Accepted Abstracts

Expanding the View: Shedding the Horse Blinders on Migratory–Era Scholarship

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Recent investigation along the broad theme of collaborative research between Central
European and Western scholars on ancient Hungarian cultural history revealed siloed practices of scholarship that were set 100 years ago and which, still today, determine the shape of topics, composition of research teams, as well as access
to funding, publications of articles and scholarly outcomes. Initial publications of early Scythian finds within Hungary in European journals in the
1920s set the precedence for continued collaboration of Hungarian researchers with European colleagues – while American scholarship starting up in the 1960s formed relations with select Russian and Chinese archeologists. Entrenchment within these two polarities continues to this day, with fettered research resulting in inconclusive results at best, and mistaken conclusions at its worst. This paper interrogates past practices on both sides of the divide, then reports on recent advances in cross-over research that subvert old conclusions with interesting results.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Art Historian Mrea Csorba, Ph.D, received all three of her academic degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. She retired from active academic teaching for Pitt and Duquesne University in 2022. She continues to offer classes and lectures at educational and art institutes, now in Sacramento, California. Her BA degree focused on the Western Cannon; her MA thesis (1987) investigated horse-reliant cultures of Scythian steppe culture. For her PhD. (1997) she expanded research of pastoral groups in Northern China. Her continuing research may be viewed at http://edtech.msl.duq.edu/Mediasite/Play/2ea00c36fc2b4050ba46072efc0b80111d

---

Perception and Reality : the vision of America in Hungary over the centuries

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The rather utopian image of a strange, abundant and free new state over the ocean, called United
States of America has experienced significant transformations and distortions in narrative and
perception over the last half century in Hungary as well as among the Hungarians living in the
Carpathean-basin. The intellectual idolization of the ’New World’ had started from a rather revolting
and inspiring road-diary written by a seemingly unknown Hungarian traveler, a self-educated scholar
from Transylvania named Sándor (Alexander) Bölöni Farkas. Shortly after his book Travels in North
America was published first in 1834, Bölöni Farkas actually ignited a spiritual revolution in the early
19th century Hungary. Naturally, the alarmingly reformist books of Bölöni Farkas and that of Aléxis
de Tocqueville, too, were soon after restricted or shadow-banned by the Habsburg authorities. The
image of America as the haven of freedom and democracy persisted and shone even brighter
through the 20th century among the Hungarians, especially at the time of the flight of ’48-er
veterans, and Kossuth’s campaign in the USA up until the descent of the Iron Curtain and, then the
dawn of the American era after the fall of the ’Red Block’ in 1990. However, the 21st century ushered
in a paradigm shift in mentality and political views, with the looming demise and gradual tarnishing
of the image of „ideal” American democracy among Hungarians.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zsolt Csutak (PhD) is a lecturer of English and civilizational studies, as well as an externally affiliated university researcher and policy analyst of US foreign and security policies at UPS-Ludovika Univeristy, Budapest. He holds a doctorate in international security studies, and MA degree in American and Political Studies from the University of Szeged. Zsolt has a special multi-disciplinary interest in analyzing global issues and new phenomena, such as the various challenges imposed by the rise of new technologies on culture, and education. He had traveled around 50 different countries, so far and spent some highly rewarding months with academic scholarships in universities in France, Finland, the Phillipines and the United States.

---

Remembering 1956 seventy years later: The Maléters – A story of suffering, struggles, survival

