Institute of Central European Studies
Tasks of the Institute of Central European Studies: The institute carries out multidisciplinary research activities and organizes courses on the common historical and cultural heritage of Central European states and nations, their potential for cooperation in the future and their relationship towards others states and traditions in Europe. These activities encompass several institutions.
What is our objective?
The set of phenomena that we call Central Europe is undergoing a renaissance. This can only be a welcome development for academic inquiry with a comparative approach.Central Europe has been the regional and mental framework of Hungarian history, politics and Hungarian life in general ever since the beginning of Hungarian statehood. Hungary remains one of the focal points of Central Europe. We need to leverage the experiences that have shaped the region, and the different countries in it, in the past hundred years. We need to identify similarities and differences. We also need to examine those behavioural, mental, political and social patterns, as well as psychological and economic conditions that still have an impact in the present and that are what make the region Central Europe.
Our research activities focus primarily on the countries of the Visegrad Cooperation, but also include Croatia and Slovenia and, of course, the German-speaking countries of Central Europe such as Austria and Bavaria, to some extent. Nor do we exclude making contacts towards East. It is not difficult to make a case for including Romania in present-day Central Europe, given the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional nature of Transylvania and the Partium. The Baltic nations also fall within our purview, sharing as we do the fate of half a century of communist oppression, as well as similar interests as nations with small populations.
We strive to cooperate with public policy and academic think tanks of Central Europe (in its wider sense) on workshops and projects, and, possibly, run joint educational courses. Through our activities, we aim to create networks of cooperation working to analyse the relationships between the countries of the Central Europe, the historical background of their common actions, the converging aspects of their public policy and the differences between them, as they relate to the economic, security and cultural experiences and expectations of these nations towards the EU, Euro-Atlantic integration, China and the emerging Asian countries.
Head of the Institute
Dr. Pál Hatos
Administrator
Barbara Mesterházyné Orcifalvi
Mesterhazyne.Orcifalvi.Barbara@uni-nke.hu