Accepted Abstracts

"Under Uncle Sam's Flag" - The Hungarian American Experience in World War I

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
After the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917, Hungarian immigrants were categorized as ‘enemy aliens’ under the Selective Service Act. However, roughly 3.000 of Hungarian Americans ended up serving in the American Military. The presentation will explore the way Hungarian immigrant soldiers experienced World War One. In the most part, the presentation will focus on some important figures of Hungarian-American soldiers who made significant contributions to the American war efforts, including Sergeant Alexander Arch, who fired the first American shot, and Captain Bernath Weiss, who participated in the official negotiations with the leader of the Soviet Republic of Hungary, Béla Kun. Also, the presentation will look into some of the details of the life of Hungarian-American communities during the war. The research is based on two main source groups: primary source records from American archives, and contemporary, predominantly Hungarian-American newspaper articles. Additionally, relevant works of secondary literature will be explored and utilized.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
László AMBRUS, PhD, is a historian and senior lecturer at the Institute of History, Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Eger, Hungary. He holds a history teacher’s degree (MA), and a PhD in Modern World History. His research is focused on the social history of Hungarian-American communities during World War One, as well as on Hungarian soldiers who served in the US Army in the World War.

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The Hungarian Third Way Model: a reality or utopia as a political and economic alternative?

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Hungarian Third Way's (HTW) movement can be associated with internationally known movements that had similar spiritual historical roots, like the "Rerum novarum", the teaching of the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII. The result of the cooperative movement at that time is today’s COOP in Bulgaria, Italy, and France. COOP plays a significant role in food production and trade. Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (MCC) started in the Basque Country. Today it is the largest cooperative in the world. The elements of the third way can also be discovered in the so-called Scandinavian and Finnish models of social organization, which created new institutions of training and education.
HTW’s economic and social vision was close to the Rochdale model – accepting the sanctity of private property, it aimed for a new collectivist economic organization: it wanted to solve the many problems of rural, peasant society with land reform, education and other social reforms during the inter war period.
The HTW’s model was a realistic working alternative that took the political and economic conditions of the time, the local historical background, the uniqueness, and the inherited social conditions into consideration. Followers of the model believed in an organic process that carried out the desired social change in several iterative steps. Instead of wanting to cut the Gordian knot, it wanted to solve it. The presentation focuses on the political activities of Imre Kovács, studies of László Németh and Imre Somogyi. Last but not least, is the HTW relevant today?


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ferenc Bódi Ph.D. is senior research fellow at the Institute for Political Science, HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences MTA Centre of Excellence, Budapest, Hungary. He is member of Editorial Committee of ‘Storia e Futuro,’ Bologna University Press. He is supervisor of University of Pécs, Interdisciplinary Doctor School, Political Science Program. His main research areas are local politics and self-governments, local organization of social services, rural development politics, migration, change of political regimes and contemporary social history in East Central Europe. ORCID: 0000-0003-2362-3174.

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Partners, allies or enemies? Asymmetrical dependencies and the fate of the German and Jewish minorities in Hungary, 1918-1947.

