Balázs Trencsényi (born 1973) is a Hungarian historian of East Central European political and cultural thought. He is currently a Professor at the Department of History,

Central European University Central European University (CEU; , ) is a private research university in Vienna. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States. The univ ...

as well as the Co-Director of Pasts, Inc. Center for Historical Studies.

Life

Balázs Trencsényi was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. He graduated from Lycée Ferenc Toldy in 1991. He studied

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...

and graduated with a MA in 1997. In 2004, he graduated from the

with a PhD in history. His doctoral dissertation compared the Hungarian and British discourses of nationhood in the early-modern period. Since then, he has worked as assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and departmental head at the Department of History,

. He was the director of the History in the Public Sphere

Erasmus Mundus The European Union's Erasmus Mundus programme (named after Erasmus, the Renaissance scholar) aims to enhance quality in higher education through scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students f ...

MA Program at CEU until 2023. Since then, he has been the director of CEU Institute for Advanced Study. He has been a visiting fellow and/or member at

Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen The Institute for Human Sciences (, IWM) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences based in Vienna, Austria. History and core idea The IWM was founded in 1982 by the Polish philosopher Krzysztof Micha ...

Berlin Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin () is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled after the original IAS in Princeto ...

, International Research School in Conceptual History and Political Thought,

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

, Centre Marc Bloch at

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, Center for Advanced Study Sofia, among other academic institutions.

Public engagement

Balázs Trencsényi has been interviewed by numerous Hungarian-language, German-language, Czech-language, Ukrainian-language, and English-language outlets. Trencsényi views the Orban regime as similar to Horthy system and the Kádár system in that it also managed to win over a "silent majority". Orban's "attack on CEU weaves together a complex web of antiliberal and neo-authoritarian political forces and ideological streams." He is also critical of the technocratic considerations in the European project, which made "people feel overconfident, and neglect their duties, which are actually transnational duties." He is a co-organizer of the Invisible University for Ukraine.

Selected works

In English

* ''The Politics of " National Character": A Study in

Interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

East European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and i ...

Thought'' (

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, 2012). * ''History of Modern Political Thought in

East Central Europe East-Central Europe is a geopolitical term that primarily encompasses the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The area is bordered by East Slavic countries to the east and Germanic-speaking countries to the west ...

.'' Volume I: ''Negotiating Modernity in the "

Long Nineteenth Century The long nineteenth century is a term for the 125-year period beginning with the onset of the French Revolution in 1789, and ending with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It was coined by Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg and later popularized ...

"'' by Balázs Trencsényi, Maciej Janowski, Mónika Baár, Maria Falina, and Michal Kopeček (

Oxford UP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2016). * ''History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe.'' Volume II/1: ''Negotiating Modernity in the "

Short Twentieth Century The long nineteenth century is a term for the 125-year period beginning with the onset of the French Revolution in 1789, and ending with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It was coined by Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg and later popularized b ...

and Beyond"'' (1918-1968) by Balázs Trencsényi, Maciej Janowski, Mónika Baár, Maria Falina, Luka Lisjak-Gabrijelcic, and Michal Kopeček (Oxford UP, 2018) and ''II/2: Negotiating Modernity in the "Short Twentieth Century and Beyond"'' (1968-2018) (

, 2018). *''Intellectuals and the Crisis of Politics in the Interwar Period and Beyond. A Transnational History'' (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2025).

In Hungarian

* ''A politika nyelvei. Eszmetörténeti tanulmányok'' (''The languages of politics. Studies in intellectual history'') ''(''Budapest: Argumentum, 2007). * ''A nép lelke. Nemzetkarakterológiai viták Kelet-Európában'' (''The spirit of the people. Debates on national characterology in Eastern Europe'') (Budapest: Argumentum, 2011).

Honours and awards

Balázs Trencsényi has been elected as a member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

since 2011. In 2023, he has been awarded Community Service Excellence Award at CEU.

References

21st-century Hungarian historians 1973 births Academic staff of Central European University Central European University alumni {{DEFAULTSORT:Trencsenyi, Balazs Living people