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
After the arrest in Hungary of her husband, Colonel Pál Maléter on November 3, his ex-wife Mária Maléter (née Pausz) and two of their children, Pál, aged 10 and Mária, 9, fled Hungary on November 21, 1956 and sought refuge in Vienna, Austria. The third child, Judit, aged only 7, joined them a month later because she had the flu at the time of the fleeing. Then the family of four went to Montreal, Canada first, before they were invited by the International Rescue Committee to address the United Nations in New York on behalf of her husband and the other captured Hungarian government officials.
On the double occasion of the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian revolution and freedom fight, and the 250th birthday of the United States commemorated in 2026, my aim is to present the role of the UN, and then Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld in particular, in Prime Minister Imre Nagy’s and Pál Maléter’s case in Hungary on the one hand, and the contribution of the Maléter family in the USA, on the other hand, after they received their green card shortly after Maléter’s execution in 1958. The research is based on the Memory Project interview with Pál Maléter II, who died in 2017, and his recollections published in 56 Stories: Personal Recollections of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. A Hungarian American Perspective. Online databases of newspapers and the digital facsimile of Foreign Relations of the United States documents between 1861-1960 have also been consulted for this presentation.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Nóra Deák graduated as an English-Russian high school teacher in 1990 in Debrecen, then received an LIS MA degree in 1997 in Budapest. She was a librarian between 1990-2022, and now she works as an international relations officer at the Secretariat of the MTA. Her research on the reception, registration, and resettlement of the 1956 Hungarian refugees in the US was supported by a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholarship at the American Hungarian Foundation, and by Rutgers University Libraries during 2014-2015 in New Brunswick, NJ. She participated in The Post-1956 Refugee Crisis and Hungarian Émigré Communities During the Cold War project.

---

The public perception of NATO in the Visegrád states

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
At the 2025 AHEA conference in Pécs, I presented a paper on the political debate surrounding Hungary’s NATO accession and the evolution of public perceptions of the Alliance in Hungary over the past 25 years. During my research, I considered it important to make international comparisons of values, and I noticed that even within the former Eastern Bloc countries, perceptions of NATO are not necessarily similar. Some opinion polls revealed surprising results, showing significant differences between countries in similar geopolitical positions. In my presentation, I intend to expand upon my previous project by including the other three Visegrád Group members (Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic), and examine the historical, social and political factors that may influence perceptions of NATO through comparative analysis. The topic requires a holistic approach in understanding the different levels of security, the application of IR theories (especially constructivism), and social psychology. This research could be of interest and relevance not only to Central Europeans, but also to Western NATO members who seek to understand the attitude of the Visegrád states towards NATO. In order to conduct my research, I was awarded the Steven Béla Várdy and Ágnes Huszár Várdy Legacy Scholarship in 2025, and I would like to outline the results of this project during the presentation.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Péter Hevő is an 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, Vienna, 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.

---

Transatlantic Conservatism: Otto von Habsburg and the Shaping of American Political Thought

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper examines the intellectual and political influence of Otto von Habsburg – last heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and long-serving Member of the European Parliament – on the development of American conservative thought and institutions. Placing his activity within the wider context of Central European and Hungarian engagement with the United States, it argues that the Archduke acted as a significant, yet understudied, intermediary, channelling new perspectives into the American political environment. Long known in the US as Otto of Austria-Hungary, he built close relationships with prominent American politicians and policymakers. His initial contacts emerged from the Democratic
milieu, but during the Cold War he developed strong ties with leading conservatives and Republicans – the two camps, whose positions occasionally conflicted – including Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater, Edwin Feulner, and several political actors who later became central to the Reagan administration. From the early 1950s onwards, he played a pivotal role in establishing far-reaching transatlantic networks, creating spaces for interaction and exchange for European and American political stakeholders that, despite the many differences, ultimately facilitated a shared vocabulary of norms, principles, and strategic approaches. The paper explores how Otto von Habsburg and his networks, connecting European Christian-democratic traditions and the U.S. conservative movement, actively shaped both the intellectual frameworks and practical implementation of American conservatism, influencing policy debates, political strategy, and broader transatlantic engagement throughout the Cold War.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Bence Kocsev studied history and sociology in Budapest and Amsterdam, earning a master’s degree in history with a focus on international relations. During his studies, he was a member of the St. Ignatius Jesuit College of Advanced Studies in Budapest. From 2016 to 2020, he was a research fellow at Leipzig University and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe, where he focused on the economic history of the Cold War. He later headed the Győr Office at the Antall József Centre and is currently a senior research fellow at the Otto von Habsburg Foundation.

