On the occasion of the launching of the MTA Momentum Research Group “Mixed Families: Searching for Identity and Belonging in Post-Conflict Societies (MIXED)”, members of the group invite scholars from fields relevant to the project, to join them in addressing the key questions and broader research problems that the project will tackle over the course of the next five years.
Specifically, the project seeks to integrate sociological and historiographical theoretical and conceptual frameworks in order to explore numerous stakes of religious, ethnic and cultural mixedness, with special attention paid to social and economic underpinnings and related drivers of transformations from the late 19th century till the present day. While the spatial scope of the project concentrates on the territories of Kingdom of Hungary, post-Trianon Hungary and the (post)-Yugoslav space. Taking into account unique diversity of this region, as well as its position in numerous historical conflicts that resulted out of global tensions, but also local state- and nation-building projects – the project aims to fruitfully juxtapose mixedness and the post-conflict transformations in said societies, relying on both historiographical and sociological toolkits.
The present workshop serves as an initial hybrid meeting of Budapest-based and several other regional scholars with unique expertise pertaining to these and related research topics, with an objective of initiating a scholarly dialogue that would revolve around the issues the project will cover, but also of surveying the most productive entry points for the research and output of the project. Through panel presentations of invited experts and a closing roundtable discussion with leading scholars from the respective fields, the workshop seeks to open up to the scholarly public, but also significantly develop its main research questions and provide a valuable interdisciplinary context to the future publications, events and collaborations within the framework of the project. Finally, in terms of practicalities, several coffee breaks and a lunch break (sandwiches) will be provided for all participants, in the Zsuzsa Ferge Faculty Seminar Room 0.100C (0.100C Ferge Zsuzsa terem).
The event is only partially open to the public. The organizers cordially invite everyone to attend the roundtable discussion that will conclude the event.
Kick-off Workshop of of the MTA Momentum Research Group "Mixed Families: Searching for Identity and Belonging in Post-Conflict Societies" (MIXED)
Date and place: February 26, 2026 │ ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Minority Studies, Budapest, Pázmány Péter stny. 1/A, 1117, Room: 0.100C Ferge Zsuzsa terem/Zsuzsa Ferge Faculty Seminar Room 0.100C.
Conveners: Karolina Lendák-Kabók (karolina.kabok@tatk.elte.hu) │ Lucija Balikić (lucija.balikic@tatk.elte.hu)
Program
8:30-8.45 Opening address by Richárd Papp (Director of the Institute for Social Relations), Miklós Szabó (Head of Department of Minority Studies) and Karolina Lendák-Kabók (Head of the MTA Momentum Research Group “MIXED”)
8:45-9:45 Keynote lecture “A Sketch of the Central Socio-Historical Problem Areas in the Study of Culturally Mixed Marriages” by prof. Viktor Karády, followed by a Q&A session, moderated by Lucija Balikić (ELTE)
9:45-11:00 Panel 1: Ethnic Choice, Mixing and (Armed) Conflict
Moderator: Anna Vancsó (ELTE)
Katalin Kovály (HUN-REN CSFK): “Decision-Making Strategies in the Ukrainian-Hungarian Intermarriages in Transcarpathia, Ukraine”
Angela Ilić (IKGS, LMU Munich): “Germanness in Post-Conflict Societies – Aspired to, Forbidden, Mixed, Concealed, Forgotten” (online)
Gergely Magos (ELTE): “Classification and Identification. ‘National Loyalty’ Certification of Pharmacists During the World War II”
Karolina Lendák-Kabók (ELTE): “Mixedness and Everyday Nationalism”
11:00-11:15 Coffee break
11:15-12:15 Panel 2: Roma under Kádár and Beyond: Patterns of Mixing, Segregationism and Identity Choice
Moderator: Lucija Balikić (ELTE)
Zsófia Veszely (EUI, Florence): “‘They Consider Prevention a Sin’: Attitudes Towards the Reproductive Choices and Knowledge of the Roma in State-Socialist Hungary”
Annina Gagyiova (CAS, Prague): “Managing Inequality: Roma Children, School Maturity, and Remedial Education in Socialist Hungary” (online)
Cinderella Komolafe (Semmelweis University, Budapest): “Roma–Non-Roma Interethnic Relationships in the Context of Social Integration”
12:15-12:45 Lunch break (sandwiches)
12:45-14:00 Panel 3: Trials of Modern Hungarian Nationality and Minority Politics
Moderator: Ráhel Turai (ELTE)
Gábor Koloh (ELTE): “Religious and Mother-Tongue Diversity in Hungary (1910)”
Erika Szívós (ELTE): “Bonds of the Ghetto: Mixed Households and Jewish/non-Jewish Relationships in a Budapest District during and after World War II”
Péter Buchmüller (CEU, Vienna): “Lawyers and Mixed Marriages in Hungary Between 1867 and 1945”
Lucija Balikić (ELTE): “The Road Not Taken: Discourses on Mixing and Political Nationhood in Dualist Hungary”
14:00-14:15 Coffee break
14:15-15:45 Panel 4: Contemporary Dimensions of Mixedness
Moderator: Gergely Magos (ELTE)
Richárd Papp (ELTE): “Mixed Family Memories: Dichotomies in Hungarian Holocaust Memory”
Anna Vancsó (ELTE): “The Role of Religious Organizations in Mixed Marriages: Acceptance, Intergenerational Transmission, and National Identity”
Ráhel Turai (ELTE): “Gender, Power, and Citizenship”
Balázs Kapitány (Foundation for Population Research) and Patrik Tátrai (HUN-REN CSFK): “Rethinking ‘Mixedness’ in an Autochthonous Minority Context”
Nóra Kovács (TK ELTE): “Regional Integration Through Intimacy: Cross-Border Social Tango Dancing Relationships From a Hungarian Perspective”
15:45-16:00 Coffee break
16:00-17:15 Closing roundtable discussion “Mixed Families: A Socially Transformative Force?” with Antal Örkény (ELTE, online), Gábor Egry (PTI Budapest), Zsuzsi Kiss (ELTE), Margit Feischmidt (TK ELTE) and Miklós Hadas (CUB), moderated by Karolina Lendák-Kabók (ELTE)