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F.L. Laczo

Ferenc Laczó, PhD, is assistant professor with tenure (UD1) in history. He teaches in the European Studies BA, MA and Minor programs as well as at University College Maastricht. He is also the co-managing editor of the Review of Democracy (CEU Democracy Institute).

Ferenc's main research interests lie in political and intellectual history, modern and contemporary European and global history, the history of mass violence, and questions of history and memory.

Ferenc previously studied, was guest professor or full-time researcher in Basel, Berlin, Bielefeld, Budapest, Jena, Los Angeles, New York City, Utrecht, Vienna and Washington, DC. In 2024, he acted as the István Deák Visiting Professor at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University.

He is the author of Hungarian Jews in the Age of Genocide. An Intellectual History, 1929-1948 (Leiden: Brill, 2016) and two Hungarian-language books respectively titled Német múltfeldolgozás. Beszélgetések történészekkel a huszadik század kulcskérdéseiről [The German Process of Dealing with the Past. Conversations with Historians on Key Questions of the Twentieth Century] (Budapest: Kijárat, 2016) and Felvilágosult vallás és modern katasztrófa közt. Magyar zsidó gondolkodás a Horthy-korban [Between Enlightened Religion and Modern Catastrophe. Hungarian Jewish Thought in the Horthy Era] (Budapest: Osiris, 2014). Ferenc is the editor or co-editor of several volumes and thematic journal issues, including (with András Vadas and Bálint Varga) Magyarország globális története. A kezdetektől 1868-ig [A Global History of Hungary. From the Beginnings till 1868] (Budapest: Corvina, 2023), (with Bálint Varga) Magyarország globális története. 1869-2022 [A Global History of Hungary, 1869-2022] (Budapest: Corvina, 2022), (with Joachim von Puttkamer) Catastrophe and Utopia. Jewish Intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), (with Luka Lisjak Gabrijelcic) The Legacy of Division. East and West after 1989 (Budapest-Vienna: CEU Press-Eurozine, 2020; Slovene translation, 2021) and (with Wlodzimierz Borodziej and Joachim von Puttkamer) The Routledge History Handbook of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Volume 3: Intellectual Horizons (London: Routledge, 2020). 

Ferenc has published peer-reviewed articles in academic journals such as East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures, Holocaust Studies. A Journal of Culture and History, the Hungarian Historical Review, the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Contributions to the History of Concepts and the Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook. He has reviewed hundreds of books, among others, in Contemporary European History, Europe-Asia Studies, Global Intellectual History, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Journal of British Studies, Slavic Review, The Historian or Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung. 

Ferenc has also contributed to mainstream media, such as TV and radio shows, online portals as well as newspapers and magazines, including the BBC World Service, Eurozine, Internazionale, New Eastern Europe, Nieuwsuur, Public Seminar, and Telex. As the curator of the Ideas section at the Review of Democracy between 2021 and 2024, he recorded dozens of podcast conversations about new books with their authors. 

Ferenc's writings have been published in seventeen languages. His books have been reviewed in more than fifty different publications. Many of his writings are available via his academia.edu page. His recent publications are listed here.