Zsolt Nagy

Ph.D. Student
znagy@email.unc.edu

Major Field: European

Other Fields:

Advisor: Chad Bryant

Research Interests: The aim of my study, "Peaceful Revisionism: Cultural Diplomacy and Interwar Hungary," is to investigate the unique ways that the Hungarian leadership aspired to revise the post-World War I treaty of Trianon, which stripped 71.5 percent of the country's prewar territory. Instead of force and violence, Hungarian leaders chose to utilize the country's cultural capital - imagined and real - as their primary instrument to influence western public opinion. My project seeks to explore the different avenues - academia, tourism, exhibitions and festivals, marketing, and utilization of modern media, such as film and radio - that were used to reconstruct the country's tarnished image abroad. The goal of my research is threefold. First, I want to contribute to the historiography of interwar Europe, and more specifically that of Hungary, by studying less traditional aspects of the epoch. Secondly, by examining this public relations campaign avant la lettre, I hope to contribute to the emerging field of "new diplomatic history," particularly that of "cultural diplomacy. Lastly, I aim to investigate the role of cultural diplomacy in conflict resolution.