Friday 27 April, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

An evening of board games with refreshments

Please bring any interesting games you have.

Friday 4 May, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

Film Night: Kincsem – Bet on Revenge

The recent Hungarian box office hit tells of the legendary unbeatable filly Kincsem and the second lease of life she gives to her owner, Erno Blaskovich, after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (with English subtitles).

Friday 11 May, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

Trust and Deceit: A tale of survival in Slovakia and Hungary during the Holocaust

Gerta Vrbová

This talk is about the dramatic events between 1939 and 1945 as witnessed by Gerta, a Jewish teenager who later married Rudolf Vrba - one of the authors of the first eyewitness report about Auschwitz.

Dr Vrbová is Emeritus Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at UCL.

Friday 18 May, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

Luther and Hungary: 500 Years of the Reformation

Robert Evans

Robert Evans is a retired professional historian with a special interest in Central Europe. He is former senior member of this Society.

Friday 25 May, 8 pm, Buttery, Wolfson College

Literary evening: Discussing A Journey Round My Skull (Utazás a koponyám körül) by Frigyes Karinthy

A medical testimony, this 1936 book is also a powerful work of literature by the much-loved author, who among other things translated Winnie the Pooh into Hungarian. Vernon Duckworth Barker’s contemporary translation has recently been republished in paperback by the New York Review of Books. Kati Evans will give a brief introduction to Karinthy (1887-1938) and start the discussion.

Friday 1 June, 8 pm, Buttery, Wolfson College

Science in Exile: Jácint Rónay in London

Katalin Straner

Jácint Rónay (1814-89), a Benedictine monk and scholar, lived in exile for more than fifteen years after the revolution of 1848-9. This talk examines his encounters with natural history in Britain and his role in promoting Darwin’s work in Hungary.

Katalin Straner is lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Southampton.

Friday 8 June, 8 pm, Buttery, Wolfson College

Playing with light

Zsolt Laczik

Light beams can be manipulated in many ways, from focussing them by a simple lens to creating arbitrary dynamic three-dimensional light distributions using computer generated holograms or programmable diffractive optics. Zsolt’s talk will introduce the theory behind this novel technology, and give examples of its many exciting applications.

Zsolt Laczik arrived in Oxford as a Soros Scholar and has since worked in the Materials and Engineering Departments. He enjoys teaching and research in optical engineering.