Academic Career

2009-2010 Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) Goverment of Ireland Scholar

2006-present PhD student at NUI Maynooth (upgraded from MLitt to
PhD after first year), recipient of John and Pat Hume Scholarship

2005-2006 University of Pécs
Faculty of Arts, Department of Modern History
student of the ‘Europe and Hungarians in 18-20 centuries’ postgraduate programme

1998-2005 University of Pécs, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Undergraduate degree in History and English
 

Research Interests

Currently I am writing my PhD thesis under the supervision of Professor Jacqueline Hill at the History Department at NUI Maynooth. The provisional title of my thesis is ‘Irish perceptions of Hungary and Austria-Hungary, 1815-1875’. The primary sources of my research range from periodicals’ and daily papers’ articles, travelogues, pamphlets, correspondences, memoirs, diaries to committee reports. I am aiming to provide a detailed picture of the reception of Hungary and Austria-Hungary (including Nationalist and Unionist coverage alike) to show whether this region was looked upon as a relatively distant European entity, triggering only occasional interest and coverage or whether some further, underlying motives can be detected behind the examples I will look at. The primary goal of my dissertation, besides finding these examples, is the investigation whether Hungary was perceived as something exotic, or whether there were more practical reasons, political, social or economic, for interest in it.

My broader interests include the place and role of empires in history, especially the history of the Habsburg Empire, mostly nineteenth and twentieth century, Hungary’s relations to neighbouring territories and the emergence of and reaction to political ideologies, with special attention to nationalism and conservativism, in empires.
 

Publications

'Austria’s presence in Italy at the Congress of Vienna through the eyes of the Irish press’ Publication of the proceedings of Crosscurrents: Postgraduate conference of Irish and Scottish Studies (Glasgow 2008)

‘Through Anglo-Irish lens: The Dublin University Magazine’s (1833-1877) perception of Hungary’ in FOCUS (quarterly published by the Department of English Language and Cultures at the University of Pécs)  Bibliographic entry: FOCUS. Papers in English Literary and Cultural Studies, Issue on Anglophone and Hungarian Literary and Cultural Encounters, Edited by Gabriella Hartvig Department of English Literatures and Cultures Pécs, 2008 pp 22-37.

2006 Spring/Summer book review published in Világtörténet (World History)

Papers Delivered

‘Contrasting Irish impressions of steamboats on the Danube and of Hungary during the mid-1800s', Queens University Belfast History Postgraduate Seminar (forthcoming 6 November 2009, Belfast)
 

'Lord Londonderry and William Wilde: Two Anglo-Irish impressions of Hungary within the Austrian Empire', EFACIS Conference (3-6 September 2009, Vienna)

‘Hungary and the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, 1920’ ,  Department of History, NUI Maynooth,1st International Ireland-Sicily Seminar,Co-organized by Universita degli Studi di Catania, NUI Maynooth, Historic Houses and Estates CSHIHE, Osservatorio Mediterraneo 2010 (18, 19 and 30 May 2009, Maynooth)

' "...Our friendship hath arms for all lands under Heaven." The Nation's perception of Ireland's place in Europe and of Hungary (1842-45)',  annual Irish History Students Association (IHSA) Conference, 2009 (6-7 March, Maynooth)

‘Two perspectives? The Congress of Vienna in the eyes of Faulkner’s Dublin Journal and Freeman’s Journal’, Crosscurrents: Postgraduate Conference of Irish and Scottish Studies (18-20 April 2008, Glasgow)

‘An Anglo-Irish View: The Dublin University Magazine and Hungary’, Hungarian Society of Irish Studies (HUSIS), University of Pécs (Hungary) Literary and Cultural Relations between Ireland, Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe (14-15, September 2007)

’Arthur Griffith és újságjai, mint az ír nacionalista sajtó új hangjai’ (Arthur Griffith and his newspapers. New voice in the Irish Nationalist press), 4. Országos Interdiszciplináris Grastyán konferencia ( 4th Interdisciplinary Grastyan Conference), University of Pecs (26-28 April, 2006)

’The Resurrection of Hungary: Witness of the maturation of Griffith, the politician’ Crosscurrents: Postgraduate Conference of Irish and Scottish Studies (7-9 April 2006, Belfast)
 

Teaching

2006-2007: tutor of two first years’ history group at NUIM

Spring Semester 2006: teacher of the course ’Survey Seminar of Modern Irish
History’ at the English Department of University of Pécs
 

Professional Service

Member of the organizing committee of ‘Life on the fringe? Ireland and Europe, 1800-1922’ academic conference, co-organized by NUI Maynooth and Queens University Belfast, held in Belfast in April 2009 (funded by AHRC, Royal Historical Society, NUI Maynooth and Queens University Belfast)

Contact Details

Contact Zsuzsanna Zarka