---

Polish-Hungarian economic cooperation in the 1970s

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the 1970s, Polish-Hungarian trade exchange developed in the shadow of the economic reform that was introduced in Hungary at the beginning of 1968. Moreover, events on the Polish coast at the end of 1970 influenced the attitude of the Hungarian communists towards the changes in Poland. These events have again increased the level of distrust towards Polish changes (private sector in Polish agriculture). The Hungarian economy began to become more open to cooperation with Western countries, giving up Poland. There were, of course, sectors that seemed to have good prospects, e.g. cooperation in the production of passenger cars. In the second half of the decade, it turned out that trade between the two countries was uneven and a large trade deficit was recorded on the Polish side. By 1974, Hungary was also showing significant interest in the shipping services provided by Poland. In May 1968, both countries signed a cooperation agreement in the field of shipping. The contracting parties agreed that Hungary would be able to operate the line between Szczecin and western ports using its vessel, the Somogy. The agreement also allowed the use of Polish ports for the Hungarian Hinterland. It was predicted that by 1970, the volume of goods shipped would increase by 30% compared to 1967. In 1970, as much as 41% of all goods passing through Polish ports were Hungarian goods. In 1971, Hungary shipped a total of 2.69 million tons of products by sea, including 1.153 million tons through Polish ports.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tadeusz Kopyś, Ph D (born 1967) - historian at the Institute of European Studies of the
Jagiellonian University. He specializes in the history of Central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, national issues and nationalism in this region. The main publications concern federation matters in Central Europe (Oszkár Jászi 1875-1957. From the history of the idea of ​​federation in Central Europe, Krakow 2006, Jagiellonian University Publishing House) as well as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Polish-Hungarian relations in the 20th century. He was a multiple scholarship holder at several research institutes in Hungary (e.g. Eötvös Collegium i Europái Intézet) and in Great Britain (Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities in Edinburgh). Dr. Kopysio's studies include studies on the nationality issue (Nationality issue in the lands of Saint Stephen's Crown in the years 1867-1918, Krakow 2001), Polish-Hungarian relations in the years 1945-1970, Krakow 2015 and History of Hungary 1526-1989, Krakow 2014.

---

Fragments from the Archives: The Federation of Free Hungarian Jurists

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
At the dawn of the Cold War, a group of exiled Hungarian jurists in the United States formed the Federation of Free Hungarian Jurists (of America) (FFHJ) to wield the rule of law against communist tyranny. Led by former Hungarian minister Vince Nagy, they rallied émigré lawyers, judges and professors to scrutinize communist regimes and expose their crimes. From New York, this ideologically driven legal cadre lobbied Washington and the United Nations with memoranda denouncing Soviet and Hungarian Communist authorities for their abuses. Relying on archival materials this paper represents a first-ever attempt at uncovering the details of the activities of the FFHJ. The paper goes beyond the publications of the FFHJ and looks at the political links that drove the formation of this informal organization. The identified archival sources reveal the circles in which the FFHJ jurists operated, from the Hungarian political exile, to the American authorities, and the network of like-minded organizations. These materials reveal some of the motivations driving the jurists that formed the FFHJ.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Bálint Kovács is an assistant professor at the University of Szeged and a senior researcher at the Ferenc Mádl Institute of Comparative Law. His areas of expertise include international economic law, private international law, and international dispute resolution. He is also a recurring guest lecturer at Sapientia University and the University of Miskolc. Alongside his research activity pertaining to his narrower field of expertise, he is also interested in the work of lawyers, researching the work of various legal minds especially in the 20th century.

---

Hungarian Police Officers in the US Service

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The presentation's focal point is the trajectory of a distinct police unit and its members. Before World War II, the relevant civilian response work was carried out within the framework of the police in Hungary. The Political Police Department, operating under the auspices of the Budapest Police Headquarters, was entrusted with the conducting prevention work. By the end of the 1930s, it was evident that Germany, an ally in theory, was conducting covert operations activities within Hungary. Consequently, upon the Wehrmacht's occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, one of the initial actions by the SS and SD units was to apprehend police officers exhibiting opposition to the German forces. Concurrently, numerous police officers anticipated the continuation of their careers, and even expected advancements in their careers following the German occupation. The so-called State Security Police, which was established during this period, served the occupiers and participated in the Holocaust. In 1945, the group's activities centered on the resolution of an anti-state conspiracy. The German police officers were detained for several weeks and subsequently deported. In 1945, the prisoners were liberated by US troops and subsequently entered the Counter Intelligence Corps with the objective of identifying and apprehending Hungarian war criminals.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Tamás Kovács (1979) graduated from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pécs in 2003 and obtained his Ph.D. in 2014. Since February 2018, he has been associate professor at the Faculty of Law and Order at the National University of Public Service. He has been the head of the Department of Political Theory and History since April 1, 2024. His academic interests focus on the Holocaust and the history of Hungarian law enforcement and state security. He publishes in Hungarian, English, and Russian, and he is regularly lecturer of Hungarian and international conferences.

