Project description
The Momentum (Lendület) 2025 project “Mixed Families: Searching for Identity and Belonging in Post-Conflict Societies” (MIXED) is a five-year interdisciplinary research programme hosted at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Minority Studies, supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It investigates the dynamics of mixed marriages—unions across ethnic, religious, and cultural boundaries—in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), with a special focus on Hungary and the territories of the former Yugoslavia. Mixed families have long represented both a challenge and a possibility for societies in the region: they defy nationalist frameworks, complicate identity boundaries, and at the same time carry a strong potential for fostering interethnic trust and social cohesion. While the history of such unions goes back to the introduction of mandatory civil marriage in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1895, their trajectories have been shaped by wars, empire dissolution, kin-state involvement, and state- and church-led nation-building projects. Despite their significance, the role of mixed families in shaping ethnic identity, education, language use, and integration has never been systematically studied across a long historical arc and with comparative depth.
Members of the Research Group
- Dr. Karolina Lendák-Kabók – Principal Investigator, Momentum Research Group Leader
- Dr. Lucija Balikić – Postdoctoral Researcher
- Dr. Anna Vancsó – Postdoctoral Researcher
Doctoral students, as well as a Momentum COFUND postdoctoral researcher, will also join the group.
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