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Austria-Hungary was a multiethnic empire, in which the dominant ethnic groups, the Germans in
the Western half of the Monarchy (Austria) and Magyars in the East (Hungarians) constituted
less than 50 percent of the population. Regarding political power, wealth, job opportunities, life
chances and social status, there existed a strict hierarchy: in Hungary, the Magyar elite and
middle class dominated state and society before 1918. The two favored minorities, the Jews and
ethnic Germans were welcome as businesspeople and professionals. According to an unwritten
assimilations social contract, the members of these minorities could make money and achieve
fame and fortune as manufacturers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, engineers and other free
professionals; however, unless they switched their language from German to Hungarian;
converted (in the case of Jews) to Catholicism or Protestantism and altered their names and
identities (i. e. they had fully assimilated), even Jews and Germans could not easily gain access
to high-status jobs, such as army officers and civil servants. Lower on the ethnic and “racial”
scale, Serbs, Slovaks and Romanians had to accept their fate as physical laborers or small
merchants and put up with their continued exclusion from political life.
My presentation will examine how this ethic and “racial’ hierarchy, underpinned as it was by
asymmetrical dependencies in the economic, social cultural and political realms, changed after
the First World War. For the first time in it long history, Hungary came to resemble an ethnically
homogeneous nation state after 1918. My presentation will explain how the relationship between
the two surviving minorities (Jews and ethnic Germans) on the one hand, and the dominant
Magyar group, on the other hand, changed in the interwar period. The conference paper will
focus on job opportunities and life chances, as well as on the increased hostility towards these
two groups, as manifested in the numerus clausus law of September 1920, and the anti-Jewish
laws of the late 1930s and early 1940s, as well as in the intense press campaign against ethnic
Germans after 1933. The final part of the presentation will look at the shared ideological and
political origins of the Jewish genocide in Hungary in 1944 and the expulsion of ethnic Germans
in the country in 1946.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Born in Vásárosnamény, Hungary, Prof Béla Bodó attended the Universities of Debrecen and Toronto, and received his PhD from York University in 1998. He taught at several universities in Canada and the U.S. He was tenured at Missouri State University. Since 2015 he has been on the faculty of the department of Eastern European History at the University of Bonn. His most recent monograph, Black Humour and the White Terror, was published by Routledge in 2023.

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Remagining Borders -- Határ: Open frontier or Border Checkpoint?

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the chaotic years of WW II in the Pacific Theatre, the 500,000 years old bones of Peking Man were crated up to be shipped to the United States for safety.   The cache of 6 skull caps and other bones collected near Peking (now Beijing), firmly established Homo erectus and fire-making within the chain of human evolution. The shipment never arrived, mysteriously lost in its planned crossing.

An archeological intrigue of a different sort is the discovery of 4000-year-old mummies in the Tarim Basin of Western China, revealing individuals with light hair, fair skin and a textile weave among other markers that muddle facile interpretation. Collation of diverse data-points of the Xinjiang mummies point to multivalent vectors of human movement, contact and exchange.

This paper reviews historic movement, dislocation and displacement, war-torn border-crossings, as well as human mobility in pursuit of commerce, opportunity and adventure. It explores movements of nomadic pastoralists: Scythians, Sarmatians, and confederate Xiongnu across the Asian steppes; South Siberian and Altai transhumance; and the emboldened move of mounted pastoralists from the Urals, up the Danube into the Carpathian Basin.

Broad examination of the cross-currents of human traffic is sharply focused by personal memory of the author here on site 67 years ago navigating the 8-month portal for processing 1956 Hungarian refugees through Camp Kilmer. For better or for worse, emerging concepts of nation-state, defined by borders, quotas and passports in the 20 th century, and smuggling, have subverted the age-old, noble
call of the Határ.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Mrea Csorba, Ph.D is an art historian with 28 year teaching career at alma mater University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her continued research interest is the interface of nomadic and settled groups of the late Bronze and Iron Age. She published on a North Chinese site of Chang Ping Bai Fu, in the North of Vhina.

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“The Danube Has Died.” Press Coverage in Komárom during the Breakup of the Hungarian State

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the 20th century, soldiers of different armies marched through the streets of Komárom (Komárno in Slovakia) several times – in 1919, 1938, 1945 and 1968. This was not unusual in the region due to the shifting borders, but the history of Komárom is something special because of its geographical location. The fortress, built in the 16th century, gave the town at the confluence of the Danube and Vág rivers a strategically important role, which reached its peak during the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848–1849. After the First World War, in January 1919, the northern part of the city was occupied by Czechoslovak soldiers, while southern Komárom (the former Újszőny) remained in Hungarian hands. The history of the press in Komárom in 1919/1920 is interesting because some of the local newspapers remained in the northern, i.e. Czechoslovak, part of the city, while others moved south to Hungary. The aim of this presentation is to present and compare the opinions of newspapers under different state administrations and with different ideological views on the changes that took place in Komárom.
The following questions can be formulated: What was the image of Czechs and Slovaks in the newspapers, especially of the soldiers who conquered the northern part of the town? How did they report on the relationship between the Hungarian population and the soldiers or the new Czech administration? When and for what reason did the Hungarian-language press decide to resist or cooperate? What did they think of the events in Budapest? How did the formulation and definition of state identity change? What was their definition of “home” and “abroad”?