---

Indispensable Interpreters: Recovering Hungarian American contributions to the Hungarian refugee resettlement program

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
While the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and related Exodus are well-known, the critical role of Hungarian American community to the successful resettlement of over 36,000 Hungarian refugees is understudied. Drawing upon records of the President’s Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief and local Hungarian-language newspapers, this presentation argues that local diasporic communities played a pivotal role in the US resettlement program. These sources reveal that local Hungarians worked to aid both their American and Hungarian counterparts in Austria, inside Camp Kilmer, and in local communities across the US. Recovering these actions requires two interconnected interpretative steps.
First, recognizing that while the refugee resettlement programs were global in scale in the US they were executed locally; thus, detailed attention to disparate local actions is required. Unfortunately, hyperlocal activities are also most easily lost to the unknowable past as they leave fewer and less-preserved records than national bureaucracies. However, local diasporic newspapers provide a lens into the actions of local Hungarian communities, albeit an incomplete one.
The second interpretive step is recognizing that Hungarian contributions were documented but coded. The most common encodings involve language with staff and volunteers labeled as “Hungarian-speaking” or “translator.” Then as now, there is negligible interest in learning magyarul outside of the diaspora, meaning that these terms can be understood to represent diasporic contributions.
By combining hyperlocal, Hungarian-language sources with decoded, English-language, ones it is possible to reconstruct the critical and overlooked contributions of the Hungarian American community to the work of the US government-led resettlement program.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Patrick Leech is Assistant Professor of History at Anderson University in Anderson, SC. His teaching emphasizes global perspectives on the history of the world around us. His research focuses on Hungary and Hungarians within the context of a global Cold War. Additionally, he draws upon digital methodologies that allow him to fuse a previous career in information technology with his teaching and research.

---

Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and the Cleveland Hungarians

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and the Cleveland Hungarians
Zsolt Máté
The Hungarians of Cleveland always been very active in the Hungarian diaspora. Their influence reached all around through the D.P. founded organizations – such as the scouts in exile or the Hungarian Assocation -, but individually as well with many personal success stories. In my presentation I will talk about letters written by Cleveland Hungarians to President Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
Writing a letter to the President of the United States of America is not a daily task for most of the politically active people either. But there were major events inside the community or in Hungary when some approached the leader of the leader of the chosen home. In the case of President Truman the Cleveland Hungarians acted as lobbyist to let the D.P. Hungarians in the United States faster. The communication most of the time was one directional from Cleveland to the Capital, but in case of several churches for their anniversaries or gala invitations were answered.
Dwight D. Eisenhower received the most letters from Cleveland Hungarians, due to the 1956 Hungarian revolution and the following refugee crisis. Eisenhower received telegrams and letters not just to send troops or to help Hungary, but through the Presidential Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief dozens of job, housing, orphanage offers was addressed to him. Parallelly John F. Kennedy as a senator was approached too, because of the same purpose.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
I am a Pro Scientia gold medalist, two times Countrywide Scienific Student Conference (OTDK) winner PhD-student of University of Pécs. I write my dissertation about the American, Canadian, Australian governmental reactions to the 1956 Hungarian revolution and refugee crisis. I participated in conference not just in Hungary, but in Canada and in France too. I published a Hungarian-German bilingual popular science oral-history book about the 1956 Hungarian refugees in Graz. I published book reviews or articles in Századok and Múlt-kor.

---

Transnational Advocacy for Vojvodina: Hungarian–American Lobbying amid the Breakup of Yugoslavia

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the armed conflicts of the 1990s created profound uncertainty for the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, Serbia's multiethnic northern province. Amid fears of ethnic cleansing similar to those unfolding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, members and organizations of the Hungarian diaspora in the United States-most notably the Hungarian American Coalition and the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation-mobilized to internationalize the Vojvodina issue.

