Paper short abstract:

In my presentation, I would like to examine the possibilities of scholars in an anti-scholar and suppressive regime. I will present the lives and careers of five persons who were born as Hungarians in nationalist Romania and whose scientific work was closely connected to Ethnography.

Paper long abstract:

In my presentation, I would like to examine the possibilities of scholars in an anti-scholar and suppressive regime. I will present the lives and careers of five persons who were born as Hungarians in nationalist Romania and whose scientific work was closely connected to ethnography. I would like to show how one of them is remembered today as a scholar of honesty and unwavering morals, how another one of them is believed to have possibly worked undercover for the government, and how others' work was hindered and blocked by the regime that eventually caused their death. I would also like to examine the role ethnography played in the scholarly scene, and how it affected the research path of scholars.

In order to be able to present the history of science in not a purely linear manner, but also to be able to respond to more complex questions, we would primarily have to examine ego-documents (correspondances, journals, memoirs). In a dictatorship, however, these are rather more scarce and often written with self-censorship. Additionally - and this reflects both on Transylvanian Hungarian research strategy and on how critically ethnography as a discipline regards itself - these documents were never placed into public collections. Therefore, the research of this topic necessitates both tracing these primary sources and placing them into public collections.