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Péter Hevő is assistant professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He received his Ph.D. in History from the same university in 2019. His research interests include diplomacy, German foreign policy, and contemporary political history with a focus on East-Central Europe. He has held fellowships in Berlin, München, Potsdam, Heidelberg, Washington, D.C. and Prague. He is also an editor of the online history journal, Újkor.hu, and author of the monograph Vissza a fegyverekhez? A hadsereg és külpolitika kapcsolata az újraegyesített Németországban.

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The Fearful Right and the Brave Left? About the Ideological Dimensions of Fear

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The main goal of my research is to explore the right and left dimensions of the phenomenon of fear. I would like to argue that the categories of left and right continue to be defining aspects of political identities, and by mapping their emotional structure we can better understand the current relevance of these ideologies. By examining fears related to the refugee crisis and climate change, my research aims to show how political ideology works in our everyday lives and has an influence on our (political) decisions.
The studies that have examined political fears have mostly linked fear to conservativism and right-wing populism, while the fears of the left have generated far less scientific interest. In addition most research has been conducted using quantitative methods in the American political context. Thus, my study aims to use qualitative methods to explore differences and similarities between the political fears of left-wingers and right-wingers in Hungary. In the course of the research so far seventy semi-structured creative interviews have been conducted with political activists. The interview questions were combined with projective techniques and the activists belonged to political parties which were members of the Hungarian Parliament.
The preliminary findings of my research show that regarding migration and climate change extreme ideological positions were rarely found among the respondents. However, political polarization is one of the most important fears perceived by the interviewees in Hungary today. The results of my research also confirmed that Hungarian society is by no means polarized “by itself”, but the polarization process is mainly the creation of the political elites, who intensify naturally existing opinion differences to create a battle between good and evil.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Beáta Kovács is a PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of Political Sciences at the Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest). She holds a master’s degree in Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations, both granted by the same university. Currently she is a doctoral research fellow at the University of Alberta (Edmonton). Her field of research is the political sociology of emotions, more specifically she focuses on political fears related to climate change and refugee crisis.

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To Help or Not to Help? Moral Relativism and Historical Memory in Hungarian Public Discourse Since the 16th Century

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungary faced great empires on numerous accounts throughout its modern era history: the Ottoman Empire in the 16-17th centuries, the Habsburg Empire in 1703-1711 and later again in 1848-1849, and also the Russian/Soviet Empire in 1849 and 1956. One thing is common among all these wars and freedom fights – the unfulfilled desire for effective military aid coming from Western nations. The feeling of abandonment has been deeply rooted in Hungarian historical memory ever since. Nowadays, Hungary is among the few European nations which consistently reject the idea of providing military support to Ukraine. This paper attempts to resolve this contradiction. In order to do so, it utilizes primary sources from the 16-17th centuries in particular, which illustrate the Hungarian cries for help and the reactions of Western powers. These are compared to present-day political statements on the war in Ukraine given by the Hungarian political elite. By applying the method of discourse analysis, it becomes apparent that Ukraine is receiving the kind of help which Hungary did not get earlier. This phenomenon is a prime example of moral relativism in practice and illustrates that historical memory can be distorted to an extreme extent by the media. Historical awareness therefore remains of key importance both in academia and public discourse when it comes to the relationship between current affairs and national memory.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
László Kövecses is currently a PhD student in History at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest. Previously he earned his MSc degree at the University of Glasgow in Russian, Central and East European Studies in 2015 and his BA degree in History with Geography minor at Eötvös Loránd University in 2013. His main research interest is Hungarian national identity in the early modern period (1500-1800). He is a member of the London-based Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism. Kövecses published articles in English so far in the journals Nations & Nationalism, Ephemeris Hungarologica, Hungarian Review and other websites.

