Balázs Trencsényi

Balázs Trencsényi was born in Budapest. He graduated from Lycée Ferenc Toldy in 1991.[3] He studied history and philosophy at Eötvös Loránd University and graduated with a MA in 1997. In 2004, he graduated from the Central European University with a PhD in history. His doctoral dissertation compared the Hungarian and British discourses of nationhood in the early-modern period.[4]

Since then, he has worked as assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and departmental head at the Department of History, Central European University. [2][5] He is the director of the History in the Public Sphere[6] Erasmus Mundus MA Program at CEU.[7]

He has been a visiting fellow at Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen,[8] Berlin Institute for Advanced Study,[9] International Research School in Conceptual History and Political Thought,[4] University of Jena,[10] Centre Marc Bloch at Humboldt University of Berlin,[11] Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin,[12] Center for Advanced Study Sofia,[13] among other academic institutions.

Balázs Trencsényi has been interviewed by numerous Hungarian-language,[14][15][16] German-language,[17][18][19] Czech-language,[20] Ukrainian-language,[21][22] and English-language outlets.[23] Trencsényi views the Orban regime as similar to Horthy system and the Kádár system in that it also managed to win over a "silent majority".[24] Orban's "attack on CEU weaves together a complex web of antiliberal and neo-authoritarian political forces and ideological streams."[25] He is also critical of the technocratic considerations in the European project, which made "people feel overconfident, and neglect their duties, which are actually transnational duties."[26]

He is a co-organizer of the Invisible University for Ukraine.[27][28]

Balázs Trencsényi has been elected as a member of Academia Europaea since 2011.[34] In 2023, he has been awarded Community Service Excellence Awards at CEU.[28]