I graduated with an MA in history at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest in 1994. In the course of my PhD studies under the supervision of Professor Éva H. Balázs, I spent a year as a non-degree student at the University of Cambridge. My PhD dissertation, which subsequently appeared as a monograph, was a biography of Baron Miklós Vay (1756–1824), a representative figure of a professional and enterprising group within the Hungarian nobility. This work challenges the orthodox condemnation of the Hungarian elite of the period as uniformly reactionary and provincial.
The geographical and chronological parameters of my current research are the Habsburg Monarchy in the period c.1715 to 1848. The Monarchy, which stretched from present-day Belgium to the Ottoman Empire, and also encompassed considerable swathes of Germany and the Italian peninsula, represented Europe in microcosm. Understanding the challenges it faced in restructuring itself to meet the highly competitive environment of the ‘long eighteenth century’ is to understand a Europe-wide process. Thematically, my interest is the Monarchy’s noble elite and its capacity for renewal and readjustment. My publications explore various aspects of this and consider sub-themes such as professionalization, the military, economic enterprise, technology transfer, political culture, and personal networks within and beyond the Monarchy.
In 1995, I was one of the founding members of a group working on the up-to-date, extended version of the Hungarian Historical Bibliography (Bevezetés Magyarország történetének forrásaiba és irodalmába). As a Fellow of the Institute for Historical Research, Budapest, I worked on the project full time until December 2000 when I moved to the UK. Nevertheless, I remained active in the project as an assistant editor and later co-editor, and oversaw the publication of four bibliographical volumes between 2000 and 2015.
I have teaching experience at undergraduate level at British universities, having taught courses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European history at Queen’s University Belfast (2001–2003) and at the LSE (2007–2008). Since 2005, I have been based at SOAS, University of London where I am a subject lecturer at the Undergraduate Foundation Programme.
Dr Orsolya Szakaly teaches the following course at undergraduate level:
HY319: Napoleon and Empire
Egy vállalkozó főnemes: Vay Miklós báró, 1756–1824 [An enterprising aristocrat: Baron Miklós Vay, 1756–1824] (Eötvös Kiadó, 2003).
Bevezetés Magyarország történetének forrásaiba és irodalmába [Introduction to the sources of and secondary literature on Hungarian history] (assistant editor and later co-editor). Vols 1–4 (Osiris Kiadó, later MTA BTK Történettudományi Intézete and Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára, 2000–2015).
‘Military Science: The Professionalization of Habsburg Military Engineering’, in Krisztina Kulcsár and András Forgó (eds), Die habsburgische Variente des aufgeklärten Absolutismus (to be published in the Series Publikationen der ungarischen Geschichtsforschung in Wien in 2017).
‘Managing a composite monarchy: The Hungarian diet and the Habsburgs in the eighteenth century’, in David Hayton, James Kelly and John Bergin (eds), The Eighteenth-century composite state: Representative institutions in Ireland and Europe, 1689–1800 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 205–220.
‘A vállalkozás’ [The project], in Magda Ferch and Mária Ormos (eds), Hommage à Kosáry Domokos (Széchenyi Irodalmi és Művészeti Akadémia, 2009), pp. 123–130.
‘Enlightened self-interest: The development of an entrepreneurial culture within the Hungarian elite’, in Richard Butterwick, Simon Davies and Gabriel Sánchez-Espinosa (eds), Peripheries of the Enlightenment (SVEC 2008:1, Voltaire Foundation, 2008), pp. 105–118.
‘Rebellion or revolution? The case of the Hungarian “Jacobins”’, in László Péter and Martyn Rady (eds), Resistance, Rebellion and Revolution in Hungary and Central Europe: Commemorating 1956 (Hungarian Cultural Centre London, 2008, Studies in Russia and Eastern Europe 3.), pp. 77–84.
‘A brit–magyar kapcsolatok egy ismeretlen fejezete: Báró Vay Miklós londoni küldetése [An unknown episode of British–Hungarian relations: Baron Miklós Vay’s mission to London]’, Századok (2005) 1207–1231.
‘Opportunity or threat? Napoleon and the Hungarian Estates’, in Michael Rowe (ed.), Collaboration and Resistance in Napoleonic Europe: State-formation in an Age of Upheaval, c.1800–1815 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 153–168.