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A Global History of Hungary. Concept, Implementation, Reflection

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
As co-editor of A Global History of Hungary, two recently published volumes in the Hungarian language that contain 203 brief chapters by 159 contributing authors on a total of 1 048 pages, I would like introduce our concept of consistently applying transnational methods to reinterpret a country’s history on the long term and discuss our key ambition to embed Hungarian history in global frames for the first time. I would then discuss the specific manner the overarching concept has been implemented, including the main research questions posed and the types of chapters both volumes contain. I would also like to reflect on how we have drawn on and adapted a new west European “model” of history writing, the challenges this has posed and the opportunities it offers for the history writing of the semi-peripheral parts of Europe. Last but not least, the presentation would address more theoretical questions raised by the current wave in historiography to globally contextualize the histories of individual countries - a wave to which A Global History of Hungary clearly belongs.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ferenc Laczó is an assistant professor with tenure (universitair docent 1) in history at Maastricht University, an editor at the Review of Democracy (CEU Democracy Institute), and István Deák Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University in 2023-24. He received his PhD from the Central European University in 2011 and was previously employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena. He is the author or editor of thirteen books on Hungarian, Jewish, German, European, and global themes.

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Home Across the Border: Subcarpathian Hungarian Immigration to Northeastern Hungary

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungarians form a significant minority in the Subcarpathia region of far western Ukraine. Before the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, the area belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and was home to – among others – Ukrainians, Ruthenians, Jews, Roma, and Hungarians. In recent decades, many Subcarpathian Hungarians have immigrated to Hungary, largely due to economic factors and conflict in Ukraine. This presentation explores the phenomenon of Subcarpathian Hungarian immigration to Kisvárda, Hungary – a small city near the border of Ukraine – and its surrounding villages from the fall of the Soviet Union to the present. It examines the immigrants’ motivations for leaving Subcarpathia and for choosing the Kisvárda region, the nature of their transition to life in Hungary, and their feelings about their own identity. It touches on the economic, cultural, and political factors impacting these immigrants, including the effects of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Hungarian government’s 2011 offer of citizenship to all ethnic Hungarians. Though a small phenomenon, it sheds light on much larger topics at play in Central and Eastern Europe: the situation of the Hungarian minority communities outside of Hungary in the Carpathian Basin, emigration from a country experiencing one of the highest rates of population decline in Europe, and the impact of the war between Ukraine and Russia.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Luke Larson holds a B.A. in International Relations, Geography, and Spanish from Minnesota State University, Mankato and completed the Pre-Theology program at the University of Saint Thomas’ Saint Paul Seminary. During the 2022-2023 academic year, he participated in the Hungary Foundation’s Budapest Fellowship program and this year de is participating in the Mathias Corvinus Collegium’s Visiting Fellowship Program. Luke's areas of research in Hungary include the Subcarpathian Hungarian minority, the intersection of faith and politics, and trends within conservative politics. My work has appeared in the Hungarian Journal of Minority Studies, The American Conservative, and The National Catholic Register.

