István Tarrósy

István Tarrósy (born 27 July 1973, in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian scholar in African studies and international relations. He is the Director of the Africa Research Centre at the University of Pécs, founder and senior editor of the Hungarian Journal of African Studies (Afrikai Tanulmányok)
Early life, career
He completed his high school studies in the English-German language specialization class of Steinmetz Miklós High School (later Hunyadi Mátyás High School), Budapest in 1991. In 1993, he started his university education in Pécs. First, he earned his degrees in Physics and Anglistics (M.Sc., M.A.), meanwhile also starting his studies in political science, in which he has earned a doctorate and habilitated. He spent a year at the University of Leicester (United Kingdom) studying international relations, EU-related subjects, political culture, and political communication. He plays an active role in building and developing national and international professional and intercultural connections. He was the Director of International Relations at the University of Pécs from 2001 to 2004 and 2015 to 2018 and is now Director of Internationalization and Connections at the institution since fall of 2018.
He was executive director of Európa Centrum Kht. from 2004 to 2007, head of the Pécs2010 - European Capital of Culture Bid Office, then first executive of Pécs2010 Management Centre. Founder and chief organizer of ICWiP - International Cultural Week in Pécs between 1996 and 2010. Secretary at the Africa Sub-Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, creator and organizer of the biennial Pécs African Studies Conference. Editor of many Hungarian and international journals.
Research, academic work
His research focuses on North-South relations and the global transnational, interpolar system, which he examines in an interdisciplinary approach. He spotlights African geopolitics, African-Asian dynamics, especially Sino-African, Japanese-African, Indonesian-African relations, the growing Asian presence and effects on Africa, and the phenomenon of a "new scramble for Africa". In this context, he researches the global African diaspora and migration processes, especially the African policies and strategies of the countries of the former Eastern Bloc and the African communities in Central and Eastern Europe.
Teaching
He has been teaching at the University of Pécs since 2003. He has been involved in the development of the BA and MA courses in International Studies launched in the collaboration of several Faculties, and since 2017 he has been the head of the BA programme. Since 2016, he has been teaching a master’s course in African Studies at the Institute of International Studies of the Corvinus University of Budapest. Since December 2017, he has been a core member of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Pécs. He has been developing, organizing and teaching at international summer universities for twenty years. He is a visiting lecturer at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, MSU in Denver, UESTC and NCUST in China. Under the Erasmus+ program, he is a visiting lecturer at European, African and American universities. He has been conducting field research in African and Asian countries and locations since 2000. In 2005, he researched in Croatia as a MÖB Fellow. In 2010, he spent two months researching in Japan as a Japan Foundation Fellow. In 2013, he researched at the Center for African Studies at one of the leading universities in the USA, the University of Florida, with a Fulbright Fellowship and an additional Eötvös Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2015 and 2016, he conducted field research in Rwanda, Tanzania, China, and Taiwan, with several smaller PAGEO scholarships. Since 01 September 2018 he is a Hungarian Academy of Sciences Bolyai Scholarship holder, and Bolyai + Scholarship holder since 01 September 2019 in the framework of the New National Excellence Programme (ÚNKP).
He oversaw several EU-funded research and communication projects between 2008 and 2015 with his own research workshop (IDResearch). He is a continuously invited speaker at two of the most prominent African conferences in the world, the European ECAS and the American ASA.
International research and connections
Since 2003, he has been teaching and building academic connections at universities in ten countries. He has developed the Pécs African Studies Conference into an internationally recognized event, while building a network that blossomed into joint field researches, books, book chapters and other publications with international colleagues. From 2012 to 2015, he was the managing director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of Pécs, and from 2014 to 2017 he was a jury member on the Political Science and Jurisprudence Group of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA ÁJP). He is also a member of the Hungarian Political Science Society, an assembly member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Committee on World Economics and Development Studies and the Regional Committee in Pécs. He continuously proofreads articles for leading domestic and international journals and, as an external reviewer, assists The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) upon request. He is a member of the African Studies Association. As of 2017, he is a member of H2020 COST Action CA 15221: “We ReLaTe”. Starting with 2019, he is responsible for the internationalization programme of the EDUC European University Association. Since 2020, he has been a member of the China-Africa Working Group of the University of Florida Center for African Studies.
Awards, recognition
Golden Cross, 2018 (for his accomplishments in Africa research); UNAOC-BMW Intercultural Innovation Award, 2013 (for the development of the Immigropoly, a web-based educational board game); Iroko Award, 2012; Award for Outstanding Service in the Promotion of Culture at the University, 2010; Youth Role Model Award, City Montessori School, Lucknow, India, 2007; Regional Prima Award, 2007 (for the development of ICWiP); Silver Cross, 2006 (for the European Capital of Culture bid)
Major publications in English
István Tarrósy (2020): Chinese Infrastructure Projects, Debt Risk and a New Dependency Scenario. The Case of Ethiopia, AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY 19: (2) (2020 summer), under appearance
István Tarrósy, Zoltán Vörös (2020): Hungary’s Pragmatic Foreign Policy in a Post-American World, POLITICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE 16 : s1 pp. 113-134.
