Online Conference honouring Iván T. Berend’s 90th birthday

The Conference honoured the 90-year-old Professor Iván T. Berend (Professor Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles). Professor Berend taught at our university for long decades, and he was the Rector of Karl Marx University of Economics (as today’s Corvinus University of Budapest was called in 1953-1990) in 1973-1979.

 
A reform-minded member of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party in 1988-1989, Professor Berend was also the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1985-1990. One of the most prominent Hungarian economic-historians of all times, he is the author of numerous Hungarian and foreign language books, and has been member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2015.

At the online conference, Hungarian and foreign scholars celebrated Professor Berend a few days after his 90th birthday. He himself delivered the keynote lecture in the Hungarian section of the conference on the success of European economic integration – one of his current research fields. Other presenters of the section included László Csaba (Corvinus and CEU), Gábor Gyáni (ELTE), Dóra Győrffy (Corvinus and Pázmány), Balázs Hámori (Corvinus), Osamu Ieda (Waseda), György Kövér (ELTE), Bori Simonovits (ELTE), György Surányi (Corvinus) and Iván Szelényi (NYU).
In the subsequent English-language section, presenters included László Andor (Corvinus), Grace Ballor (Harvard), Péter Ákos Bod (Corvinus), Patrice Higonnet (Harvard), Geoffrey Hodgson (Loughborough London), Jürgen Kocka (WZB Berlin), Júlia Király (IBS Budapest), Péter Mihályi (Corvinus), Dóra Piroska (Corvinus and CEU), and Thomas Weber (Aberdeen).

On behalf of Corvinus University of Budapest, Professor Berend was lauded by Vice Rector for Research Gyula Vastag. The conference host and chief conference organizer was Zoltán Ádám, Head of the Department of Economic Policy and Labour Economics. His co-organizers were Technical Support Specialist Csaba Horgász, Departmental Administrator Diána Horváth, and Assistant Professor András Olivér Németh.