European Ethnology Doctoral Programme

The first doctorate in ethnography was awarded to Adrienne Kerékgyártó Újvárin in 1935, at the Department of Ethnography headed by István Györffy. Thereafter, until 1949, when this degree was abolished, doctoral degrees were continuously awarded, which in non-teaching subjects, such as ethnography, were the end of university studies, and in this sense corresponded to a diploma. After a break of a few years, the awarding of doctorates resumed in 1959. 

In 1994-1995, the lecturers of the Department of Ethnography at ELTE, together with renowned ethnographers from other research centers, developed the curriculum of the doctoral school of 'European Ethnology' under the leadership of Attila Paládi-Kovács, Head of the Department. The Hungarian Accreditation Commission approved the teaching material of the European Ethnology Ph.D. School for the first time in December 1995, and the training started in the autumn of 1996. At the same time, based on a written proposal from the program director and the experts, it was possible to establish the equivalence of doctorates in the humanities awarded on the basis of previous doctoral acts. From 2001 to 2009, an independent doctoral school in ethnography and folklore was run by our Faculty under the direction of Professor Vilmos Voigt, one of the two programs, which was to be called European Ethnology. After the forced closure of the independent school in 2010, the program continued to operate as part of the Doctoral School of Historical Sciences, since 2011 under the leadership of Tamás Mohay and with the active participation of a number of external academic and museum experts. Since the start of the program, around 40 graduates had obtained their degrees by the end of September 2014. Most of the papers have been published in book forms, and a significant number of the graduates are professionally employed and members of the public body of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 

Head of the Program: János Bali PhD, Habil. Associate Professor