Andrea Peto
Andrea PETŐ is a Professor at the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University in Vienna, Austria, a Doctor of Science of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 2018 she was awarded the 2018 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values and 2022 University of Oslo Human Rights Award. In 2005, she was awarded the Officer’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary by the President of the Hungarian Republic and the Bolyai Prize by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2006. She is Doctor Honoris Causa of Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Her works have appeared in 24 different languages. She has also been a guest professor at the universities of Toronto, Buenos Aires, Lviv, Novi Sad, Stockholm and Frankfurt. Her books include: Women in Hungarian Politics 1945-1951 (Columbia University Press/East European Monographs New York, 2003), Geschlecht, Politik und Stalinismus in Ungarn. Eine Biographie von Júlia Rajk. Studien zur Geschichte Ungarns, Bd. 12. (Gabriele Schäfer Verlag, 2007) and together with Ildikó Barna, Political Justice in Budapest after WWII (Politikai igazságszolgáltatás a II. világháború utáni Budapesten. Gondolat, Budapest, 2012 and 2015 by CEU Press), Women of the Arrow Cross Party (Palgrave, 2020). She co-edited with Ayse Gül Altinay: Gendered Wars, Gendered Memories. Feminist Conversations on War, Genocide and Political Violence, Routledge, 2016. She serves as an associate editor for the European Journal of Women’s Studies and editor-in-chief of East European Holocaust Studies.
Phone: 36 1 3273000
Address: 1100 Wien Quellenstrasse 51-55, A203.
Her works have appeared in 24 different languages. She has also been a guest professor at the universities of Toronto, Buenos Aires, Lviv, Novi Sad, Stockholm and Frankfurt. Her books include: Women in Hungarian Politics 1945-1951 (Columbia University Press/East European Monographs New York, 2003), Geschlecht, Politik und Stalinismus in Ungarn. Eine Biographie von Júlia Rajk. Studien zur Geschichte Ungarns, Bd. 12. (Gabriele Schäfer Verlag, 2007) and together with Ildikó Barna, Political Justice in Budapest after WWII (Politikai igazságszolgáltatás a II. világháború utáni Budapesten. Gondolat, Budapest, 2012 and 2015 by CEU Press), Women of the Arrow Cross Party (Palgrave, 2020). She co-edited with Ayse Gül Altinay: Gendered Wars, Gendered Memories. Feminist Conversations on War, Genocide and Political Violence, Routledge, 2016. She serves as an associate editor for the European Journal of Women’s Studies and editor-in-chief of East European Holocaust Studies.
Phone: 36 1 3273000
Address: 1100 Wien Quellenstrasse 51-55, A203.
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of the 1956 revolution in illiberal Hungary, it is first necessary
to acknowledge the obvious fact that no individual or political
party can claim exclusive “ownership” of the memories
associated with any historical event. The concept of appropriation
by Michel de Certeau helps to underline that
the consumption of history is never a passive process, and
different groups could demand the ownership of an event.
Producers of memory are incorporating their own meanings and
values into the consumption of culture and that amounts
simultaneously to revising culture.
In this contribution, I am analysing the reasons for the
appropriation of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. I argue that
these reasons are four-fold: First, the memory of 1956 has been
divided from the start. Second, half of the population, namely
women, were excluded from this memory. Third, the revolution
was a bottom-up event. Fourth, the transition after 1990 was
built on the concept of authenticity, and truth made the
narrative vulnerable to illiberal appropriation.
Freedom of speech is widely viewed as a central attribute of contemporary liberal democracies and within limits — differing opinions can be articulated in public without fear of reprisal. Academic freedom, long regarded as central to the idea of the university is, on the other hand, a right which must be earned through the acquisition of expert knowledge and the application of intellectual rigor in teaching and research. Both hard-won freedoms are argued by many to be under serious threat.
The expert contributors to this book, from different global regions, examine both the importance of academic freedom and the severe threats universities face in this context in the twenty-first century. With its interdisciplinary perspective and cross-national emphasis, central issues in this text are illustrated through detailed examination of case studies and consideration of wider developments in the academy. Adopting a longue duree approach, rather than discussing the details of fast moving, controversies, the analyses offer insights for an educated public about an issue of pressing, contemporary significance.
The place was Brussels and the event, banned by the local mayor, was the ultra-right National Conservativism Conference (NATCON), an event sponsored and coordinated by the Hungarian government-funded Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC).
While the cancellation of the event went all the way to the courts in Brussels and was ultimately overturned, the likes of Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman and many other far right influencers were there to share their views, all in the name of ‘freedom of speech’. The attempt to cancel NATCON and its ultimate reinstatement is perhaps a less surprising set of events in the current political landscape.