"At least half of the news on FB this morning, not by chance, has been connected to CEU. As a former student of the first official year of Medieval Studies at CEU and one who continues her contacts with the department, I would like to proffer some points of view, hoping that they will be understood. Yes, CEU was founded by George Soros. Yes, there is a Department of Medieval Studies at CEU because János Bak and Gábor Klaniczay persuaded him about the importance of investigating and teaching about the Middle Ages. And finally yes: an incredibly large number of excellent scholars, some of them even recurrent guests, have visited Budapest since then. It is almost impossible to enumerate all of them but let me name a few of them: the Polish Ursuline sister and late professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Urszula Borkowska, the American Patrick Geary, the Croatian Neven Budak or the German Felicitas Schmieder. A broad international network exists connecting teachers, guests and students. But even if the importance of all this would not be clear to all, there is something else that needs to be mentioned as well. In medieval studies scholarship has developed much farther in an area which is often only talked about: the mutual understand of peoples living in the Carpathian Basin; the common research carried out on our common history,our understanding and consideration of diverse approaches to our medieval past. Those who received their degree in the medieval studies program at CEU, have gotten experience and friends there, they speak the same language – and I do not mean by that English."
Beatrix F. Romhányi (Independent Researcher)