Gender Studies ~ University of Szeged

About us

Critical and interdisciplinary in approach, the Concentration Gender through Literatures and Cultures in English in the Bologna MA Program was launched in September 2009. It seeks to address many of the current social, cultural and professional issues from the perspective of gender and sexuality. It is run by a multidisciplinary Faculty with a profile of teaching and research that covers literary criticism, popular cultural studies, media studies, discourse analysis and lavender linguistics. Our courses explore the experiences of women and men and probe the explanatory power of concepts of gender and sexuality as developed within various feminist approaches. The programme provides students with essential knowledge of the intersection of cultural representations and social structures and political power in the US, UK and Irish contexts. We also seek knowledge of post state socialist gender and sexuality relations in Hungary, probing the limits and potentials of travelling concepts in the transnational flows of feminist knowledge production. Our students will understand how beliefs and assumptions about women and men, about sex and sexualities shape social institutions and activities and vice versa as well as how they are necessarily inflected with other dimensions of our daily existence, such as race, class or ability. They can also have the opportunity and continue their gender studies research in the two PhD programmes in the Institute of English and American Studies in the field of literature and cultural studies or in English applied linguistics. We also hope to prepare our graduates for careers and jobs offered by various government institutions of equal opportunity on local and regional level, by local and transnational civil organizations such as NANE or Amnesty International, or jobs in the media and electronic journalism, museums and art galleries that support alternative cultural performances and enterprises.

Why don’t you come and join us?

Whether you are a current or prospective student, or one of our previous students, or an interested visitor, we appreciate your curiosity and interest and invite you to visit our website.

Best regards,

Erzsébet Barát
Convener of the Programme

In memoriam Dr. Sarolta Marinovich-Resch

Dear Friends,

On August 31st, we bade our farewell to Dr. Sarolta Marinovich-Resch. Our world is diminished by her leaving it. We are proud that she was the founder of our Research Group and are honored that we could work with her. We are sorry for our loss. We love you, Sari. Your were a treasure. May you rest in peace.

You may read the eulogy on behalf of her colleagues by Erzsébet Barát HERE, and on behalf of her students and supervisees by Larisa Kocic-Zámbó HERE.

History of Gender Studies in Szeged

Teaching Gender Studies on its own right in the English Studies Department started with the introduction of some elective courses in the academic year of 1989/1990. The results and the emerging directions of the potentials of a more organized curriculum were brought together in a conference, A Classroom of One’s Own we organized in 1993 financed by a TEMPUS Joint European project. In the second half of the 1990s in addition to classes on feminist literary criticism and women’s writing we introduced courses in the field of social linguistics and cultural studies as well. Then in 1998 as part of the general refashioning of the traditional philology type of curriculum in the department into a critical theory and cultural studies type of programme, we could concentrate our efforts in teaching gender studies and designed a specialization block that is comprised of ten courses. It was GLASS, the Gender in Language and Literature Specialization Stream that came to a successful end in 2010 when the old type of five-year MA programme ran out. GLASS is the foundation of our new MA degree programme, Gender through Literatures and Cultures in English (GLCE). In the new Bologna-type of MA programme in English Studies students must choose one of three Tracks. The Concentration in Gender Studies, Gender through Literature and Culture in English, is one of them. It's launch in September 2009 marked the opening of the new, fourth period in our history.

If you are interested in our reflections on the history of teaching Gender Studies in the Institute please turn to our contribution “Is There a space for Teaching gender studies in Hungarian Higher education?” (Pető, Andrea (ed.) Teaching Gender Studies in Hungary. Budapest: Ministry of Youth, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity, 2006: 13-21.) The two authors, Sarolta Marinovich, the founding convener of the GLASS specialization program and Ezsébet Barát, the convener of the new MA programme discuss the four periods in the context of the changes in the Hungarian higher education policy after the system change in 1989.

Projects

Annual Conference:

LANGUAGE, IDEOLOGY, MEDIA: GENDER/SEXUALITY RELATIONS IN HUNGARY

This is an annual interdisciplinary conference that was first launched in September 2005. It has turned out to be the only regular research forum for feminist scholarship concerned with Hungarian cultural practices of gender and sexuality.
Visit our current conference HERE.
To browse our conference archive files click HERE.

International Project:

MIGRATION AND NARRATION

This is an LLP Erasmus Intensive Programme coordinated by the University of Krosno, Poland. It runs from 2010 to 2012. The participant institutions are:

Universität Bamberg, Germany
St Mary's University College, Belfast, Great Britain
Københavns Universitet, Denmark
Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Hungary
Universidad de Huelva, Spain
Högskolan Dalarna, Falun, Sweden
Universitet Jagielloński, Krakow, Poland
Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa, Krosno, Poland

It is a free summer study opportunity for undergraduate and graduate student of participating Universities. Students will earn 6 ECTS points.

The project consists of a ten-day series of lectures and workshops where students and specialists in literature and language, social studies and history will work towards a common understanding of the nature of migrant experience. The field of teaching and study will include both past and present, as well as varied diasporic groups.

Participating on behalf of University of Szeged are Andrea P. Balogh (contact_person) and Erzsébet Barát. To download the application form click HERE. See the images of the latest event HERE.

Book Project:

DILEMMAS OF VISIBILITY

A book project that comprises contributions discussing the controversies surrounding the in/visibility of sexual minorities in post-socialist Europe to be published by Intellect. The volume is part of the course Andrea P. Balogh accomplished as a follow up to her participation in the summer university course, „Media Globalization and Post-Communist European Identities,” CEU, Budapest, 2007. Forthcoming end of 2011.

EXPLORING THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN FREAK SHOWS

"One of the major aims of this collection of essays is to uncover the singularity and to trace the unexplored cultural history of Continental European freak shows while analysing the related, specifically local (or global) socio-cultural anxieties and interests, as well as potential reasons of the awkward silence surrounding this important phenomenon. Twentieth century’s traumatising historical events contributed to a complete re-evaluation of anatomical difference: while the proliferation of the world war veterans allowed for the gradual engulfment of the realm of the normal by the disabled,the Nazi’s eugenics-(pseudo)science based experiments and race-cleansing euthanasia programs that undertook the systematic and total extermination of the ‘degenerate’ contributed to the disappearance of many freak show performers and still constitutes a historical baggage extremely difficult to come to terms with, an unexplored, silenced, yet crucially important segment of Holocaust and trauma studies. The research exploring the cultural history of Continental European freak shows is of vital relevance today, since it might help us discover an unexpected continuity between the nineteenth century exhibition, the twentieth century annihilation, and the twenty-first century hyper-spectacularization of ‘freaks.’"

For a detailed description of this book project click HERE.
Send a short abstract of 200-250 words by August 30, 2011 to the editors:
Dr. Anna Kérchy, University of Szeged, Hungary EMAIL
and Dr. Andrea Zittlau, University of Rostock, Germany EMAIL
Full papers are expected by December 31, 2011.

For further information, direction, or feedback, please, contact the convener of the Programme, Erzsébet Barát via the following address, telephone/fax number and email address:

H-6722 Szeged
Egyetem u. 2
Room 3303, Ady tér Building
Phone: +36 62 544 526
Fax: +36 62 544 259
e-mail: zsazsa at lit.u-szeged.hu

If you want to take a peek at where we are, see the map below and look for Egyetem utca, or click on the bigger map option and browse the Google map for specific directions and/or snapshots of the University.

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And you can follow us on Facebook too.

Sponsored in part by support from TÁMOP-4.2.1/B-09/1/KONV-2010-0005 TAMOP