‘Eighteenth-century Dublin in the eyes of a Hungarian aristocrat’, Irish Economic and Social History (2002) 56–70.
‘Báró Vay Miklós írországi utazása’ [Baron Miklós Vay’s visit to Ireland], in Mária Ormos (ed.), Magyar évszázadok: Tanulmányok Kosáry Domokos 90. születésnapjára [Hungarian Centuries: Essays for Domokos Kosáry’s 90th birthday] (Osiris Kiadó, 2003), pp. 117–128.
‘A vajai Vay család a XVIII. században’ [The Vay of Vaja family in the 18th century], in Pál Fodor and Géza Pálffy (eds), Emlékkönyv Szakály Ferenc születésének hatvanadik évfordulójára [Essays commemorating the 60th birthday of Ferenc Szakály] (Történettudományi Intézet, 2002), pp. 353–364.
‘Hadiipar és nemesi vállalkozás: A Vay-féle salétromtársaság, 1798–1856 [Military industry and enterprising nobility: The Vay saltpetre company, 1798–1856]’, Levéltári Közlemények (2000) 129–165.
‘A gépesített pamutipar kezdetei a Habsburg birodalomban: A burgaui fonóüzem, 1790–1808 [The beginnings of mechanised cotton-industry in the Habsburg Monarchy: The cotton spinning works in Burgau, 1790–1808]’, Tanulmányok a 18. század történetéből H. Balázs Éva professzor tiszteletére. Sic Itur ad Astra (2000) 225–244.
‘Borkiviteli kísérletek a Tokaj-Hegyaljáról a XVIII. század utolsó harmadában [Attempts to export wine from the Tokaj-Hegyalja wine-region in the late 18th century]’, Agrártörténeti Szemle (2000) 301–320.
‘Vay Miklós és az 1807. évi országgyűlés: Egy közéleti botrány családi levelek tükrében [Miklós Vay and the Diet of 1807: A political scandal as reflected in the private correspondence]’, Fons (1997) 301–323.
‘The Influence of Arthur Young in Hungary’, in Transactions of the Ninth International Congress on the Age of Enlightenment (Oxford, 1996) Vol. III, pp. 1350–1352.
‘Otthon Európában: Nemzetközi kapcsolathálók egy életpálya tükrében’ [At Home in Europe: Personal Networks transcending Borders]
Memorial Conference dedicated to Professor Éva H. Balázs,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
Budapest, 11 December 2015
‘Military Science: The Professionalization of Habsburg Military Engineering’
Die habsburgische Variente des aufgeklärten Absolutismus
National Archives of Hungary, Péter Pázmány Catholic University and Hungarian Society for the Study of the Eighteenth Century
Budapest, 8–9 October 2015
‘Independent kingdom or colony? The relationship between the Hungarian legislature and the Habsburg executive in the eighteenth century’
Lawmaking in Periphery and Centre: Constitutional Relations in Composite States, 1690–1800. VIII. Wiles Colloquium
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, 14–15 September 2007.
‘Rebellion or revolution? The case of the Hungarian Jacobites’
Resistance, Rebellion and Revolution in Central Europe: Commemorating 1956 UCL-School of Slavonic and East European Studies
London, 21–22 September 2006.
‘Enlightened self-interest: the development of an entrepreneurial culture within the Hungarian elite’
Peripheries and Enlightenment, Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast 15–17 September 2005.
‘Enterprising Nobles and Hungary’s Modernisation in the Eighteenth Century’
Empire, Philosophy and Religion: Scotland and Central-eastern Europe in the Eighteenth Century
Central European University
Budapest, 24 June 2005.
‘Opportunity or threat? Napoleon and the Hungarian Estates’
Collaboration and Resistance in Napoleonic Europe. III Wiles Colloquium
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, 21 September 2001.
‘The influence of Arthur Young in Hungary’
The Ninth International Congress on the Age of Enlightenment
Münster, 28 July 1995.
Farkas Bolyai Fellowship for Young Scholars, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 1998–1999;
East European Academic Visitor, Nuffield College, Oxford, Michaelmas Term 1997;
Soros Scholarship as a non-degree PhD student, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 1995–1996;
Scholarship of the Hungarian Republic, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 1993–1994;
Scholarship for Outstanding Students, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 1992–1993.