2023 - How we spent our fourth year

As the year draws to a close, we would like to report on how the research team has spent the year 2023. This year, members of our research group published almost twenty articles in Hungarian and English-language journals and volumes of studies. Thanks to our members, you can read new results about the Hungarian characteristics of professionalisation in the columns of Aetas, Korall, Educatio, Fons, Építészfórum, Storia economica, Jog.történet, and Múltunk.

Publications

This year, we have once again collected our latest research results in a thematic journal issue, this time in the 90th issue of the Korall social history journal!

In the issue entitled Professionalisation and Life Paths, János UGRAI (The occupation of reform-era academics, with special regard to priests and teachers), Viktor TÁTRAI (Professionalisation and career mobility), Viktor PAPP (Law practice on the horizon), Géza BUZINKAY ("I decided to become an educator with a high sense of self". Ferenc Ney's (1814-1889) career as a teacher) and Katalin DETRE (The possibilities of a Lady of the good house - in the light of her memories) have published.

Károly HALMOS on comparative historiography has made 'practical considerations' on our website.

Ilona KAPPANYOS wrote a review entitled Et pestilentia venit for the Literatura journal.

Our team leader Márkus KELLER wrote a study entitled Housing in Socialist Hungary after the Second World War for the Jutasi reading book (ed. Dávid SMILÓ), and in May he published an article entitled Lonely old people with an honest pension - The House of the Old in the Budafok Experimental Housing Estate in the Építészfórum.

Zsuzsi KISS has published articles in Aetas (Eredmények és kudarcok a gazdatisztek jogállásukért és érdekképviseletük szabályozásáért folytatott küzdelmében) and in Korall ("Helyes arányok" a 19. századi hazai népiskolai mezőgazdasági oktatásban), and her English-language article (he agricultural education of elementary school children in Mid- and Late-Nineteenth century Hungary) appeared in Storia Economica 2023, issue 1.

Gergely Magos published article entitled A kommunizmus, mint "szekularizált messianizmus". A Tanácsköztársaság vezető beosztású gyógyszerészei a budapesti bíróság előtt in the volume of articles entitled "How Budapest became the capital of the nation?", celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Doctoral Programme in Social and Economic History and the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Budapest. Also published here are Károly Halmos (Az új város és az ó-világ vége), Viktor Papp (Az irodák helyei), Csaba Sasfi (Az utolsó békebeli matura a Krisztinavárosban) and Viktor Tátrai („Hát mit tetszik gondolni, mért rombolták össze a villamosokat?”).

Viktor PAPP wrote on the blog of the MTA-ELTE Legal History Research Group (ELKH), on the JOG.történet website, about the protests demanding Sunday off in law firms, while Budapest is at the forefront of professionalisation was published in the issue 3 of the journal Múltunk.

Csaba SASFI published an article in the volume of studies in memory of Vera Bácskai entitled Városi műveltség és a magyar polgári értelmiség forrásvidékei: Városi társadalom és iskolázottság a polgárosodás kezdeti időszakában, Győr példáján. Viktor TÁTRAI spread the dirty laundry of the dual-era state police in FONS issue 1 of 2023 (A „rendőrség szennyese.” Thaisz Elek bukása és a fővárosi rendőrség bűnügyi osztályának működése 1883-1885).

János UGRAI published an article in Educatio journal, issue 2, entitled Iskolaközpontok vagy kultúrrégió-centrumok? A reformkori iskolázás térbeli tagolódásának dilemmái a protestáns akadémikusok kollektív biográfiai jellemzőinek tükrében.

Conference participations

Ilona KAPPANYOS and Gergely MAGOS participated in the workshop Commodities, Trade and Materiality in the Global Cold War, held in Vienna on 19-20 April. The event was hosted by the Universität Wien and RECET (Research Center for the History of Transformations). Our colleague Ilona KAPPANYOS gave a presentation on birth control methods in the socialist era (Antibébi – The Emergence and Distribution of Novel Birth Control Methods in State Socialist Hungary), and our colleague Gergely MAGOS discussed the transformation and Sovietisation of Hungarian pharmacy (The Transfer of work organization. Hungarian Pharmacy in the 1950s).

During the month of May, the ELTE BTK hosted the VII DIMENSIONS conference entitled Echoes of the Past. The lecture by Károly HALMOS looked at bankruptcy trials as sound canisters, in which, in a manner typical of performance, the voices of the litigants are usually heard by the executed rather than by the voices of the litigants. Viktor PAPP explored the circumstances of the workings of law firms in Budapest from the perspective of the sound effects on lawyers, trainee lawyers and legal trainees, using newspaper, literary and archival sources, as well as personal documents.

The „Miből élt az ember…” Jövedelmi, jövedelemszerkezeti és vagyonszerzési változások az európai és magyar történelemben conference was held in Nagyatád from 22-24 August, at which Viktor PAPP gave a presentation entitled Az ügyvédség vagyoni differenciálódása a dualizmus kori Budapesten.

Between 24-26 August, the Jászberény Campus of Eszterházy Károly Catholic University hosted this year's conference of the István Hajnal Circle, where Károly HALMOS, Márkus KELLER and Zsuzsi KISS were the section chairs, while Viktor PAPP presented his paper Fényképészet a Kelet-Mediterráneumban. Az ember és a környezet kapcsolata a 19. századi fényképészeknél.

Márkus KELLER, our team leader, together with Zsombor BÓDY, participated in the Seventh European Congress on World and Global History in Hague.

On 24 November, a workshop conference entitled Historical Sociological Perspectives was held to celebrate 30 years of teaching social history in Hungary, under the aegis of the Department of Comparative Historical Sociology. The conference featured presentations by Márkus KELLER, Zsuzsi KISS and Gergely MAGOS.

In December Zsuzsi KISS had a discussion with Katalin BARÁTH about Hildegárd Pajkr at the Radnóti Estek, while in September she participated in the European Rural History Organization's 2023 conference in Cluj with two presentations at the same time.

Workshop

On 23 May, we presented the 90th issue of Korall at ELTE BTK, with a roundtable discussion. The authors (János UGRAI, Géza BUZINKAY, Katalin DETRE, Viktor PAPP, Viktor TÁTRAI) were interviewed by the two editors, Zsombor BÓDY and Márkus KELLER.

On 23 June, Gergely MAGOS: A munka szociális és személyes drámája. Everett C. Hughes munkássága was held at the Teachers' Club of ELTE TáTK, the presentation was lectured by Péter BODOR.

Academic career

Viktor PAPP won 1st place at the 26th Spring Wind Conference in Miskolc, with the paper entitled Kompromisszumok, konfliktusok és professzionalizáció. Az ügyvédjelöltek helyzete a dualizmus időszakában.

On Thursday, 21 September 2023, the public debate of Viktor PAPP's doctoral thesis entitled The Social History of the Lawyers in Dualism-era Hungary took place.

Interview

Our team leader Márkus KELLER gave an interview about the experimental housing estate in Óbuda to the XXI. Század magazine.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences, an interview was made with Zsuzsi KISS, Director of the Institute of Sociology at ELTE TáTK, one of the heads of the English-language sociology bachelor's programme.

Sports day and relaxation

With the support of the BEAC Sports Grant, the Department of Comparative Historical Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences organised another sports day on 24 June at the ELTE Water Sports Park.

At the end of our annual summary, we wish our followers Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! And for those of you who don't want to miss our latest news next year, follow our Facebook page, website and YouTube channel!