Biography

Dr. Krisztina Lajosi is a Senior Lecturer and Research Coordinator (Onderzoeksleider) in Modern European Culture at the Department of European Studies, University of Amsterdam. Her expertise lies in nationalism from a historical perspective, with a particular focus on Hungary and Romania and the broader context of Central and Eastern Europe, and East-West relations in Europe. Her research is focused on the interactions between culture and politics, specifically on how opera and music contribute to formations of collective identitities. Her interdisciplinary research aims to create innovative insights into understanding societal changes by creating synergies among various disciplines. She is frequently invited to comment on current political events in national media outlets, including NRC, VPRO, NPO, and Bureau Buitenland.

Collaborating and co-creating knowledge with social partners to enhance social impact and public outreach are central to her work. She has established partnerships with opera companies worldwide, including the Dutch National Opera, driven by her interest in how operas cultivate cultural memory and heritage while fostering social change and promoting democratic values.

She completed her PhD in 2008 with a thesis on the role of opera in nineteenth-century nationalism that received national attention in the press (NRC, De Pers, NPO) and radio interviews. After her doctorate she held various positions at Utrecht University, University College Utrecht, and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 2011 she was appointed Research Coordinator (Onderzoeksleider) by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and the University of Amsterdam. In 2018 she published her first monograph Staging the Nation: Opera and Nationalism in 19th-Century Hungary (Leiden-Boston: Brill). From 2011 to 2016 she coordinated a research project funded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW) on "National Music and Cultural Transfer in Europe" which resulted in several book publications, international conferences, and a PhD thesis she co-supervised on Richard Wagner and debates on German identities in the writings of nineteenth-century German musicians and intellectuals. She founded and managed three research groups: National Styles in Music (2011-2016, in ARTES), Digital Nationalism (2017-2022, ARTES), and the most recent one, Opera as an Intangible Heritage in a Global Perspective (2024-, in AHM). She has worked together with the Dutch National Opera and the Concertgebouw, and with the cultural center SPUI25. In 2018 she received two research grants: a Research Innovation and Sustainability Fund grant and a Cutting Edge grant to examine the global relationships between nationalism and social media. In 2024 she received an Aspasia Fund Grant to develop a new research project on opera, decolonial transformations, and digital heritage.

Because of her expertise in nationalism she has regularly been asked by Dutch media to comment on current political and cultural affairs. She is often invited to give keynote lectures at academic conferences. She gave masterclasses at the Huizinga Institute, The Netherlands School for Cultural History and the OSL, The Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies. In 2014 in recognition of her academic achievement she was invited to speak about her research at the opening of the academic year at the Faculty of Humanities.  

She has a Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO), and has experience with interdiciplinary curriculum design at both Bachelor and Master level. She was awarded two grants for innovation in education using digital technologies (BA Innovatieprogramma for Research-Based Teaching and Innovation with Blended Learning, 2018), has been acting as the coordinator of various courses at graduate and postgraduate level. Her teaching was always well evaluated, and she has been nominated lecturer of the year several times. In 2009 her course on Gothic Literature (co-taught with dr. Babs Boter) was chosen as the best course of the year at University College Utrecht. She is a passionate and learner-centric teacher who is open to innovative methods for the improvement of the educational experience and environment. She is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive learning environment in her classroom where everybody should feel safe, heard, seen and appreciated. She speaks six languages, and has taught in both English and Dutch.

She has a keen interest in programming and digital methods. She has a completed courses in Python, Unix Shell, Git and participated in digital methods workshops organized by the Digital Methods Lab at the UvA.

Academic leadership roles

She was the head of the Board of Studies (2014-2018) and a board member of the research school ARTES (2011-2018). In 2011 she was appointed as a research project leader (Onderzoeksleider) by the Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW). She gained ample academic leadership experience while setting up and coordinating several international research networks with hundreds of international contributors in the field of nationalism studies. She has a keen interest in evaluating and developing research policies. 

