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International Conference - Report
22/06/2010 11:52 AM
The event was organized by the Faculty of Sciences and Arts of the Sapientia University, by the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities, the most prestigious European organization for political research called ECPR and the University of Amsterdam.
The first day, one of the opening reception, Dr. Marton Tonk, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Arts of Sapientia University, Dr. István Horváth, president of the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities and Dr. László Marácz, associate professor at the University of Amsterdam welcomed participants clashing a glass of champagne.
In the days following the opening, there were 33 lectures presented by 35 participants from Romania, Hungary, the United States and 12 European countries in five sections as follows: Language Rights and Cultural Policies Targeting Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe (Friday morning, 8 presentations, President: István Horváth), Ethno-regionalism, Stateless Nations, and Federalism in Western Europe Autonomies (Friday afternoon, 5 presentations, President: László Marácz), The Political Representation of Minorities and the Prospects of Autonomy in Central and Eastern Europe (Saturday morning, six presentations, President Ivan Serrano Balaguer, researcher of the Open University of Catalonia), and The Troubled Pasts Presents of Ethnically or Religiously Divided Societies. Facts, Myths and Discourses (Saturday morning, eight presentations, Chairman: Sergiu Constantin, researcher at the European Academy of Bolzano).
Saturday afternoon the special section Ethnopolitics and Minority Protection in Romania was held. This last section was presided by Alpár Zoltán Szász, professor at the Babes-Bolyai University, Department of Political Science. This section has presentations on topics concerning the draft law on the status of national minorities in Romania (Attila Varga MP), recent developments in the Romanian Constitution (Bakk Miklós), protection of minorities in the last two decades (István Horváth) and branding Szeklerland (Benedek Nagy, Sapientia University, Faculty of Economic and Human Sciences).
As shown by the program above, because of the many interesting presentations, on Saturday we had to provide two parallel sections in nearby rooms to ensure participants to be able to visit them both.
The official language of the conference was English and Hungarian (simultaneous translation provided from Hungarian to English). The morning sections began at 9 a.m., the ones in the afternoon at 2:30 p.m..
At the closing reception, President RIRNM, István Horváth thanked the conference participants for the presence and mentioned editing a publication of symposium's lectures, while László Marácz reflected on the importance of working with an organization like ECPR.
Sunday morning the participants went to a bus trip to Rimetea - Coltesti - Aiud.
