Lunch seminar: Disability studies in Hungary

We are delighted to welcome Maria Magdolna Flamich, PhD, and Maria Rita Hoffmann, PhD, both honorary professors at the Institute for Disability and Social Participation at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Education, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). They are also among the founders of the Disability Studies Doctoral Workshop at ELTE, an important platform for developing disability studies scholarship in Hungary.

Their work draws on cultural, critical, and post-socialist disability studies. They have explored disability narratives, disabled people’s life writing, disability and the arts, representation in film and social media, inclusion in education, and the experiences of disabled people in mainstream academic and educational settings. They are particularly interested in academic ableism and the forms of isolation and solitude that disabled people may encounter within mainstream institutions.

Both scholars have undertaken research and taught internationally, including at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Malta, the University of Auckland, and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Their international experience has informed their engagement with Hungarian and post-socialist disability studies, as well as broader global disability studies discourses.

Together, they have published on inclusive education, the social inclusion of blind young people, mainstreaming, disability narratives, academic resistance, and the relationship between power and disability. Their recent work contributes to a deeper understanding of how disability studies has developed in Hungary and how Hungarian scholars participate in international conversations about disability, inclusion, and social justice.

Please join us in welcoming Maria Magdolna Flamich and Maria Rita Hoffmann for a lunch lecture on Disability Studies in Hungary.