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Vera Bácskai and urban history: life, work and impact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2021

Erika Szívós Open the ORCID record for Erika Szívós [Opens in a new window]  and
Katalin Szende
Erika Szívós*
Affiliation:
Institute of History, Department of Economic and Social History, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1088 Budapest, Múzeum krt. 6-8, Hungary
Katalin Szende
Affiliation:
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, H-1051 Budapest, Nádor u. 9, Hungary
*
*Corresponding author. Email: szivos.erika@btk.elte.hu
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Abstract

This special section pays tribute to Professor Vera Bácskai (1930–2018), an outstanding Hungarian urban historian, one of the founders and former presidents of the European Association for Urban History. Vera Bácskai was an influential personality whose work and personal impact inspired generations of younger scholars. She played an instrumental role in the institutionalization of modern social and urban history in her homeland, while she also had a great share in creating the international networks and organizations that define the framework for European urban history to this day. The introductory article reflects on her life, career and impact, and it offers a thematic introduction into the articles of the special section.

Type
Introduction
Information
Urban History , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 476 - 483
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

†

The authors of this Introduction would like to thank Gábor Gyáni for his invaluable advice and comments on this text. The summary of Vera Bácskai's life and career is based on the following sources: Á. Tóth, ‘Interjú Bácskai Verával’ (Interview with Vera Bácskai), Sic Itur Ad Astra, 1 (1991), 83–7; ‘Bácskai Vera életrajza’ (Vera Bácskai's curriculum vitae), in Z. Bódy, M. Mátay and Á. Tóth (eds.), A mesterség iskolája. Tanulmányok Bácskai Vera 70. születésnapjára (Budapest, 2000); A. Keszei, ‘“Én kíváncsi történész vagyok”: interjú Bácskai Verával’ (‘I am a curious historian’: interview with Vera Bácskai), Korall Társadalomtörténeti Folyóirat, 1 (2000), 7–18; ‘Hogyan lettem történész? A Korall körkérdése a pályaválasztásról. Bácskai Vera’ (How did I become a historian? Interviews with historians in the Korall Journal for Social History) (Korall Társadalomtörténeti Folyóirat, 21–2 (2005), 162–5; G. Gyáni, ‘A 80 éves Bácskai Vera köszöntése’ (Laudation of 80-year-old Vera Bácskai), in I.H. Németh, E. Szívós and Á. Tóth (eds.), A város és társadalma. Tanulmányok Bácskai Vera tiszteletére. A Hajnal István Kör – Társadalomtörténeti Egyesület 2010. évi, Kőszegen megrendezett konferenciájának kötete (The City and its Society. Studies in Honour of Vera Bácskai. Poceedings of the Conference if István Hajnal Circle Organized in Kőszeg in 2010) (Budapest, 2011), 9–14; P. Kozák, ‘Bácskai Vera’, nevpont.hu, accessed 10 Dec. 2020; s.n. [K. Halmos], ‘Elhunyt Bácskai Vera’ (In memoriam Vera Bácskai), obituary on the official website of Eötvös Loránd Unviersity Faculty of Humanities, www.btk.elte.hu/content/elhunyt-bacskai-vera.t.2613, accessed 10 Dec. 2020; s.n. [the editors of Korall Journal for Social History], ‘In memoriam Bácskai Vera’, Korall, 71 (2018), 5–6; J. Pál, ‘Vera Bácskai, “Grande Dame” of Central European urban history’, Asociaţia Colloquia, 18 (2011), 175–85; G. Gyáni, ‘In memoriam Bácskai Vera (1930–1918)’, URBS Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv, 12 (2018), 11–17.

References

1 Doctor Scientiarum or D.Sc. (Doctor of Sciences), an advanced doctoral degree awarded by the Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union and all the countries that adopted the Soviet-type organization of research and scholarship after 1948.

2 In the early 1990s, the system of doctoral education was again reorganized in Hungary, and the right to award Ph.D. degrees was returned from the Academy of Sciences to Hungarian universities, together with the right to launch Ph.D. programmes and teach courses at the doctoral level.

3 Available online at https://library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/BFLV_VT_2000_budapest_tortenete/?pg=0&layout=s.

4 Available online at https://library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/BFLV_Vt_2007_varosok_01/?pg=0&layout=s https://library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/BFLV_Vt_2007_varosok_02/?pg=0&layout=s. For Vera Bácskai's full list of publications, visit https://m2.mtmt.hu/gui2/?type=authors&mode=browse&sel=10004510.

5 Rodger, R., ‘Explorations in European urban history. Perspectives from Leicester’, Moderne Stadtgeschichte, 2 (2020), 64–85Google Scholar, quote at 83. Vera Bácskai's role is repeatedly pointed out at 73, 76 and 78–9.