Szabolcs László
Szabolcs László took a wandering but instructive journey through the humanities before finally arriving at the History Department of Indiana University in Bloomington. Born and raised in Romania, he obtained a BA in literary studies from the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and then an MA in cultural studies from the University of Bucharest. Further studies led him to the interdisciplinary MA in nationalism studies at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, where he stayed on after graduating and worked as an in-house editor for CEU Press for three years. Besides work and study, he likes to tackle the creative challenges involved in producing literary translations between Hungarian, Romanian, and English, and writing book reviews for journals like Visegrad Insight, Asymptote Journal, Quarterly Conversation, Hungarian Review, and Hungarian Quarterly. Currently he is working on a dissertation that addresses cultural and scholarly exchanges between the U.S. and Hungary during the Cold War (1960-1989). His research examines instances of professional and personal collaboration that bridged across the Iron Curtain, focusing both on intellectual transfers and the experiences of those involved in such interactions. Based on preliminary results of his archival research conducted in Hungary and the U.S., he has published articles on topics like the International Writing Program in Iowa City and the adaptations of the “Kodály method” in the U.S. His work has been supported by various national and international fellowships and awards, most notable among them was winning the 2018 Graduate Student Essay Competition of the Association of Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), receiving the Visegrad Fellowship of the Open Society Archives in Budapest and the 2019 International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) for a 12-month period of multi-sited archival research. At IU he received generous funding from the University Graduate School, the College Arts & Humanities Institute, the Institute for European Studies, and the Russian and East European Institute, winning the 2017 Daniel Armstrong Memorial Research Paper Competition. The History Department showed its tremendous yearly support through the William B. Cohen Memorial Fellowship, the F. Lee and Jesse Benns History Award, the Byrnes Professor Fellowship, the Ruth Lilly Research Fellowship, and the John W. Hill Research Fellowship.