Iván Szelényi

Iván Szelényi
Szelényi Iván
Szelényi in Budapest in 2009
Born	(1938-04-17) April 17, 1938 Budapest, Hungary
Nationality	Hungarian
Occupation(s)	scholar, professor
Title	William Graham Sumner Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Yale University, Foundation Dean of Social Sciences, NYUAD
Board member of	Editorial Board of Theory & Society
Spouse	Valeria Vanilia Szelényi
Children	Szonja Ivester, Lilla Szelényi, Balázs Szelényi
Awards	Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Fellow at American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Széchenyi Prize
Academic background
Education	Ph.D, D.Sc.
Alma mater	Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Thesis	Urban inequalities under state socialism (1973)
Academic work
Discipline	Sociologist
Sub-discipline	Comparative sociology
Institutions	New York University, Yale University, University of California-Los Angeles, Graduate Center, CUNY, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Flinders University, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Notable students	Bruce Western, Lawrence King, Katherine Beckett
Main interests	Social inequality

Iván Szelényi (born April 17, 1938 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-American sociologist, as of 2010 the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University Abu Dhabi.

Biography

He is the son of Gusztáv Szelényi, an entomologist and Julianna Csapó.

Szelényi studied at the External Trade Faculty of the Karl Marx University of Economics in Budapest, where he graduated in 1960. After graduating, he was employed at the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. He received a Ford Scholarship and studied at the University of California in Berkeley for one year. After his return he was a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS). In 1967, he was elevated as scientific secretary and in 1970 as the Head of the Department of Regional Sociology. In 1973, he earned the title Candidate of Sciences (PhD) at the HAS. In 1974, a transcript of a book which he wrote with fellow sociologist and author György Konrád, titled The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power, was brought out of Hungary. The book contained critical thoughts about Communist-ruled society. After this move, Szelényi was arrested, later expelled from Hungary and stripped of his citizenship.

In 1975, he was a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Kent. One year later he was invited to Flinders University of South Australia where he was the Foundation Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department until 1980. In 1981, he joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was Professor of Sociology for five years (the last year as the Karl Polanyi Professor). After that he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for Social Research and Executive Officer of the Sociology Program at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.

From 1988 to 1999, he worked as Professor of Sociology at UCLA (between 1992 and 1995 as department chair). In 1999, he was appointed William Graham Sumner Professor of Sociology and Professor of Political Science at the Yale University. He chaired the department two times (1999–2002 and 2008–2009). In 2010, he became the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University Abu Dhabi, where he continues to teach today.

After the political change in Hungary, his citizenship was reinstated. Since 1990, he has held a Doctor of Science degree and became a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was elected to full membership in 1995. In 2006, he received the highest state prize for scientific work, the Széchenyi Prize, and two years later he became an Honorary Citizen of Budapest. Beyond that, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000.

He is the father of three children: his elder daughter, Szonja Szelényi (now Ivester), teaches sociology at University of California, Berkeley, his younger daughter Lilla Szelényi is on the State of California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board in Oakland, California and his son Balázs teaches history at Northeastern University.

Works

At the beginning of his scientific work, his research focused on urban communities. He wrote numerous publications on that issue, mostly in Hungarian. His critical stance on partyline issues was published in his book The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power, which was published in English in 1979. It was also translated into German, French, Spanish and Japanese.

After he was forced to leave Hungary, his research profile changed. He studied the inequality in urban communities and the structural problems of the capitalistic and socialistic society. His most important publications of these are Urban Inequalities under State Socialism (1983), Socialist Entrepreneurs. Embourgeoisement in Rural Hungary (1988), Social Conflicts of Post-communist Transitions (1992) and Making Capitalism without Capitalists (1998).

Some of his works were collected and published in 1990 and 2009.

Bibliography

Books in English

• Szelényi, Iván and Mihályi, Péter. (Nov 28, 2019). Varieties of Post-communist Capitalism. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-41318-4
• Ladányi, János; Szelényi, Iván (May 30, 2006). Patterns of Exclusion: Constructing Gypsy Ethnicity and the Making of an Underclass in Transitional Societies of Europe. New York: East European Monographs. ISBN 0880335742.
• King, Lawrence Peter; Szelényi, Iván (April 23, 2004). Theories Of The New Class: Intellectuals And Power. Contradictions of Modernity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 081664344X.
• Eyal, Gil; Szelényi, Iván; Townsley, Eleanor (March 17, 2001). Making Capitalism Without Capitalists: The New Ruling Elites in Eastern Europe. Brooklyn: Verso Books. ISBN 1859843123.
• Szelényi, Iván (June 15, 1988). Socialist Entrepreneurs: Embourgeoisement in Rural Hungary. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299113647.
• Szelényi, Iván (December 15, 1983). Urban Inequalities Under State Socialism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198771762.
• Konrád, György; Szelényi, Iván (July 1, 1979). The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power: A Sociological Study of the Role of the Intelligentsia in Socialism. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0151778604.

External links

• John C. Campbell's review of The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power in 1979
• Data page at the HAS