The paper traces the history, strategies, and impact of these actors' advocacy in Washington, D.C., and their transnational cooperation in Budapest and Belgrade. Drawing on policy documents, organizational memoranda, and media reports, it examines how Hungarian-American activists framed the situation of Vojvodina and especially its Hungarian community through the lens of human rights, democracy, and self-determination-core values within American foreign-policy discourse at the time.

Through lobbying efforts and awareness-raising calls, these actors sought to reframe Vojvodina's minority question from a domestic Yugoslav/Serbian matter into an international concern tied to regional stability. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates how diaspora communities can leverage normative ideals and strategic networks to shape international perceptions and contribute to minority rights agendas in post-conflict regions.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ferenc Németh is a PhD Candidate at the Corvinus University of Budapest. He was a Visiting International Graduate Student at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy in Toronto and conducted research at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Ferenc was a Research Fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and worked at EULEX Kosovo. He was a Denton Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and participated in the Transatlantic Security Initiative of the International Republican Institute. In 2026, Ferenc will be a Fulbright Visiting Student Researcher at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

---

History’s First Edition: Public Relations and the Newspaper Record of the Hungarian Refugee Crisis in 1956-57

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This is an excursion into a news environment different than our own. Governments and aid agencies knew well that the initial willingness of countries and voters to support the reception of Hungarian refugees was fragile and likely to decline with the passage of time. Therefore they took public relations seriously, issuing frequent press releases in an effort to inform and influence the news media. Many of the newspapers recounting the crisis are now available online, either freely or in licensed databases, but others can only be found in scarce library holdings as microfilm or yellowing print collections, while still others have not survived at all. Organizations assembled files of newspaper clippings that enabled their offices to keep track of press coverage and follow trends in public opinion. These clippings files and the articles preserved in personal papers reveal their collectors’ concern about the news and include newspapers now no longer available anywhere else. My paper will trace the media efforts of selected organizations in Europe and the US on the basis of their surviving records as well as the availability for study of the most important newspapers. Finally, I will examine the public relations of the Kilmer Reception Center in New Jersey and the significance of the guest book recently acquired by the American Hungarian Foundation that contains the names of government officials, representatives of aid agencies and churches, and correspondents who visited the Center and shared their impressions with colleagues and the public during the camp’s months of operation.


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 and has published many studies on the Romanian and Hungarian national movements. Since 2001 he is a subject librarian at Rutgers University, where he supervised the digitization of its papers about the Hungarian refugees at Camp Kilmer. His recent research has focused on Hungarians in the Cold War and the biography of Zoltán Béky. His article about the Hungarian Heritage Center of the American Hungarian Foundation appeared in the journal Slavic & East European Information Resources in 2025.

---

Remembering Michael Kováts de Fábriczy: Transatlantic Memory, Heroism, and Hungarian Diasporic Identity

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The American and Hungarian Revolutions share enduring ideals of liberty and self-determination. While the American Revolution achieved sovereignty, the Hungarian uprisings of 1848 and 1956, though unsuccessful in securing national independence, continue to symbolize the Hungarian pursuit of freedom. The life and legacy of Michael Kováts de Fábriczy (1724–1779) embody these transatlantic connections. A Hungarian nobleman and cavalry officer who served under George Washington, Kováts introduced Hungarian hussar tactics to the Continental Army and was killed in the Battle of Charleston. Though buried in an unmarked grave and largely absent from mainstream American Revolutionary narratives, Kováts’ story has been preserved and revived through Hungarian-American cultural memory.
This presentation explores how Hungarian diaspora communities, particularly in Cleveland, have contributed to the commemoration of Kováts as both a national and transnational hero. In 1979, a Cleveland delegation participated in the tricentennial commemoration of his death, at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina, where even today cadets continue to honor his memory annually, and where a part of the campus is named in his honor. The presenter will be joined by guests Zsuzsanna Győri and Elizabeth Gulyás-Lewis, who as young girls in 1979 were among the Cleveland Hungarian-American emissaries. By examining these commemorative practices and their narratives of shared ideals, this paper situates Kováts within the broader framework of diasporic identity formation and transnational memory work. It argues that his remembrance bridges two revolutionary traditions and exemplifies how diasporic communities sustain cultural heritage through acts of collective memory.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Mártha Pereszlényi-Pintér is the former Chairperson of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures and Associate Professor of French at John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH. She earned her Ph.D. in Romance Languages from The Ohio State University, and studied at the Institut de Touraine (Tours) and the Bryn Mawr Program (Avignon) in France. Her research and publication accomplishments include French and also Hungarian Literature and Culture of the pre-modern period (Medieval, Renaissance, 17th century), Film, and Language for Business & the Professions. She has read papers at national and international conferences. While at OSU, she wrote or co-wrote 16 manuals for individualized instruction in both French and Hungarian with group grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Annenberg Foundation. She was born in Austria and emigrated to the USA with her Hungarian parents. She is also a past President of AHEA, and chaired or co-chaired four past AHEA annual Conferences.