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Better than Ever? Conceptualizing Hungarian–Serbian Historical Reconciliation

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the past decade, political relations between Hungary and Serbia have significantly developed. The political reconciliation, often described by Hungarian politicians as a historic momentum, has had spill-over effects into strategic policy fields, including foreign trade and investment. This presentation aims to examine the added value of political reconciliation by exploring its spill-over effects and societal aspects. It argues that although the excellent leader-to-leader relationship is the backbone of cooperation, the ever-changing geopolitical situation in Central and Southeast Europe and shared challenges have heightened the need to cooperate. On the other hand, while political reconciliation has led to strong economic cooperation, societal relations between Vojvodina Hungarians and Serbs have not experienced the same level of improvement, as the lack of trust among communities still persists.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ferenc Németh is a Ph.D. student at the Doctoral School of International Relations and Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest. He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Corvinus University of Budapest and pursued post-graduate studies at the Universities of Graz and Belgrade. He is also a research fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. Ferenc gained experience as an editor/journalist at the Balkán Expressz column of the Figyelő newspaper (2015-2017), at the biztonsagpolitika.hu news website (2015-2016), and within the Press Office of EULEX Kosovo (2019). His areas of research include Southeast Europe and security studies.

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Cold War Flashpoint? Hungarian Christians and the Evanston Assembly of 1954

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Several 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.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
James P. (Jim) Niessen earned his Ph.D at Indiana University with a dissertation on religion and politics in nineteenth century Transylvania. He has published several studies on the Romanian and Hungarian national movements. Since 2001 he is World History Librarian at Rutgers University, and he supervised the digitization at Rutgers of papers related to the Hungarian refugees at Camp Kilmer. His recent research has focused on Hungarians in the Cold War and collections for the study of Hungarian Americans. In 2023 he published a review in Hungarian Cultural Studies and gave a paper at ASEEES on Hungarian American research collections.

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A transnational Model Transfer: The attempts of Töhötöm Nagy to establish Catholic agrarian youth organizations in South America

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Land reform policies and questions of the social mobility of the peasantry were topical and controversial issues of interwar Hungary. In the 1930s also the churches had their voice heard in the issue: in accordance with the recommendations of the encyclical “Quadragesimo anno” of pope Pius XI, several new organizations were founded, of which KALOT, the Catholic Agrarian Youth Organization became the most successful initiative. KALOT was established by Jesuit theoreticians and social workers, and in a couple of years it counted more than 500,000 members with a nationwide network.
The Hungarian Jesuit Töhötöm Nagy was one of the leaders of KALOT. He assisted KALOT’s activity until its ban by the communist authorities in 1946. When Nagy had to emigrate to South America in 1947, he started social work among the Uruguay peasantry and applied the successful methods of KALOT. Having left the Jesuit order, however, Nagy did not give up his social ideas, and in the 1960s he worked among the poor again, this time in Argentina. As he transferred the Hungarian model of KALOT to South American circumstances, his views also developed on the political potential of the Catholic social teaching: in Argentina he witnessed the birth of liberation theology. In my presentation first I introduce the model of KALOT, then I give an account of Töhötöm Nagy’s experiments to transfer these good practices to South American circumstances.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Éva Petrás (PhD) studied at Pécs University with double majors in history and English and subsequently received her second M.A. degree in modern history at Central European University in Budapest. Between 1995 and 2000 she was a PhD researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, where she obtained her PhD in the department of History and Civilization in 2003. Until 2008 she was a researcher at the European Comparative Minority Research Institute (EÖKIK). Between 2009 and 2020 she worked in the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL) and currently she is a senior research fellow at the Committee of National Remembrance (NEB) in Budapest. In 2023 she received her university habilitation degree at Eötvös Loránd University.

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"Two-Time Enemy Alien" - The Curious Case of Victor Gondos Sr.

