People

The Department of Medieval Studies is proud of its highly international research community. It has a permanent faculty of twenty from seven countries; fifty-eight PhD students from eighteen countries and twenty-two MA students from twelve countries.
We put much emphasis on social encounters outside the classroom, e.g., during our annual field-trips and excursions and in many an informal reading and discussion group during term time. Professors are approachable and open to students' requests at all times, while PhD students are invited to play a leading rôle in the Medieval Studies Seminar, a weekly lecture series presented by local and distinguished visiting scholars. ...

Faculty

Staff

Research fellows

  • Research Fellow
    Year of enrollment: 1999/2000

    She obtained her Ph.D. at the Central European University, Department of Medieval Studies in 2004.
    Since 2003 she has been research fellow at the University of Padova. Here she worked upon three main research topics: 1) The study of cemeteries from a gender perspective deals with problems as social construction, examining with particular attention its relation to both ethnicity and migration in late antiquity and Early Middle Ages. 2) Demography, mortality and life styles of the Early Middle Ages. 3) History of barbarian archaeology, with particular attention to the 19th and 20th centuries.
    Between 2003 and 2006 she regularly taught at the school of archaeology of the University of Padova.
    In 2008 she was research fellow at the Academy of Sciences of Vienna, in the frame of the Wittgenstein project, coordinated by W. Pohl.
    Since 1990, she worked on different archaeological excavations in Italy and abroad.

  • Research Fellow
    PhD degree awarded
    Year of enrollment: 2001/2002
  • Research Fellow
    Year of enrollment: 2000/2001
  • Research Fellow
    PhD degree awarded
    Year of enrollment: 2003/2004

    Stanislava Kuzmová graduated from History and English language and literature at Comenius University in Bratislava before studying at the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU (MA, PhD). She defended her PhD dissertation in 2010 and currently works as a postdoctoral researcher on the project "Communicating Sainthood" (OTKA at CEU) associated to the ESF project "Symbols that Bind and Break Communities."

  • Research Fellow
    PhD degree awarded
    Year of enrollment: 1996/1997

    Judit Majorossy graduated from History and English language and literature at Janus Pannonius University in Pécs (Fünfkirchen) before studying at the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU (MA, PhD). She defended her PhD dissertation in 2006. Afterwards, she obtained several post-doctoral scholarships in Hungary (Magyary Zoltán Fellowship, OTKA) and was affiliated to the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, but she also had extensive research periods abroad, in Edinburgh at the Advanced Studies Institute with nominated fellowship and in Münster (Institut für vergleichende Städtegeschichte) with the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. As a returning Humboldt-fellow she continues her postdoctoral researcher on the project " Urban Space and Urban Society: Comparative Investigation of the Usage of Space, Social Topography and Social Networks in Western Hungary (1400–1550)" as an alumna at the Department of Medieval Studies.

  • Research Fellow
    PhD degree awarded
    Year of enrollment: 2000/2001

    She obtained her Ph.D. at the Central European University, Department of Medieval Studies in 2009. Her post-doctoral research, supported by OTKA, “Processes of Integration, Identity Construction and the Role of Religion: The Case of the Iraqi Yezidis,” studies the role Yezidi religion in the Kurdish national movement, as well as the impact of modernity and Kurdish nationalism on the construction of Yezidi identity, and the transformation of Yezidi oral tradition and religious institutions in Northern Iraq.

PhD Students

  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2010/2011
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2005/2006
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2010/2011

    Teodora Artimon graduated from the Western University of Timisoara, Romania, where she received a diploma in Communication. She went on to study at Central European University in Budapest, where she received an MA in Medieval Studies. She is currently working on her PhD at the same department of Medieval Studies where she is dealing with image creation and political communication in the 15th and 16th centuries.

  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2012/2013
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2010/2011

    Ünige Bencze graduated History and Archaeology at the Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca in 2007. She finished MA at the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University of Budapest in 2008. Ünige is currently a doctoral candidate at the same department at CEU. She works on the historical development of monastic orders in medieval Transylvania and their impact on the religious, social and economic life of the region. Her work will also focus on the landscape analysis of the researched monasteries with two special case studies, one on Carta (Kerc,Kerz) Cistercian monastery and the other on Cluj-Manastur (Kolozsmonostor) Benedictine monastery.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012

    Vedran Bileta graduated History at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula in 2008. He finished MA at the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University of Budapest in 2010. Vedran is a student of late antiquity specializing in western Mediterranean area (with particular focus on Italy), and his research interests are socio-political and economical history of the Late Roman Empire with a focus on the relationship between the emperor, military and civil elites.

