In the Fall 2022 semester for the first time, our staff members teach a course offering theoretical ideas, historical knowledge, and hands-on practical guidance relevant to journalistic and scholarly work with the rich and diverse collections of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), in the most prestigious and largest Media and Communication program in Hungary.
The course is titled From Kádár’s Megaphone to the Yugoslav Wars: Archival Sources, Media Products, and Propaganda. The classes are taught in English and Hungarian and take place at CEU while the Golderberger House is closed for refurbishment.
The course is open as an elective to both BA and MA students. It engages students with contemporary challenges in archiving and the analysis of propaganda; offers a historical background to our collections related to the Cold War, the road to the democratic transition in Hungary, and the international trials following the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s; and introduces the students to the practicalities of working with our various collections. Successful completion of the course requires preparing an original media product using our collections that meet the standards in the circumspect professional use of archival sources.
We hope that the online exhibitions, podcasts, videos, and blog posts arising from the course will pave the way to a lasting and productive collaboration between ELTE and Blinken OSA.