeged-based authors have been publishing historical hard-boiled crime novels about the region in the early twentieth century under the Habsburg Monarchy. After WWI, in 1919 a new national border was established between the new states of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom. The paper focuses on the representation of regional/social/ethnic/gender conflicts in Róbert Hász’s Marcell Fábián series: Fábián Marcell pandúrdetektív (Kortárs, 2017), Fábián Marcell és a táncoló halál (Kortárs, 2019), Fábián Marcell és a Hét Nővér (Kortárs, 2022) that are set in Vojvodina/Délvidék. Hard-boiled crime fiction often represents social inequalities and tensions articulated through the crimes and their investigations, most notably in the case of African American or women’s hard-boiled novels. In Hász’s texts, issues of changing multiethnic social life in the would-be-borderlands seem to find nostalgic solutions in the pre-WWI Habsburg era. The paper looks at what social, ethnic, and gender conflicts the specific crime cases reveal and to what extent the investigations present locally acceptable solutions to these. The paper claims that the crime cases of Marcell Fábián indicate that social justice is, ironically, achieved less and less as the series moves towards the outbreak of the war, a time of politically generated ethnic conflicts.
Deterritorialized Identites in György Dragomán´s <i>Rendszerújra</i> [‘<i>System Reboot</i>’] (2018)
Cultural Studies/ArtsIn the present paper, I will examine the questions of minority identity in György Dragomán´s Rendszerújra. The short storied presented in this volume have all called tales of liberation, whereby the task of their heroes is to put an end their own closed, subjugated and humiliated existence and strive toward freedom. In these stories, the reader is confronted with the dynamics between the several forms of institutionalised power, such as political and police control, or the hierarchies in the individual’s personal relationships. In his book, Dragomán uses countless references to Kafka’s work, from the individual’s nightmarish flight from the institutionalised regimes in The Process (1925) to Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis. For Kafka, becoming, rather than being, a minority signifies an ethical action and an existence, whereby minority groups are determined by their identities and the resistance to the power structure they are subjected to. In my talk, I will highlight that the notion of “becoming a minority” is present in Dragomán’s stories in multiple forms, whereby this concept refers to all those groups that are subjected to and enslaved by tyranny. I will discuss how the process of deterritorialization, i.e. those cultural and social practices that make this “becoming” possible are represented in Dragomán’s book, and what consequences can be drawn to our modernised and globalised culture, where the social media and the newest technological developments new manifestations of totalitarian control have been emerging.
Developing Global Competencies in Minority Education in Transylvania: An Impact Assessment of the Gimi2US Academic Mobility Model
Education/Social SciencesIntroduction: Transatlantic educational and cultural exchange programs strengthen intercultural dialogue and foster pedagogical innovation, especially within Hungarian minority education in Transylvania. Launched in 2024, the Gimi2US model serves this mission by providing Hungarian high school students from Transylvania with an intensive, experience-
based academic immersion in the United States. The program enhances students’ linguistic competence, global awareness, and cultural sensitivity, while reinforcing their personal and community identity.
Method: In spring 2025, 26 students from Székelyudvarhely and Marosvásárhely participated in
a two-week academic mobility program. Educational modules were hosted by partner institutions in Indiana, including the University of Evansville, North High School, Evansville Day School, and Reitz Memorial High School. Students attended U.S. high school and university classes, workshops, and community activities, and lived with host families for full cultural immersion. The impact assessment used a structured quantitative questionnaire and small-group qualitative interviews.
Results: Overall, 89% of participants reported increased English communication confidence,
82% experienced the U.S. creative and participatory learning environment as entirely new. Moreover, 68% expressed a stronger motivation to pursue future international studies. The program reinforced attachment to the Hungarian community in Transylvania, with most intending to use their international experience to contribute to the development of their home region. Qualitative interviews included statements such as, “The world feels much more accessible to me now.”
Conclusion: The Gimi2US model shows that well-structured educational mobility programs effectively develop global competencies, reinforce minority identity, attachment to the homeland, and contribute to nurturing future leaders who are both internationally minded and deeply connected to their Transylvanian roots.
based academic immersion in the United States. The program enhances students’ linguistic competence, global awareness, and cultural sensitivity, while reinforcing their personal and community identity.
Method: In spring 2025, 26 students from Székelyudvarhely and Marosvásárhely participated in
a two-week academic mobility program. Educational modules were hosted by partner institutions in Indiana, including the University of Evansville, North High School, Evansville Day School, and Reitz Memorial High School. Students attended U.S. high school and university classes, workshops, and community activities, and lived with host families for full cultural immersion. The impact assessment used a structured quantitative questionnaire and small-group qualitative interviews.
Results: Overall, 89% of participants reported increased English communication confidence,
82% experienced the U.S. creative and participatory learning environment as entirely new. Moreover, 68% expressed a stronger motivation to pursue future international studies. The program reinforced attachment to the Hungarian community in Transylvania, with most intending to use their international experience to contribute to the development of their home region. Qualitative interviews included statements such as, “The world feels much more accessible to me now.”
Conclusion: The Gimi2US model shows that well-structured educational mobility programs effectively develop global competencies, reinforce minority identity, attachment to the homeland, and contribute to nurturing future leaders who are both internationally minded and deeply connected to their Transylvanian roots.
Developing Students’ Critical Thinking in Hungarian Schools [withdrawn]
Education/Social SciencesAdvanced thinking in general, and more specifically, advanced critical thinking appears to be one of the crucial competencies in the survival of the invididual among the paraphernalia of ideas, values and conceptions in our modern times.
Recent changes in the social, cultural and political environment within Hungary have triggered a boost in studies in foreign languages at all levels of the education system. Besides the obvious potentials of the foreign language classroom, which is the improvement of the students’ communicative competencies and the knowledge of the foreign culture, the presentation suggests that education in the foreign language is one of the domains providing excellent possibilities for the improvement of the critical thinking of learners.
First, the presentation intends to reveal some typical features of the educational contexts and practices with a special focus on the current situation of developing the critical thinking of students in Hungary. It will do so through presenting the results of a small scale research based on the distinctive features of individualist and collectivist cultures, a theory of an anthropological character developed by Hofstede (1986). Furthermore, the crucial features of educational environments facilitating beneficial changes in students’ thinking processes will be discussed.
In addition, an insight into the potentials of foreign language encounters in developing critical thinking will be provided through the portray of the ‘intercultural speaker’ (Byram 1997) in order to emphasize the new role and the responsiblities of education in the foreign language in Hungarian schools.
Finally, the short-term and long-term benefits of the above educational efforts will be highlighted.
Recent changes in the social, cultural and political environment within Hungary have triggered a boost in studies in foreign languages at all levels of the education system. Besides the obvious potentials of the foreign language classroom, which is the improvement of the students’ communicative competencies and the knowledge of the foreign culture, the presentation suggests that education in the foreign language is one of the domains providing excellent possibilities for the improvement of the critical thinking of learners.
First, the presentation intends to reveal some typical features of the educational contexts and practices with a special focus on the current situation of developing the critical thinking of students in Hungary. It will do so through presenting the results of a small scale research based on the distinctive features of individualist and collectivist cultures, a theory of an anthropological character developed by Hofstede (1986). Furthermore, the crucial features of educational environments facilitating beneficial changes in students’ thinking processes will be discussed.
In addition, an insight into the potentials of foreign language encounters in developing critical thinking will be provided through the portray of the ‘intercultural speaker’ (Byram 1997) in order to emphasize the new role and the responsiblities of education in the foreign language in Hungarian schools.
Finally, the short-term and long-term benefits of the above educational efforts will be highlighted.
