Hungarian Government’s Attack on Central European University and its Implications for Gender Studies in Central and Eastern Europe

November 22, 2017

The article has been published in Femina Politica by Andrea Krizsan, Research Fellow at CPS, and Elissa Helms, Associate Professor at Department of Gender Studies.

"On April 10th, 2017, the President of the Republic of Hungary signed into law a set of amendments to Hungary’s national higher education law which make difficult – if not impossible – the continued operation of the Central European University (CEU) in Hungary, an English language graduate university with accreditation both in Hungary and the US state of New York.

The law was preceded by attacks on the university in the pro-government media, targeting its mission to support critical thinking as a prerogative for open societies. Among the worst of CEU’s “sins” according to these critics is the existence of a Gender Studies department and the visibility on campus of initiatives intended to raise awareness about gender inequality, to advocate for LGBT rights, or denaturalize normative gender assumptions. Merely the word “gender” evidently signals to these critics that CEU is teaching students how to undermine the “natural” order of society and the traditional family, areas of key concern to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party and others on the political right. This is embedded in an overall push for what Orban has called “illiberal democracy”, and particularly their campaign to combat demographic decline among (white, Christian) Hungarians and to ward off the non-European, largely Muslim migrants they would be required to accept in limited numbers under current EU rules.

Along with Gender Studies education, CEU’s humanitarian support during the 2015 crisis and on-going refugee education programs are also high on the government’s list of reasons to go after the university, both seen as flagship issues supported by philanthropist financier and Hungarian Jewish émigré George Soros, the founder of the CEU."

Full article is available online here.

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