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The Joseph and Violet Magyar Lecture in Hungarian Studies: Charm, Politics and Media in Contemporary Hungary

Color image of women sitting at a table with a coffee cup in front of her.  She has shoulder length brown hair, is wearing a white blazer, and appears to be in conversation.
September 23, 2026
Julia Sonnevend in conversation with Elliot Posner and Nárcisz Fejes

6 PM | Tinkham Veale University Center Ballroom C | 11038 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH 44106

For this talk Julia Sonnevend, Associate Professor of Sociology and Communications at The New School in New York, draws on her research on global culture, media and democracy and the events, symbols and charismatic personalities of public life. She will explore themes from her book Charm: How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics, named one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2024.

She will then be in conversation with Nárcisz Fejes, Lecturer, Department of English, and Associate Director for Undergraduate Programming and Initiatives at the Baker-Nord Institute for the Humanities, and Elliot Posner, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science. They will discuss Hungary’s new political moment and what it might mean for Hungarian and global culture, media, and the European Union.

BNI will share details about their new study abroad program in Hungary in May 2027 and how students can enroll.

Registration requested.  Register HERE.


About the speaker:

Julia Sonnevend, Associate Professor of Sociology and Communications at The New School in New York, is a sociologist of global culture, focusing on the events, icons, symbols and charismatic personalities of public life. She is the author of Charm: How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics (Princeton University Press), Stories Without Borders: The Berlin Wall and the Making of a Global Iconic Event (Oxford University Press), and co-editor of Education and Social Media: Toward a Digital Future (MIT Press). Her work has been published in interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journals including New Media & Society; Information, Communication & Society; International Journal of Press/Politics; Media, Culture & Society and the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. She is also active in public-facing scholarship internationally; check out her recent op-ed in MS NOW. Sonnevend received her PhD in Communications from Columbia University, her Master of Laws degree fromYale Law School, and her Juris Doctorate and Master of Arts degrees in German Studies and Aesthetics from Eötvös Loránd University Budapest.
 

Click HERE to visit Julia Sonnevend's website.