On Friday, the English-American Institute of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Debrecen celebrated the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the English Department, the predecessor of the Law Department, with an exhibition compiled from contemporary documents and the laying of a wreath on the plaque of the founder László Országh.
English teacher training at the Tisza István Hungarian Royal University of Debrecen started in the academic year 1938/39 with a total of eight students and a very small teaching staff.
Today, almost 700 domestic and foreign students are studying in the four departments of the Anglo-American Institute in bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as in the framework of PhD training.
The early period was recalled by the teachers and staff of the successor Anglo-American Institute with an exhibition composed of period documents – tangible memories, textbooks, diplomas, awards and photos.
The framework of such an exhibition does not allow the presentation of the entire history of the past decades, even without adversity, but we can highlight the main milestones and values that connect the department of that time with the institute of today
– said Balázs Venkovits in his opening speech.
The director of the Anglo-American Institute emphasized that the now exhibited memories are evidence that thanks to the unity of the faculty and students of the department, and then the institute, it was possible to meet the challenges even in the most difficult periods, renew itself and build increasingly large, internationally recognized educational and scientific programs.
During the opening ceremony, in the presence of students and teachers, Balázs Venkovits, with the cooperation of the present former directors of the institute (Zoltán Nagy Abádi, Péter Pelyvás, István Rácz, Zsolt Virágos), laid a wreath at the memorial plaque of László Országh, the founder of Hungarian English and American studies in the twentieth century, who is closely connected to the university. On the first floor of the main building.
It is impossible to talk about the past 85 years without mentioning the name of László Országh, since it is his intellectual legacy that is still present in the life of the institute
– emphasized Balázs Venkovits.
As part of the series of events, the spring issue of the institute’s journal was presented, which is now published as an open-access publication by the Sciendo/DeGruyter publishing house with the support of the university.
The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS) is Central Europe’s oldest, continuously published English and American studies professional journal.
The publication, published jointly by the University of Debrecen and Sciendo/De Gruyter, and now freely available, is already recorded in twenty international databases, including Elsevier – Scopus, JSTOR, EBSCO, Google Scholar, Proquest and Semantic Scholar, which significantly increases the international visibility and availability of the publications published here.
The latest issue of HJEAS can be read by clicking on the link here.
(unideb.hu)