István Tarrósy (2019): The Belt and Road Initiative and Eastern Africa, In: van der Merwe, Justin; Dodd, Nicole; Bond, Patrick (szerk.): BRICS and resistance in Africa: Contention, assimilation and co-optation, London: Zed Books, pp. 132-149.
Dömös Mariann, Tarrósy István (2019): Integration of Migrants in Italy: Local Actors and African Communities, EUROPEAN SPATIAL RESEARCH AND POLICY 26: (2) pp. 1-21.
István Tarrósy (2019): In Need of an Extended Research Approach: The Case of the ‘Neglected African Diaspora’ of the Post-Soviet Space, PÉCS JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN LAW 6 : 1-2 pp. 84-98.
István Tarrósy, Zoltán Vörös (2019): A Possible African Dream with Some Asian Characters - The Case of Rwanda, JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES 47 : 2 pp. 36-46.
István Tarrósy, Zoltán Vörös (2019): Sino-Hungarian cooperation in higher education and research: a 70-year overview in light of bilateral diplomatic dynamics, In: Chen, Xin; Ugrósdy, Márton (szerk.): China and Hungary: 70 Years of Bilateral Relations in a Changing World, Budapest, Magyarország : China-CEE Institute, pp. 258-283.
István Tarrósy (2018): Hungarian foreign policy towards Africa during communism and in the post-Soviet era, TWENTIETH CENTURY COMMUNISM - A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL HISTORY 2018: (15) pp. 92-111.
István Tarrósy (2018): Changing US Foreign Policy Towards China and Africa, DEFENCE REVIEW, 146 : 1 pp. 68-83.
István, Vilmos Kovács, István, Tarrósy (2017): Internationalisation of higher education in a global world, In: Egetenmeyer, Regina; Guimarães, Paula; Németh, Balázs (szerk.): Joint Modules and Internationalisation in Higher Education. Reflections on the Joint Module "Comparative Studies in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning", Frankfurt am MainPeter Lang Verlag, pp. 39-52.
István Tarrósy (2016): Indonesian Engagements with Africa and the Revitalised ‘Spirit of Bandung’, In: Justin, Van der Merwe; Ian, Taylor; Alexandra, Arkhangelskaya (szerk.) Emerging Powers in Africa, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 233-247.
István Tarrósy (2016): Hungarian-African Relations in the Context of Immigration Tendencies In: Gura, Radovan and Rouet, Gilles (szerk.): Les citoyens et l’intégration européenne, Paris: Éditions L’Harmattan, pp. 187-210.
István Tarrósy, Zoltán Vörös (2016): Education and Development in the Sino-African Context of Relations: The Cases of Tanzania and Sudan, POLITEJA 42 : 3 pp. 111-131
István Tarrósy (2015): Bandung in an Interpolar Context:: What ‘Common Denominators’ Can the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership Offer?, In: Darwis, Khudori (szerk.): Bandung at 60: New Insights and Emerging Forces, Jakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, pp. 139-148
István Tarrósy (2015): Political Culture in a Glocal Perspective: Textbook and Reader, Pécs: University of Pécs Department of Political Studies, 110 p.
István Tarrósy (2014): African Immigrants in Hungary: Connection with the New National Foreign Policy, SOCIETY AND ECONOMY 36: (2) pp. 285-305.
István Tarrósy, Zoltán Vörös (2014): Hungary's global opening to an interpolar world, POLITEJA 28, pp. 139-162.
István Tarrósy, Péter Morenth (2013): Global Opening for Hungary, AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY 14: (1-2) pp. 77-96.
István Tarrósy (2012): Two Giants on the Same Soil: A Closer Look at Afro-Asian Relations via Comparing Chinese and Japanese Involvement in Tanzania, PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 2012 : 6 pp. 52-63.
István Tarrósy, Loránd Szabó, Goran Hyden (2011) (szerk.): The African State in a Changing Global Context, Münster-Berlin: LIT Verlag
László Komlósi, István Tarrósy (2010): Presumptive arguments turned into a fallacy of presumptuousness: Pre-election debates in a democracy of promises, JOURNAL OF PRAGMATICS 42 : 4 pp. 957-972.
István Tarrósy (2005): Need for non-alignment in our global world?: The Non-Aligned Movement Today and Tomorrow, CROATIAN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS REVIEW 11 : 40-41, pp. 157-163.
István Tarrósy (2004): Local Society and Democratization in Modern Tanzania, IBADAN JOURNAL OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 2 : 1 pp. 107-117.
István Tarrósy (2003): The Role of Political Communication in Shaping Culture in CEECs, In: Komlósi, László Imre, Houtlosser, Peter, Leezenberg, Michiel (szerk.): Communication and Culture: Argumentative, Cognitive and Linguistic Perspectives, Amsterdam: Sic Sat, pp. 215-224.
József Tóth, István Tarrósy (2002): Co-operation between Science and Economy in Hungary: The Place and Role of Universities, DER DONAURAUM 42 : 4 pp. 62-72.
István Tarrósy (2002) (szerk.): Higher education in Hungary: heading for the third millennium, Budapest: Oktatási Minisztérium, 266 p.
István Tarrósy (2000) (szerk.): Higher Education in Hungary: in the Year of the Millennium, Budapest: Oktatási Minisztérium, 284. p.

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