Ildikó P. Varga
Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, E-mail: ildikovus@yahoo.com
DOI number: 10.53604/rjbns.v6i1_11
Cite: Ildikó Varga (2014), Towards an international university. A professorship at The Franz Joseph University (Cluj-Napoca) in 1901. RJBNS 6(1), 175-189. DOI: 10.53604/rjbns.v6i1_11. https://balticnordic.hypotheses.org/files/2018/12/13.Varga_.pdf
Acknowledgements
This paper has been presented at the Fourth international conference on Baltic and Nordic Studies in Romania Empire-building and Region-building in the Baltic, North and Black sea areas hosted by the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies and Ovidius University of Constanta, May 24-26, 2013. Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (Finantat prin fonduri donate de Islanda, Liechtenstein si Norvegia).
Abstract
The Franz Joseph University in Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) was the second modern university in the Kingdom of Hungary and it was founded in 1872. This paper presents a micro-historical investigation of a case from 1901, when the University considered inviting a Finnish linguist to the Department of Hungarian and Comparative Linguistics after the death of the Hungarian Jewish Professor Ignác Halász. The study sheds light on the arguments made to justify the need for a foreign professor and why this plan was not realized and on the role played by Emil Nestor Setälä, the professor of Finnish language and literature at the University of Helsinki, in the appointment process. The study is based on the personal correspondence of one of the candidates, Béla Vikár and the official documents of the University.
Rezumat
Universitatea Franz Joseph din Kolozsvár (acum Cluj-Napoca, România) a fost cea de a doua universitate modernă din Regatul Ungariei şi a fost fondată în 1872. Lucrarea prezintă o investigaţie micro-istorică a unui caz din 1901, când Universitatea a invitat un lingvist finlandez la Departamentul de Maghiară şi Lingvistică Comparată, după moartea profesorului maghiar evreu Ignác Halász. Studiul clarifică argumentele aduse pentru a justifica necesitatea unui profesor străin şi de ce acest plan nu a fost realizat, dar şi rolul jucat de Emil Nestor Setälä, profesor de limba şi literatura finlandeză de la Universitatea din Helsinki, în procesul de numire în funcţie. Studiul se bazează pe corespondenţa personală a unuia dintre candidaţi, Béla Vikár şi pe documentele oficiale ale Universităţii.
Keywords: Franz Joseph University, Cluj, professorship, application process, 1901, Béla Vikár, E. N. Setälä, Heikki Paasonen