---

Margit Slachta and the Sisters of Social Service in America in the 1920s

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Margit Slachta, the first woman MP in the Hungarian Parliament, social worker and Christian feminist activist founded the community of the Sisters of Social Service in 1923. At the crossroad of innovative modern social work and Catholic spirituality, the “social sisters” were involved in manyfold and significant activities: they reconsidered charity work, struggled for women’s rights, urged social legislation, and many more initiatives can be associated with their names. Right after the foundation of the congregation, the Social Sisters also strove to expand internationally: some went to the United States and Canada, and Margit Slachta, as the prioress of the community, visited the overseas foundations three times in the interwar period.
In my presentation, I would like to introduce two recently published sources about their first American experiences (published in: Járatlan utakon Amerikában – Szociális testvérek az Egyesült Államokban és Kanadában az 1920-as években. (Eds.) Éva Petrás – Boglárka Lilla Schlachta, 2025). One of them, the “American letters”, reflected the initial challenges and the social sisters’ first impressions of America through their correspondence. In the second source, I would like to present Margit Slachta’s essays on America, which she wrote after her visit in 1925: in the “Captured Rays”, as a woman traveler, Sister Slachta describes the everyday life of the American people, and in the small snapshots and anecdotes she introduces the “spirit of America” to Hungarian readers.



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.

---

Fabriczy Kováts Mihály ezredes: A magyar huszár, aki megteremtette az amerikai könnyűlovasságot

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Fabriczy Kováts Mihály ezredes az amerikai függetlenség ügyének legkorábbi és legjelentősebb magyar hozzájárulója, aki nemes életét az amerikai függetlenség ügyéért áldozta fel. Az öreg kontinens hadseregeiben évtizedeken át szolgált huszártiszt kardját és életét a szabadság ügyéért ajánlotta fel Benjamin Franklin amerikai követ felé. Kováts az egyetlen magyar, aki személyesen találkozott George Washington amerikai főparancsnokkal és a francia La Fayette márkival, továbbá azon európai önkéntesek egyike, akik korszerű katonai szakértelmet hoztak az Újvilágba. A világ harmincnégy országában jött létre magyar katonai emigránsok útmutatása révén a huszárság, mint feladatközpontú, könnyűlovas fegyvernem, az Amerikai Egyesült Államok könnyűlovasságát e világlátott öreg magyar huszár és egy fiatal lengyel nemes, Kazimierz Pułaski hozta létre 1777 és 1779 között a Kontinentális Kongresszus megbízásából. Míg Kováts 1779. május 11-én halt hősi halált Charleston védelmében, fegyvertársa, az amerikai reguláris könnyűlovasság társalapítója, Kazimierz Pułaski néhány hónapra rá, 1779. október 11-én vesztette életét a Savannah visszavételéért zajló hadművelet során. Pułaskit, mint lengyel nemzeti szabadsághőst ma óriási kultusz övezi mind az ó-, mind az újhazában. Kováts Mihály kultusza ellenben épp csak kiépülőben van. A washingtoni székhelyű Hungary Foundation és Kossuth Foundation együttműködésre lépett a Kováts Mihály Baráti Társasággal, hogy Kovátsot a magyar-amerikai történelmi kapcsolatok tágabb narratívájába helyezhesse. A három civil szervezet jelentős eredményeket ért el abban, hogy Kováts ezredes emlékét az őt megillető polcra helyezze. Személye ugyanis kapocs az amerikai-magyar történelmi, diplomáciai viszonyban, melyre alapozva e két nagy, szabadságszerető nemzet új együttműködést nyithat egymás irányában. Kováts példája igazolja, hogy sokkal több van bennünk szabadságszeretetből és összefogásból, mint bármi másból, ami elválaszt egymástól!



