Power and Consensus conference at PTE

The interdisciplinary conference “Power and Consensus in Multidisciplinary Context” was held on the 27-28^th of August at Pécs. Organised through a cooperation between four universities and taking place at the Regional Academic Committee at Pécs of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences the conference reunited researchers from four universities of three countries.

Researchers from four universities of three countries have gathered at Pécs for a conference co-organised by the Institute of History of the University of Pécs, where the main subjects were power and consensus in historical and institutional contexts from late antiquity to the early modern period.

This conference is a result of a cooperation going back 10 years between the University of Zagreb and the University of Pécs, now enlarged with new participants. Through including other institutions, the organisers aim to expand the community of participating researchers, introducing new perspectives and ideas into their network, thus contributing to the field of institutional history. In the past years several thematic conferences have been organised as parts of this cooperation, including ones held at Zagreb and at Pécs which also focused on authority and power in institutional contexts, especially in the medieval period and in religious communities. The next conference after this one will be held in Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

“This series of conferences treats important notions of historical sciences. Power and consensus were always defining in political history, but in other, more largely interpreted senses too. The understanding of these notions helps not only the comprehension of key moments in Hungarian history, but also the history of Central and Southern Europe.” Said dr. Gábor Barabás, associate professor at the University of Pécs, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of History, co-organiser of the conference.

The participants were greeted by dr. Krisztián Bene, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Pécs and dr. Gábor L. Kovács, Director of the Local Committee of Pécs of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. They both mentioned the longstanding history of cooperation between the two institutions, as well as the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in scientific research. 

The participating institutions were: 

University of Pécs, Institute of History, Department of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 
University of Szeged, Institute of History, Department of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Croatian Studies 
University of Zagreb, Catholic Faculty of Theology 
Croatian Institute of History (Zagreb) 
University of Mostar, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences