The Institute for Minority Studies, as a partner of the consortium leader University of Timisoara, has been awarded a Staff Exchanges grant from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship of the European Union for the research project Ecosystems for Higher Education Inclusion: connecting underserved communities with higher education through participatory engagement and research methodologies (EHEI).

The article by Margit Feischmidt, Ildikó Zakariás, Violetta Zentai, Csilla Zsigmond and Eszter Neumann: Constrained Localism in an Authoritarian Environment: Developments in Solidarity With Displaced Ukrainians in Hungary was published online first in the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies. The article is open access. It is part of the research project Work, values, hope in spaces of solidarity. The possibilities and limits of transformative solidarity in Hungary

Abstract

The paper examines how collaborations and alliance-building among civic and municipal actors supporting displaced Ukrainians in Hungary contributed to the emergence of localism as an alternative approach to the central state’s hostile migration policy and curtailment of the rights of civic and municipal actors. The qualitative research, which forms the basis of this study, explored the solidarity acts of civic and municipal actors and considered how the Hungarian state and international humanitarian organizations contributed to localizing refugee-support responsibilities. Applying the notion of constrained localism, we seek to indicate how localism unfolds through alliances between civic and municipal solidarity actors, sometimes transforming longer-term refugee reception and diversity governance, while in other cases, remaining fragile, limited in scope, and contended.

As part of the WISE (Women in Solidarity for Energy) project, colleagues from our institute participated in two international online events in March 2025. The events explored energy poverty, the right to energy, and the situation of women in Europe.

Gergely Pulay will give a presentation on the topic Domination, autonomy and post-feudalism in Hungarian social thought from late- to post-socialism. The presentation is part of the ‘Capitalist Transformations in Eastern and Central Europe’ conference, an academic event that takes place online between 19 - 22 May 2025

You can see the conference programme here.

More info about the event here.

Participation is free of charge, but requires registration here.

On 9 May 2025, the Institute for Central European Strategy in Ukraine organised "Dialogues on Europe", which aimed to synchronise the understanding of Europe and the European Union at the level of narratives and practices. The event was attended by participants from many countries. Our institute was represented by Csilla Fedinec, who gave a presentation.

You can read the article by Réka Marchut on the Rubicon Institute website.

The Minority History Conference The Hungarians of Transylvania in the 20th century will be held for the third time in Târgu Mures on 23-24 May 2025. The conference programme is available here.

Ágnes Tóth's German-language book Deutsche in Ungarn 1950-1970. Die deutsche Minderheit zwischen Stalinismus und Kádár-Regime was published by De Gruyter Brill.

Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg waren die im Land verbliebenen Ungarndeutschen zahlreichen Repressionen unterworfen. Ab 1950 konsolidierte sich deren Lage allmählich. Ágnes Tóth analysiert anhand zahlreicher Archivbestände die von vielen Widersprüchen gekennzeichnete Politik der ungarischen Staats- und Parteiführung gegenüber den Ungarndeutschen sowie die Bemühungen der deutschen Minderheit, als Teil der ungarischen Gesellschaft anerkannt zu werden. Dabei mussten sich die Ungarndeutschen nicht nur gegen die Assimilierungspolitik der Staatsmacht behaupten, sondern auch an unterschiedlichste Ausprägungen der kommunistischen Diktatur anpassen. Diese Monografie bietet einen detaillierten Überblick über alle zentralen Aspekte der Lage der deutschen Minderheit in Ungarn, z. B. der Verbandsstrukturen oder des Bildungs- und Pressewesens, wodurch die Autorin die erste Gesamtdarstellung zur Geschichte der Ungarndeutschen während der ersten Hälfte der kommunistischen Herrschaft vorlegt.

On Thursday, 8 May 2025 at 17:00, the Volkskundemuseum Wien and the Institute for European Ethnology of the University of Vienna will host a discussion with Margit Feischmidt and Kristóf Szombati entitled Authoritarianism from below? Popular Support and Resistance in Hungary.

The full issue is available on the journal's website.

From the contents

Rural transitions

    Vegetable growers in the Aranyosszék

    Resources and communities in the mountains

German-Swabian heritage

    German-German dictionary of Hungary

    Language autobiographies

    German literature in Hungary after 1945

    German nationality kindergarten teacher, teacher and teacher training

Workshop  

    The situation of the Ladin community in South Tyrol

    Settlement census in Óbuda in the 1970s