The CEU community marked the 20th Anniversary of the university with a variety of high-profile academic events and other activities organized throughout 2011.
March - June, 2011
"Homeless Relief Project"
A student-run volunteering event and initiative to support organizations helping homeless people in Budapest. This event was supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
March 7, 2011
"The Embodied Voice: Towards a Feminist Phenomenology of Voice and Vocality"
Public lecture by Linda Fisher, Associate Professor at the Department of Gender Studies. Part of a special lecture series “Voicing Genders, Engendering Voices” organized by the Department of Gender Studies as a joint celebration of the department’s 15th anniversary and CEU’s 20th anniversary. The series shares the most recent research of its diverse faculty with the wider academic community and showcases the multiple and interdisciplinary ways in which the field contributes to the themes of CEU’s university-wide celebrations: disciplinary self-reflexivity and the social responsibility of academia. The series is therefore intended to contribute to the larger intellectual debates initiated in celebration of CEU’s 20th anniversary.
March 10 - 12, 2011
"East Meets West: A Gendered View of Legal Tradition"
The 6th conference of the international research network: "Gender Differences in the History of European Legal cultures" organized jointly by four CEU Departments: Gender Studies, History, Legal Studies and Medieval Studies, coordinated by the Department of Medieval Studies.
March 21, 2011
"Testimonies and Emotionality"
Public lecture by Andrea Pető, Associate Professor at the Department of Gender Studies. Part of a special lecture series “Voicing Genders, Engendering Voices” organized by the Department of Gender Studies as a joint celebration of the department’s 15th anniversary and CEU’s 20th anniversary.
March 21 - 22, 2011
"Building bridges from the present to desired futures: Evaluating approaches for visioning and backcasting"
The workshop is organized by The Integrated Assessment Society, hosted by the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy. It will bring together some of the leading practitioners and researchers from organizations such as the OECD, UNEP, EEA and others with experience in global integrated scenario studies, with particular emphasis on backcasting methods. The workshop is co-funded by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and CEU.
May 12, 2011
Transatlantic Energy Governance Dialogue: The “Shale Gas Revolution” – Implications for International Gas Markets and European Energy Security
Natural gas markets have seen major changes. Faltering demand, caused by the ongoing financial and economic crisis, coincided with supply increases in unconventional gas, notably due to soaring shale gas production in the United States. The Transatlantic Energy Governance Dialogue, a high level energy conference, discusses the transatlantic dimension of this 'shale gas revolution'. It assesses major shifts in the natural gas landscape and focuses on the governance challenges that now emerge for energy security, sustainability and the transition towards a low carbon future. The conference is co-sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi).
May 12 - June 17, 2011
"CEU to Infinity"
An exhibition of photography by CEU alumni and students organized jointly by CEU Alumni Office and Center for Arts and Culture (on display in the Oktagon area). This event is supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
May 12 - 14, 2011
20th Anniversary Alumni Reunion Weekend 2011
Celebrating 20 years and 20 graduation classes of CEU. CEU alumni hold a special place in this jubilee because they carry out the University's mission into more than 100 different countries across the globe and they turn it into a real, tangible impact.
May 14, 2011
CEU 20th Anniversary Spring Ball
The annual CEU Spring Ball organized by the Student Union, the Student Life Office, in connection with the Alumni Relations and Career Services Office. To mark 20 years of CEU, the selected theme of the Ball is 'The Golden 20s.'
May 27-29, 2011
“What Follows after the Crisis? Approaches to Global Transformations"
7th CEU Conference in Social Sciences hosted jointly by the CEU Center for the Study of Imperfections in Democracies (DISC), Political Behavior Research Group (PolBeRG), Political Economy Research Group, Global South Research Group (GSRG), International Relations Research Group and Center for Media and Communications Studies (CMCS).
