Head of the MCC School of Social Sciences and History. I have a degree in Economics from the Budapest University of Economics and a PhD in Political Science from its Doctoral School of International Relations. I studied for 10 months at the Department of Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen on a Tempus scholarship. As a researcher I spent six months in Leuven, one month in Oslo and three months in Bergen and Glasgow. At Corvinus University I have been teaching for more than two decades, mainly on comparative politics, political systems and transitions in Eastern and Central Europe, public policy and governance in Hungarian and English language programmes. I served the university for a decade and a half in various departmental, institute and faculty leadership positions. I have published two individual and one co-authored monograph, one edited textbook, dozens of book chapters and journal articles, mostly in Hungarian and to a lesser extent in English. In addition to my academic activities, I have worked as a political-economic analyst (Australian Embassy), head of policy analysis (Budapest Economics/DZ BANK CEE Research), head of a governmental think tank (Institute for Public Policy Research, Institute for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade), scientific director of a non-governmental research institute and later director of a research institute (Migration Research Institute).
Sándor Gallai, PhD
Head of School
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Scientific (PhD) degrees
Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration - Doctoral School of International Relations - 1999 - PhD
Corvinus University of Budapest - Doctoral School of Political Science - 2018 - habilitation
Degrees in higher education
Budapest University of Economics - political science - 1994
Further accredited trainings/courses
National Institute of Public Adminstration - public administration exam - 2012
University of Bergen - Scandinavian politics - 1994
Teaching experience
Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration - Department of Political Science - assistant professor - 1994-2000
Corvinus University of Budapest - Department of Political Science - assistant, then associate professor - 2003-
Previous affiliations
Migration Research Institute - scientific director, then director - 2016-2018
Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade - director general - 2014
Ecostat, then Institute for Public Policy Research - director general - 2010-2014
Australian Embassy of Budapest - senior research officer - 2004
Budapest Economics - DZ Bank CEE Research - head of political research - 2000-2003
Research projects
EFOP-3.6.1-16-2016-00013 - Corvinus University of Budapest - research leader - 2017-2020
Influential interest organisations - Institute for Public Policy Research - research leader -2013-2014
TÁMOP 4.2.1/B-09/1/KMR-2010-0005 - Corvinus University of Budapest - research leader - 2010-2012
FP 6th Reflexive Governance - Corvinus University of Budapest - research team membe - 2006-2009
Policy-making and interest representation - The Leverhulme Trust - researcher - 2005-2007
Scholarships/grants
Hungarian Scholarship Committee - Hungarian Eötvös Scholarship - 2006
Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Bolyai János Research Grant - 1998-2001
OTKA - OTKA individual research grant - 1998-2000
RSS - RSS Research Grant - 1997-1998
Awards
Corvinus University of Budapest - Theacher of the year - 2020
President of the Republic, Hungary - Hungarian Order of Merit, Officer's Cross for Civilians - 1999
Budapest University of Economics, Skála-Coop - Skála award 2nd and 3rd place - 1992, 1993
Ministry of Education - Scholarship of the Republic - 1992/1993 and 1993/1994
Spoken languages
English - advanced
French - intermediate
Russian - basic
Research topics
Hungarian politics
Governance and public policy
ECE political regimes and transformation
Politics of migration
News for Dinner
Hol élsz Te?
Dilemmas of municipal governments
Post-communist transformation
Public policy debates and reports
The course consists of two interrelated elements. Firstly, students write policy briefs following pre-defined criteria. Secondly, by using the submitted materials, students represent certain political characters in a public debate.Featured publications
What Makes Them Successful? Infuential Interest Groups in Hungary (1990-2014)
In: Europe-Asia Studies 67, pp. 1469-1486 (2015)
Gallai Sándor - Döme Zsolt - Molnár Balázs - Reich Jenő
Civil Society and Policy Actors in Post-communist Hungary: Linkages and Contexts
In: Perspectives on European Politics and Society: Journal of Intra-European Dialogue 15, pp. 51-67 (2015)
Gallai Sándor - Terry Cox
Featured research
Featured corvinas
Dániel Gyuriss
MCC PhD
Revolution and restoration in the symbolic political space