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Pintér Zoltán, a Kováts Mihály Baráti Társaság elnöke. Hivatását tekintve pedagógus a Karcagi Nagykun Református Oktatási Központ Gimnáziumában. Foglalkozik tehetséggondozással, illetve a Debreceni Egyetemmel együttműködve mentortanárként képzi a jövő pedagógusait. Lakóhelyén, Karcagon a Városi Önkormányzat megválasztott képviselője, a város Oktatási és Kulturális Bizottságának elnöke. Fő kutatási területe a két világháború hátországtörténete, illetve Fabriczy Kováts Mihály huszárezredes élete. Társ ötletgazdája a Kováts300 emlékezetpolitikai kezdeményezésnek, alapító tagja a Kováts Mihály Emlékbizottságnak, melyet Smith Lacey Anna – a Hungary Foundation ügyvezető igazgatója; Dr. Végh Sándor – a Kossuth Foundation elnöke és Dr. Örlős László – a Kováts Mihály Baráti Társaság alelnöke alkotja.

---

The struggle of Hungarian émigré groups for the release of Hungarian prisoners. The history of the „White Book”

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In 1950, a book was published in Bad Wörishofen, Germany, entitled
White Book concerning the status of Hungarian Prisoners of War illegally retained by the Soviet Union and Hungarian civilian persons forcedly deported by the Soviet authorities. The book was published by the Prisoner of War Service of the Hungarian Veterans, but the author of the volume was Rezső Palásthy, who spent three years in Soviet captivity. The book provides detailed data on the number of Hungarians who were taken into Soviet captivity. It also includes the recollections of German prisoners who returned to West Germany about the Hungarian prisoners. Until the fall of Communism, this was practically the only publication on the fate of prisoners of war and civilians who had been deported to Soviet captivity. The volume was published not only in Hungarian, but also in many other languages, including 2,000 copies in English, and President Harry S. Truman also received a copy. With the publication of this book, Hungarian émigré groups joined the efforts of the United States and the United Nations to free Hungarian prisoners in Soviet camps. In my presentation, I would like to talk about the creation and significance of this special work, and I would also like to pay tribute to its author, Rezső Palásthy, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
I am a scientific advisor at the Institute of History of the ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities in Budapest. My research interests include the Holocaust, forced population movements during the Second World War and the early post-war period, the Holocaust and the history of Hungarian prisoners of war and civilian internees in Soviet captivity.

---

The “Magna Carta of the Hungarians” and the “Millennial Constitution”: Anglocentrism and Hungarian Constitutional Discourse, 1867-1920

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Centered on the Dualist era (1867-1918), my work examines Hungarian elites’ appeals to perceived “Western” models in order to justify Magyar supremacy and forced assimilationist policies in the Kingdom of Hungary.
In this particular project, I develop my argument via an examination of Hungarian legal-historical discourse. In particular, I look at the ways in which elites framed their own country’s “thousand-year” constitution as the continental “brother” of the land of constitutionalism par excellence, England.
For Hungarian elites, their “ancient” constitution mattered, in large part, because it allowed them to portray themselves as the “English of the Continent.” Perhaps most famously, since the first decades of the 19th-cenutry, elites had emphasized purported links between the Hungarian Bulla Aurea of 1222 and the Magna Carta as proof of similarities between English and Hungarian constitutional development.
More than merely establishing a flattering comparison with the world’s greatest imperial power, this framework fused legal parallels with contemporary race theory to craft a broader justification for Magyar supremacy. In this telling, the Magyars, like the English, were a “natural ruling race,” the only nation in the Carpathian Basin blessed with both the constitutional history and the racial virility necessary to ‘civilize’ the various nationalities of the Hungarian Kingdom.
These discussions, centered on notions of “constitutionalism” and the “thousand-year state,” persisted throughout the Dualist era, and would even serve as a key piece of the Hungarian Delegation’s ill-fated (and ill-timed) argument in favor of territorial integrity at the Paris Peace Conference in 1920.



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.

---