  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2012/2013
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2009/2010
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2009/2010

    After graduating Classical Philology in Sofia University (BA) and defending her Master thesis on Byzantine historiography at CEU Ivana Dobcheva is currently a PhD student. Her research is devoted to the transmission and reception of the Aratea in the Latin West during the Early Middle Ages. The topic combines her primary interest in manuscript studies, classical literature, and transmission of ideas in the Middle Ages.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2007/2008
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2007/2008

    Mircea Duluş graduated from the Faculty of History and Philosophy Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and from the Faculty of Letters, Department of Classical Philology (Latin and Ancient Greek). In 2006 he was accepted for the MA programm in Medieval Studies at Central European University, Budapest, followed with the admission for the PhD programm in 2007. From 2009 he is a fellow at the New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Studies, Bucharest.

  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2012/2013
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2009/2010
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2004/2005
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2005/2006
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012

    2009-2011: MA at Central European University, Department of Medieval Studies, Master’s thesis on “Anti-Muslim polemics of Ibn Taymiyya: The corruption of the Scriptures
    2006-2008: MA at Yerevan State University, Department of Oriental Studies, Master's thesis on “The role of Sayyid Qutb’s writings in the development of the modern trends of Sunni fundamentalism
    2004-2005: Institute of Arabic Language for Non-Arabic Speakers,Arab Republic of Syria, Dama
    2001-2006: Bachelor’s degree in Oriental Studies in the Field of Arabic Studies, Yerevan State University, Faculty of Oriental Studies
    Research Interests:
    Muslim-Christian Polemics
    Abbasid Freethinking

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2006/2007
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 1997/1998
  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2012/2013
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2010/2011

    Dora is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU. She holds a BA degree in Archaeology, History, and Latin Language and Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, and an MA degree in Medieval Studies from CEU, Budapest. Dora is a student of late antiquity specializing in eastern Mediterranean, and her research interests are socio-political and legal history of the later Roman Empire with a focus on the relationship between the emperor, and secular and religious elites.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2006/2007
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2007/2008
  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2012/2013
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2010/2011

    Research Interests:
    Early Modern Ottoman historiography
    Medieval and Early Modern history of the Mediterranean
    Early Modern written and visual representations of the Levant
    Historical Shakespeare

    Degrees:
    Master of Philosophy in English and Drama (University of London)
    Master of Arts in English Literature and History (ELTE, Budapest)
    Master of Arts in Turkish and Ottoman Studies (ELTE, Budapest)

    Publication:
    'Turkish Cypriot Epics about Outlaws, Bandits and Murderers' in Journal of Cyprus Studies vol. 10 (2004)

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2008/2009
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012

    Márta Kondor studied at the University of Pécs (MA in History and in Latin) and at the Central European University (MA in Medieval Studies). She taught history at secondary school, worked as visiting lecturer and research assistant at the University of Pécs; lately she was employed as a junior scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Márta’s current research is focused on King and Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. Her papers were published in English, German and Hungarian.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2009/2010
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2005/2006
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2008/2009
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2008/2009

    Divna Manolova graduated the Philosophy Department at Sofia University and the Medieval Studies Department at CEU, Budapest. Divna is currently a PhD candidate in the Medieval Studies Department, CEU and works on philosophy and letter-writing in fourteenth-century Byzantium with primary focus on the correspondence of Nikephoros Gregoras.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2001/2002
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2007/2008
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012

    BA - History & Anthropology, University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)
    MA - History, University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
    MA - Medieval Archaeology, University of Reading (Reading, Berkshire, UK)

    Current project is on the material culture of medieval Hungarian queens of the Árpádian & Angevin dynasties (ca. 1000-1450). The material culture is divided into two sources: artifacts and space. Artifacts will include objects, both personal and political, that the queens would have owned or interacted with. These include seals, regalia, coins, gifts, and other sundry items. Spaces to be analyzed will include tombs and burial location, monasteries, and palaces, where they are extant. The purpose of this project is to understand the agency of Hungarian queens through the biographies of objects, and to understand the scope of their power through sources utilizing more than the written records.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012

