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European Solidarity Centre & Father Jerzy Popiełuszko
This past week I visited Gdańsk, Poland to guest lecture for the wonder Dr. Ania Marzurkiewicz and her graduate class on US-Polish relations. While in Gdańsk, my wife and I visited the European Solidarity Centre which houses archival collections related to Solidarność, the independent labor union that formed in Poland during the socialist era. The…
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Conference in Memoriam: C.A. Macartney & László Péter
Late this week I had to privilege to attend a conference celebrating the work of the historians C.A. Macartney and László Péter. The conference was jointly hosted by Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem (KRE) in Budapest and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London (UCL) and held in the beautiful…
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EU-U.S. Young Leaders Seminar: “The Security Implications of Climate Change”
Last week I had the privilege of attending the EU-US Young Leaders Seminar in Brussels, Belgium. Organized by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, the U.S. Department of State, the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., the Fulbright Commission in Brussels, and the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission,…
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Library and Information Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia) plays a critical role in the development of Hungarian culture, education, and scholarship. Founded in 1825, the Akadémia served as a center for the development of a formalized Hungarian language, literature, and a repository for scientific knowledge. It is housed in a beautiful Renaissance Revival building overlooking…
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Ernő Rubik
Sometimes I forget the various Hungarian connections to daily life that sit just below the surface. A few days back a friend came over from the United States to experience Budapest, while showing him around the city I was reminded of this. My friend’s son, like many people enjoys solving Rubik’s Cubes. Yet, most people…
Patrick C. Leech 