Following a global financial crisis and numerous political challenges, 2011 appears to offer us new opportunities for engaging in debates and research work. Bridging economic, political, and social challenges this period continues to be a problematic reality check for theoretical and empirical perspectives. With many challenges ahead, we hope to generate interdisciplinary academic debates that tackle relevant topics in their fields of research. Through this year’s conference we hope to provide an interdisciplinary space which will enable different perspectives and approaches to come together in order to provide explanations and understandings of contemporary processes.
June 3 - 5, 2011
"Legacies and Discontinuities in the Eastern Mediterranean: reflections on comparative and innovative methodologies in late antique, Byzantine, and Ottoman studies"
International graduate student day organized by the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (CEMS). Young scholars from across Europe, the Caucasus, the Near East, and the US will present case studies and reflect upon the question of how, in an increasingly diversified and specialized academic environment, meaningful comparative and/or longue-durée studies across disciplines and source languages (inter alia, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Syriac, Coptic, Hebrew), can be accomplished. This event is supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
June 6 -10, 2011
NetSci 2011
The International School and Conference on Network Science
The CEU Center for Network Science is the host of this year's major network science international school and conference NetSci 2011, as part of the CEU 20th anniversary series of events.
Bringing together leading researchers, practitioners, and teachers in network science (including analysts, modeling experts, visualization specialists, and others), NetSci fosters interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. The conference focuses on novel directions in networks research within the biological and environmental sciences, computer and information sciences, social sciences, finance and business. The series of events span five days, June 6-10. The conference will be opened by John Shattuck, President of CEU, and Jozsef Palinkas, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
June 15, 2011
"CEU 20: Reflections on the University and the Meaning of Open Society"
This conference marking th 20th anniversary will examine the role of CEU as a center of intellectual inquiry, events that have taken place in the region and the world over the last two decades and that are relevant for CEU’s development, and the contemporary contest over open society. The keynote speaker will be George Soros. Other speakers will include Janos Kis, Ivan Krastev, Wanda Rapaczynski and Aryeh Neier. Former CEU Rectors will also participate in the event, and will be honored by CEU. The conference will be followed by a concert co-hosted by CEU and the Liszt Academy. The Academy Orchestra under the baton of Leon Botstein will perform a program of Mahler and Liszt to commemorate the University’s 20th anniversary, which coincides with the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt.
June 16, 2011
20th Annual CEU Commencement
Commencement ceremony will take place at the Budapest Palace of Arts. CEU’s Open Society Prize, announced annually at Commencement, will be awarded this year to Javier Solana, and posthumously to Richard Holbrooke. Our Commencement Speaker will be Kati Marton. This year’s Speaker and Open Society Prize recipients symbolize CEU’s unique hybrid identity as an American, Hungarian and European university.
June 24, 2011
"Reunion Conference for CEU Alumni and Friends in Central Asia"
First Reunion Conference for Alumni and Friends in Central Asia CEU. Event organized jointly by the Kyrgyzstan CEU Alumni Chapter and CEU Alumni Office. The event will feature a day-long conference of panel discussions and reflections on the social responsibility of academia, environmental awareness and diversity in education with panelists from CEU, University of Central Asia and the region.
March - June, 2011
BUILDING CEU
As a contribution to the anniversary celebration of the University, OSA Archivum assembled an exhibition titled: BUILDING CEU
The exhibition is installed in the OCTAGON area of the CEU, Nádor 9. building and runs from MARCH 10, 2011.
The exhibition displays the history of the CEU building complex with main focus on the Monument Building (Festetics Palace, Nádor u. 9.) and the OSA Archivum (Goldberger House, Arany János u. 32). The story of the buildings is displayed via archival photos and plans. Another section of the exhibition shows the highlights of possible past and future plans and visualizations for the Campus.
The exhibition also intends to give an insight into the lives of the people who planned, built, owned and lived in these buildings.