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The American immigrant experience in the 20th century was burdened with two World Wars. As Hungary fought on the opposite side in both wars, Hungarians living the United States were declared ‘enemy aliens’ both times. This carried the possibility of several types of discrimination and intolerance from the Federal Government as well as the American society. This original research, based on a wide variety of primary and secondary resources, aims to shed light onto the fact that not only US citizens of German and Japanese origins, but also Hungarian Americans could easily become targets of the American authorities. The presentation takes one Hungarian immigrant family, the Gondos Family's case as an example to demonstrate how the US wartime intelligence targeted American citizens with "enemy alien" descent in World War One and Two. The head of the family, Victor Gondos Sr was victim of wartime hysteria during both wars. In 1916, Gondos was imprisoned due to a false suspicion of participating in a bomb plot. Later, in 1942-1944, the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted an inquiry about him for (also falsely) suspecting him to be a Nazi supporter. Examining this story can be resourceful to better understand the situation of the wartime minorities in the United States.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Eszter RAKITA is a historian and a research associate in the Institute of History at Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Eger, Hungary. She holds Bachelor’s Degrees in American Studies, and in Communication. She also holds a Master’s Degree in History. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in Modern History. Her research focuses on the Hungarian Immigrant experience in the United States in the 1st half of the 20th century, with a special focus on middle-class immigrants.

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Navigating New Horizons: The 1956 Hungarian Exodus and Its Global Impact (Panel)

Type of Abstract (select): Panel Discussion

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This panel brings together three short presentations that collectively explore the aftermath and global impact of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Each expose employs unique methodologies and focuses on different aspects of the Hungarian diaspora, yet they are united by common themes of identity, migration, and influence in the wake of upheaval.

Nóra Deák (moderator), Secretariat of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. deak.nora@titkarsag.mta.hu;

Panel:Tamás Scheibner, in "Trailblazers of Change: The Global Impact of the Rockefeller Foundation's Hungarian Refugee Scholars Program," employs biographical and historical analysis to assess the contributions of Hungarian émigré scholars. He highlights their role as cultural mediators and agents of change, significantly impacting global academia and politics.

Kinga Constantinovits' "Preserving Identity: The Hungarian Diaspora in Sydney" adopts an ethnographic approach. Utilizing oral history and archival research, it delves into the maintenance of cultural identity among Hungarian Australians. Focusing on language, traditions, and the collective memory of the 1956 revolution, this study reveals the methods employed to sustain heritage within a diasporic context.

Zsolt Máté's "Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Hungarian Participation at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics" examines the complex decisions faced by Hungarian athletes during the national upheaval. Incorporating oral-history interviews and secret service records, Máté investigates the interplay between sports, politics, and personal choices amid forced migration. Collectively, these presentations offer a multi-dimensional view of the Hungarian exodus of 1956, revealing the complex interplay between personal choices, cultural preservation, and global influence.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):

Kinga Constantinovits, Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE), constantinovits.kinga.katalin@hallgato.ppke.hu

Zsolt Máté, University of Pécs (PTE), mate.zsolt@pte.hu

Tamás Scheibner, HUN-REN Research Center for the Humanities and ELTE University of Budapest, scheibner.tamas@abtk.hu

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Cultural Survival and a Sense of Mission: Analysis of Cleveland Hungarian Community Organizations’ Emphasis on Hungarian Identity

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper focuses on the Cleveland Hungarian community and the wider post-1945 Hungarian diaspora in the Western world. Using primary sources and historical works by Hungarian émigré and diaspora authors (including Dr. Ferenc Somogyi’s history of the Hungarian Association, an edition of the Hungarian scout leadership magazine, Vezetők Lapja, Dr. Steven Béla Várdy’s histories of Hungarian-Americans, and other works), I show the emphasis placed on preservation of Hungarian language and culture in the documents of select influential post-1945 Hungarian organizations active in Cleveland and founded by the Displaced Persons (DP) generation of Hungarian émigrés. I specifically examine the Hungarian Association and the Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris (both influential in Cleveland but also the wider Hungarian diaspora) and examine how these organizations are imbued with a sense of mission to preserve Hungarian culture in the diaspora. Additionally, my paper proposes a time period-based model for tracking the development of Cleveland’s Hungarian community that takes into account the involvement of second- and further generations. With this paper, I seek to better understand the motivations for preservation of Hungarian-ness in the post-1945 Cleveland Hungarian community and the wider Hungarian diaspora in the Western world. This paper was written as junior independent work for Princeton University’s undergraduate School of Public and International Affairs.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ferenc Nicolae Somogyi is an undergraduate studying in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Ferenc is a native of Cleveland's Hungarian community. He has presented on multiple occasions at the annual Hungarian Congress of the Cleveland Hungarian Association and participates in Hungarian scouting leadership and the Cleveland Hungarian Scout Folk Ensemble. At Princeton, Ferenc primarily studies history and diplomacy, with a regional focus on Central Europe, and is interested in diaspora and ethnic minority studies. His family background is Hungarian and Romanian (he is also active in Cleveland's Romanian community); he is fluent in both languages.