    I received a BA in Classical Languages and Literature from the “Babeş-Bolyai” University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2008) and a BA in Theology from the “1 Decembrie 1918” University (Alba-Iulia, Romania, 2009). In 2011 Central European University, Budapest, awarded me an MA in Comparative History – Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies with the specialization in Late Antique, Byzantine and Ottoman Studies, with a thesis on the unedited letters of the fourteenth-century Byzantine pepaideumenos, Maximos Neamonites: “A Late Byzantine Swan Song: Maximos Neamonites and His Letters.” I am currently enrolled with the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University, reading for a PhD in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies, on the hagiographical œuvre of Philotheos Kokkinos (ca.1300–ca.1377/8), patriarch of Constantinople (1353–1354/5; 8 Oct. 1364–1376), distinguished theologian and arguably the most gifted Palaiologan hagiographer.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2003/2004
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2010/2011
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2002/2003
  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2012/2013
  • probationary doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2012/2013
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2010/2011

    MA Medieval Studies (CEU); MA Medieval Studies (Bris); BA English Language and Literature (Oxon).

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2009/2010

    Noel holds a BA in classical philology from Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia, and an MA in medieval studies from CEU, Budapest. In his MA thesis (2007) he dealt with the work of the German humanist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and his attempted synthesis of various spiritual and hermetic doctrines. The subject of his current PhD research is Agrippa’s reception and appropriation of biblical and patristic literature in the highly heterodox context of late medieval and Renaissance syncretism.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2008/2009
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2009/2010

    Irina received a diploma in history teaching at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia (2008) and an MA in medieval studies at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary (2009). In her MA thesis she dealt with the French contribution to the later crusades and made an attempt to establish a certain crusaders' group consciousness which motivated the knights to take part in the crusading campaigns in the late fourteenth - beginning of the fifteenth century. Irina is currently a doctoral candidate and works on the image of France in the German lands after the rediscovery of Tacitus' Germania.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2004/2005
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2009/2010
  • temporarily withdrawn
    Year of enrollment: 2000/2001
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2002/2003
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2008/2009

    Luka Špoljarić graduated History and Latin Language at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. He earned his master's degree in Medieval Studies at CEU, where he is currently a PhD Candidate (ABD). Luka's research interests pertain to Renaissance humanism, rhetoric, and book culture and are mostly focused on Dalmatia. His dissertation presents a study of the life and works of a Dalmatian humanist, Nicholas bishop of Modruš (Nicolaus Modrussiensis, 1427-1480; also known as Nikola Modruški, Niccolò Modrussiense). The first part will offer a narrative of Nicholas' life, shedding new light on Nicholas’ education and career, the formation of his library, and networking strategies. The second will focus on the work he placed high hopes in - On the Wars of the Goths (De bellis Gothorum). The editions of the On the Wars of the Goths, Nicholas’ correspondence, and prefaces to all his works will be appended to it, along with a catalogue of manuscripts that formed his library. In the Fall Term of 2010-2011 Luka was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard University History Department, while in 2011-2012 he will be a Short Term Frances A. Yates Fellow at the Warburg Institute.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2003/2004
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2007/2008
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2004/2005
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2008/2009

    Marijana Vukovic obtained university degree in Classics from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy. She additionally obtained MA degree from the Central European University in Budapest, working on reception of classical authors in the 6th-century library of Vivarium in Southern Italy. She enrolled the doctoral program at the same university in 2008. Her dissertation deals with a martyrdom narrative of an early Christian bishop and martyr, Irenaeus of Sirmium. It tackles the issues of the text within the narrative context and genre, as well as the after-life of the text through Latin, Greek and Old Church Slavonic manuscripts. This work merges Marijana's interests in early Christianity, hagiography and manuscript studies.

  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2008/2009
  • doctoral candidate
    Year of enrollment: 2011/2012

    Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky graduated from Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania, and Medieval Studies from CEU, Budapest. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU. Her research focuses on the visual representations of transvestite saints.