Curator: Judit Izinger, OSA
September 23-24, 2011
"Competing and complementary visions of the social: history, sociology, anthropology"
An international interdisciplinary workshop organized jointly by the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology and Department of History. It will touch upon the long-time discussion of interdisciplinarity by focusing on sociology, history and anthropology and the recent crisis of the social, the identity and boundary of disciplines, the nature of proof, the tools of critical inquiry, and the comparability of research across disciplines and epistemic communities. This event is supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
September 30, 2011
"What Is Science For? A magical mystery tour"
A public lecture by Professor John Harris followed by a discussion moderated by Professor Judit Sándor. Opening remarks by John Shattuck, President and Rector.
John Harris FMedSci, is Director of The Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation and of the Wellcome Strategic Programme in The Human Body, its Scope Limits and Future, School of Law, University of Manchester, where is he is Lord Alliance Professor of Bioethics. He was joint Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Medical Ethics from 2004 until July 2011 and was a member of The United Kingdom Human Genetics Commission from its foundation in 1999 until August 2010. Books Include: Clones Genes and Immortality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); John Harris, ed. Bioethics (Oxford Readings in Philosophy Series, Oxford University Press, 2001); Justine C. Burley and John Harris, eds. A Companion to Genethics: Philosophy and the Genetic Revolution (Blackwell’s Companions to Philosophy Series, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2002); On Cloning (London: Routledge, 2004), Enhancing Evolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
This event is part of 20th Anniversary Bioethics Lecture Series supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund
October 10, 2011
Rector's Lecture Series: Freedom and Democracy Dialogues - The Contest over Open Society
"Democracy: Realized promises and the risks of drift"
Lecture by Dominique Schnapper, co-organized with the French Institute, Budapest. The lecture will be in French with simultaneous English translation
Dominique Schnapper is Professor of Sociology and the daughter of the French philosopher and sociologist, Raymond Aron. Professor Schnapper holds a PhD in Sociology from Sorbonne. After having worked at the Institute of Political Science in Paris, she became professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences). Her works focus on minorities, unemployment and labor and especially since the early 1990s, the nation, citizenship and democracy. She conducted a number of field studies on groups that in one way or another are affected by marginality: she studied Italian immigrants, Jews, and unemployed as well. Professor Schnapper has been a member of the Conseil Constitutionel (Constitutional Council) from 2001 to 2010. She has published more than twenty books and received numerous awards including the National Assembly Prize (1994) and the Balzan Prize (2002).
As CEU’s founding notions of open society face growing opportunities and challenges, the University will host a series of lectures
and debates where academics, government officials, and civil society representatives can reflect on the contemporary contest
over open society. "Freedom and Democracy Dialogues - The Contest over Open Society" lecture series is part of the CEU's 20th Anniversary celebrations.
October 11, 2011
"Will you still love me when I’m 128?"
A public lecture by Prof. Inez de Beaufort followed by a discussion moderated by Professor Judit Sándor. Opening remarks by John Shattuck, President and Rector.
Suppose it is possible to significantly expand our lifestyle: what are the ethical problems we will face? This question has generated a lot of debate in the past years with fierce proponents and fierce opponents of the extension of life. Different arguments will be discussed on both an individual and a societal level: e.g. justice and fairness – should every one have access to life prolonging treatments, is there a fair minimum of years to live; how would we deal with views on the good life, will we be bored, will we have different personal careers and how will we look, what rejuvenating enhancements of our appearance would we want.
Prof. Inez de Beaufort is Professor of Health Care Ethics at Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam the Netherlands. She has published on beauty and ethics, end of life decisions, personal responsibility for health, obesity, and other themes. She is a member of the European Group of Ethics in Science and New Technologies, an honorary member of the Dutch Health Council, a Member of an Euthanasia Review Committee, member of the Advisory Committee on the Health Care Insurance Package and different other advisory boards.
This event is part of 20th Annivesary Bioethics Lecture Series supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
October 14, 2011
"Exploitation and choice in the global egg trade: emotive terminology or necessary critique?"
A public lecture by Prof. Donna Dickenson followed by a discussion moderated by Professor Judit Sándor. Opening remarks by Katalin Farkas, Provost and Academic Pro-Rector.
