My (Un)expected Journey

Tekla Balogh-Bodor

It was hard to decide the topic of my first blog post. I have started it at least four times since the beginning of October, but I couldn't come up with anything and I don't know exactly why. Obviously, I'm struggling to find my way and it may seem that I'm more lost than ever before. Hopefully, this is also just a station of my long journey, isn't it? So here I am, nothing is impossible. I thought it would be interesting to share some information about the evolution of my thesis topic, although only one month had passed since the university began.

So let's start with my original idea, and let's see some potential new paths after the first month on the CEU.

The goal of my thesis is to emphasize the situation of museums in small towns. For several different reasons, I chose a town in Hungary, the town of Esztergom that will be my Guinea-pig for my research. Esztergom is located on the north part of Hungary and was the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom from the 10th century until the 13th century. Yet it didn't lose its significance afterwards. Therefore plenty of cultural elements, sites, valuable built heritage are located there.

When I was finishing my masters at the university, I had my internship in one of the museums in Esztergom. Later on that time I worked and lived there for almost a year. Not only did I find a town with valuable cultural heritage, but I also found a town with a strong intellectual community. Sadly, these strong forces are unexploited. It is hard to understand at this time that a town is not a cultural centre with this amount of cultural resources. The whole idea came to my mind because of the unworthy situation of Esztergom and the multitude of possibilities it contains.

This is my original research topic, long story short. I have seen in the classes great case studies in connection with different kind of aspects of heritage and I must tell, we do a lot of brainstorming too. This makes me rethink over and over my thesis topic, I get inspiration.

After this one month, I would like to go after the connection of heritage and identity too. More fully, research the power of heritage, the community shaping power of heritage. I want to use it because the historic built environment can support the economic and social regeneration. Moreover, many of the cultural heritage’s elements are available daylong in Esztergom. I can imagine a built historical monument, where local people can meet regularly and do something together. The place reminds them of the long history of the town and gives them a common identity...

Well I know, I can't save the world with a MA thesis, but still this project makes me enthusiastic and I can't wait to start actively doing something. Even if I only raise awareness and discover the locals' attitude towards their heritage. Hopefully, at the end of my research, I will be able to understand the different kind of effects and processes, which define the cultural life of towns.

Of  course, I would like to find a way out of the current unworthy situation, so my project would be not only a research itself, but solution and ideas for the existing problems.

So fingers crossed, I hope I'm on the way of creating something. I'm ready for the challenges, although I still have concerns. I guess it is normal, right?