Members of the International Advisory Board
Antal Örkény
Title:
Professor Emeritus, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Affiliation:
Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Social Sciences,
Department of Minority Studies (sociologist)
Antal Örkény, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, is a widely recognized and influential figure in Hungarian sociology. He began his academic career at ELTE in 1978, where he had previously worked as a research assistant. He earned his PhD in Sociology in 1986, habilitated in 2003, and served as a full professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences between 2004 and 2024. His academic path has been driven by a strong commitment to the social sciences, and he is well known for encouraging critical thinking and intellectual curiosity among his students and colleagues. Throughout his career, he has held several significant academic and international leadership roles. He was the head of the Ethnic and Minority Studies Program (1993–1997), the ELTE–UNESCO Minority Studies Department (1997–2012), and the Institute of Social Relations at ELTE (2006–2018). As Academic Director of the Education Abroad Program of the University of California (1992–2010) and Director of the Institute for Minority Studies (1995–2006), he actively contributed to the internationalization of Hungarian social science research and education. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as Acting Director for College of Excellence for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, supporting talented students interested in social research. He also played a key role in developing doctoral education in sociology, serving as Head of the ELTE Sociology Doctoral School from 2011 to 2020, and continues to lead the Hungarian-language doctoral program in sociology as of 2025. He has been a visiting professor at numerous Hungarian and international universities, including the University of Szeged (formerly JATE), the University of Pécs (formerly JPTE), Central European University (Nationalism Studies Program), George Mason University (Budapest Visiting Program), Bard College, Oregon State University, and the European Master’s Program in Human Rights and Democratization in Venice. Additionally, he has organized and taught at several international summer schools. His professional community involvement is equally extensive. He is a member of the Hungarian Sociological Association, the Sociology Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the International Society for Justice Research. Since 2009, he has served as President of Menedék – Hungarian Association for Migrants. His research interests include social mobility, social structure and stratification; political and ideological attitudes in Hungarian society; social justice; interethnic relations in the Carpathian Basin; representations of Roma people in Hungarian society; sociology of trust; social integration of migrant groups; border regions as complex systems; and European, national, and regional identities. He is the author or co-author of numerous significant books and studies, including Az alkony (1990), A mai magyar értelmiség ideológiai-politikai optikája az 1980-as évek végén (1990), Káderek (1991), Ideology and Political Beliefs in Hungary. The Twilight of State Socialism (1992), Political change – Psychological change: Conversion strategies in Hungary during the transition from state socialism to democracy (1996), Hétköznapok igazsága. Igazságossági felfogások egy nemzetközi összehasonlítás tükrében (1997), Tizenévesek állampolgári kultúrája (1998), Válaszúton a magyar oktatási rendszer (1998), Grappling with National Identity. How Nations See Each Other’s in Central Europe (2000), Nemzetek egymás tükrében. Interetnikus viszonyok a Kárpát-medencében (2002), A siker fénytörései (2005), Nemzeti érzés és európai identitás (2007), The Slovak minority in Hungary (2011), Nemzet és migráció (2018) and Nation and Migration: How Citizens in Europe are Coping with Xenophobia (2021), as well as Társadalmi dilemmák és ütköző elvek; Reflexiók a társadalmi igazságosságról (2022). His achievements have been recognized with various prizes and honors, such as the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2008) (Magyar Köztársasági Érdemrend Lovagkeresztje) the Polányi Award of the Hungarian Sociological Association for the best publication of the year (2011) (Magyar Szociológiai Társaság Polányi díja), the Rector’s Special Award for Excellence (2016) (Rektori kiválósági különdíj), the Pro Ingenio Award (2018) (Pro Ingenio Nívódíj), the Faculty of Social Sciences Award (2024) (Társadalomtudományi Karért díj) and the Angelusz Róbert University Teaching Award (2025) (Angelusz Róbert Egyetemi Oktatói Díj).
Mateja Sedmak, PhD
Title:
Principal Research Associate
Affiliation:
Science and Research Centre Koper (ZRS Koper),
Institute for Social Sciences, Slovenia
Mateja Sedmak has a PhD in Sociology and serves as Principal Research Associate and Head of the Institute for Social Sciences at the Science and Research Centre Koper. Her academic and research career is distinguished by strong commitment to the study of ethnic and intercultural relations, migration, cultural diversity management, and the sociology of everyday life and family. Currently she serves as the President of the Slovenian Sociological Society and from 2024 she become the national representative of the Social Science and Humanities Strategy Working Group of European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI). Between 2003 and 2016, she lectured at the University of Primorska (Faculty of Humanities; Faculty of Tourism Studies and Kinesiology). Previously, from 2000 to 2013, she directed the Centre for Public Opinion Research at ZRS Koper. She has held governance roles in academic institutions, including membership in the Senate of the University of Primorska (2003-2007; 2013-2016) and the Commission for the Promotion of the Role of Women in Science at Slovenia’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2004-2011). Since 2017 she has been President of the Scientific Council at ZRS Koper. Sedmak has participated in and led numerous national and international research projects, such as the Horizon 2020 program “MiCREATE – Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe”, and projects on unaccompanied minors, family and household changes, and ethnic minority issues across Europe. Her research interests cover: ethnic studies, intercultural studies, migration, vulnerable social groups, sociology of the family, and sociology of everyday life. She serves on the editorial boards of several sociological journals and is highly active in research dissemination, presenting at leading universities in Europe and the USA. Her contributions have reinforced the understanding of social integration, cultural diversity, and the everyday sociological dynamics of family and migration contexts.
Adrienne Edgar, PhD
Title:
Professor
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Adrienne Edgar is a distinguished scholar whose research focuses on 20th-century Russia and Central Asia, particularly on nation-building, ethnicity, race, intermarriage, and family history in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. Her current projects include co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Race in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia and a monograph on Benjamin Franklin’s descendants and ideas about genealogy in the United States. Her major publications include: Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples: Ethnic Mixing in Soviet Central Asia (2022) — winner of several prestigious awards, Intermarriage from Central Europe to Central Asia: Mixed Families in the Age of Extremes (2020), Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan (2004). Her teaching covers a range of topics including Russian and Soviet history, modern Central Asia, empires and borderlands, race and ethnicity, and women and gender. In professional service, she is President of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (2025), serves on editorial boards of several journals (including Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History), and has held prestigious fellowships such as the Humboldt Research Fellowship (German) for 2009-10. Her work brings together rigorous archival research, theoretical reflection, and a focus on intimate histories (such as mixed families and intermarriage) to shed new light on how race, nation, empire, and family intersect in Eurasia.