It is generally thought that informed consent and choice are key terms in the debate about markets in human tissue, while exploitation is an emotive and outdated term. I want to suggest the reverse: a revised concept of exploitation can provide a more sophisticated analysis than the standard neo-liberal rhetoric of choice. While emphasis on respecting individual choice in liberal and utilitarian thinkers was originally intended to extend rights to oppressed groups, particularly women, and while it was put to use by feminist groups in the ongoing debates over abortion, it is now too laden with vagueness and pro-market rhetoric to provide explanatory or prescriptive guidance on concrete issues like the rights and wrongs of the global trade in human tissue, particularly human eggs. In this talk I will explore contending definitions of exploitation to arrive at a more nuanced concept, which I will present as a necessary critique of tissue markets—unlike the emotive terminology of choice.
This event is part of 20th Annivesary Bioethics Lecture Series supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
October 21, 2011
"Post-Communist Media - From Democratic Ideals to Authoritarian Backlash?"
What are the major trends of democratization vs. authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe? How do authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes control media in different post-communist regions? How do old and new media genres contribute to sustaining and / or opposing authoritarian regimes? And how could media studies be reinvented to reflect on changing geopolitical realities and media landscapes?
The aim of the workshop is to paint the picture of Central and Eastern European media today: their democratic vs. authoritarian performance, political status, and policies within the global trend of strengthening authoritarian tendencies. This event is supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
November 11, 2011
Rector's Lecture Series: Freedom and Democracy Dialogues - The Contest over Open Society
"Social networks and media - implications for democracy and civil society" - Speakers: Ahmad Gharbeia and Evgeny Morozov
The appearance of social networking tools on the internet such as facebook, twitter or myspace, to name a few, has changed our understanding of social networks. What potentials do these emerging networks have and how do they change interpersonal relations and civil society? Are they capable of mobilizing social groups that may promote democratization and the idea of an open society both at the domestic and at the transnational level? If so, what specific implications does this phenomenon have for democracy in general and democratization in particular?
Ahmad Gharbeia is an Egyptian computer expert, activist, and blogger. He has been politically active in the past six years. He camped out in Tahrir square during the protests which lead to the ousting of Mubarak.
Evgeny Morozov is a Belarus-born researcher and blogger, a former Open Society Fellow, who works on the political effects of the internet. Morozov expresses skepticism about the internet's ability to provoke change in authoritarian regimes, believing it is also a powerful conduit for authoritarian and nationalist ideas.
As CEU’s founding notions of open society face growing opportunities and challenges, the University will host a series of lectures
and debates where academics, government officials, and civil society representatives can reflect on the contemporary contest
over open society. "Freedom and Democracy Dialogues - The Contest over Open Society" lecture series is part of the CEU's 20th Anniversary celebrations.
November 22, 2011
"New Approaches and Methodological Challenges in Jewish Studies. Critical Readings of Testimonies"
A one day workshop organized jointly by the Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Gender Studies, in cooperation with the CEU Library. The CEU Library is an access point for the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive, which opens up the possibility for organizing an event that is not only focusing on what kind of methodological and theoretical self reflection is needed to use testimonies in the field of Jewish Studies and Gender Studies but also serves as an outreach for a wider audience.This event is supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.
December 10-12, 2011
"A travelogue of Central Asian scholarship: An inter-disciplinary survival guide to managing the (lack of) data deluge"
Workshop organized by Asia Research Initiative (ARI) that aims to take stock of two decades of scholarship on post-Soviet Central Asia, an area largely off limits to foreign scholars in Soviet times. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, the opening of (some) archives, and greater possibilities for travel seemed to herald an era of easy access to local data, be it in the form of interview data, oral histories, surveys, or local language media. Instead, researching Central Asia remains a painstakingly long exercise and requires effort, time and resources. Recalling their (academic as well as personal) journeys to and across the region, the contributors to the workshop will shed light on how Central Asian scholarship has managed to cope with this fundamental predicament in which all scholars of the region have found themselves in. This event is supported by the CEU 20th Anniversary Events Fund.