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Learning the Rules of “Fair Play”: ‘English’ Influences on Hungarian State-Building, 1867-1918

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Focusing on the Dualist era (1867-1918), my paper examines Hungarian elites’ appeals to what they saw as ‘English’ models in debates over what direction the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary should take in the decades following the Compromise of 1867.
To that end, I focus on Dualist Hungary’s proposed “solutions” to the Kingdom’s “nationalities’ question.” I see these as attempts to create a “modern” nation-state, rather than simply as manifestations of chauvinistic nationalism (which they certainly also were). In particular, I examine the Kingdom of Hungary’s increasingly forceful Magyarization policy as an effort at state-building and modernization based, at least in part, on perceived Western models.
My paper highlights the role that Hungarian elites’ own sense of their Kingdom’s backwardness played in their search for foreign models of political and economic “modernization” during the Dualist era. I examine the extent to which we can understand Hungarian elites’ project of centralization and ‘Magyarization’ as an effort to implement foreign, “Western” models in their own country. Specifically, I show the ways in which an Anglocentric strain of political and developmental thought existed across the political spectrum, to influence both nationalist elites, and their more progressive, socialist opponents. By highlighting appeals to English models in arguments over Magyarization, I hope to shed greater light on the intersection of nationalism, modernization, and state-building. In particular, by focusing on Magyarization campaigns as a function of state-building, one deeply influenced by elites’ perceptions of foreign examples and models, I hope to shed light on the material impacts of self-ascribed ‘backwardness’ narratives, and to deepen our scholarly understanding of the operation of ‘modern’ state-building outside of ‘classic’ Western examples such as France or Britain.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tom Szigeti is a PhD Candidate in the history department at New York University. His research field is modern Central and Eastern Europe. His work focuses on the ways in which nationalist policies in both Dualist and interwar Hungary can be understood as attempts at state-building; an attempt, in other words, to take the multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic kingdom, and transform it into a “modern” nation-state. In particular, he is interested in the ways that Hungarian elites’ implementation of what they perceived as “Western” models influenced the development of such policies.

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Hungary in Europe: what the law can tell us about Hungary's integration into the European Union

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungary has been a Member State of the European Union for 20 years, its integration process having started about 10 years before the date of its eventual accession. During this period, Hungarian society, politics and policy-making, and its economy has become integrated with the rest of Europe without much doubt. Since European integration to a large extent takes place with the help of law, Hungary's integration with Europe can be successfully examined by analyzing the level of legal harmonization achieved, as well as the evident, often recurring areas of legal conflict between Hungary and the EU. In this presentation, we will look at the state of legal harmonization in the Hungarian legal system as a source of evidence of Hungary's integration into Europe. We will rely on the main data available from the EU legal harmonization and compliance databases, as well as case studies developed by us in different areas of law and regulation that are directly exposed to EU requirements.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Márton Varju is a research professor at the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies and an associate professor at the ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences. He holds a degree in law from the University of Debrecen and a PhD in law from the University of Hull, United Kingdom. Currently, he is Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Temple University, Beasley School of Law. His research interests lie in empirical EU legal studies, European technology regulation, and health law.

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