She supervises MA and PhD theses on topics relating to nationalism, opera, music, the cultural history of Europe in the long 19th century, and the political dimensions of digital culture and communication.

Her publications include peer-reviewed books, volumes and scientific journal articles.

"Disinformation, Digital Nationalism and the Hungarian Minority in Ukraine," In European Center for Minority Issues. National Minorities and the War in Ukraine -  https://doi.org/10.53779/SLWE2333  , 2023.

“The Extension of Traditions: King Stephen I of Hungary and the Politics of Cultural Nationalism,” in Networks, Narratives, and Nations: Transcultural Approaches to Cultural Nationalism in Europe and Beyond, eds. Marjet Brolsma, Alex Drace-Francis, Krisztina Lajosi, Enno Maessen, Marleen Rensen, Jan Rock, Yolanda Rodríguez Pérez, and Guido Snel, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022.

The transnational circulation of digital nationalism, a special issue for Nations and Nationalism 27:4 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12778

"Teaching Edith Wharton with Henry James in the Netherlands", In Teaching Edith Wharton’s Major Novels and Short Fiction, Ed. Ferdâ Asya, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 131-142.

The Matica and Beyond: Cultural Associations and Nationalism in Europe. National Cultivation of Culture Vol. 21 (edited with Andreas Stynen). Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2020. https://brill.com/view/title/56043?language=en  

Staging the Nation: Opera and Nationalism in 19th-Century Hungary. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2018. https://brill.com/view/title/34971

“Gypsy Music and the Fashioning of National Communities,” in Imagining Communities, eds. Gemma Blok, Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, Claire Weeda, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018, 77-96. https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462980037/imagining-communities#toc

Choral Societies and Nationalism in Europe. National Cultivation of Culture Vol. 9. (edited with Andreas Stynen) Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2015. https://brill.com/view/title/31794

“National Stereotypes and Music,” Nations and Nationalism 20:4 (2014), 628-645. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nana.12086

“Shaping the Voice of the People in Nineteenth-Century National Operas”, in Folklore and Nationalism in Europe, ed. Timothy Baycroft and David Hopkin, Leiden: Brill, 2012, 27-47. https://brill.com/view/title/16624

Research Projects

2024                          Decolonial Transformations in Opera - kick-off project of the new research group she founded, Opera as an Intangible Heritage. Opera and Digital Technologies.

2023                          Emotions and Political Narratives – together with Prof. Ton Nijhuis (UvA, Duitsland Institute) and a team of international partners

2022                         Evolution of Extremis Online – together with Prof. Richard Rogers, Dr. Marc Tuters (UvA, Media Studies) and a team of international scholars 

2018-2021                 Project leader - Digital Nationalism in a Transnational Context, University of Amsterdam – Main partners:

                                  Pál Nyíri (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), Florian Schneider (Leiden University), Catherine Thorleifsson (University of Oslo), Eviane Leidig (University of Oslo)

                                 International workshop and a special issue of the journal Nations and Nationalism  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nana.12778

2016-2018                 Opera and national mobilization in Central Europe, University of Amsterdam

                                 - This resulted in my book Staging the Nation (2018)

2009-2016                 Project leader - National Styles in Music. The task of this project was to study nineteenth-century music from the perspective of intellectual history; to do so in a Europe-wide comparative scope; to align the discursive and historical environments in which musical pieces were conceived, composed, and performed; and to trace the influences and the spread of this vogue from composer to composer and from country to country.
This project was funded by the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences). As part of this funding, a PhD candidate was appointed to work on the development of German national identity in relation to classical music.

                                 This resulted in a  PhD dissertation (Kasper van Kooten, “‘Was deutsch und echt…’: Articulating a German operatic identity, 1798-1876,” co-supervised with Prof. Joep Leerssen, defended September 2016), along with numerous international conferences, workshops, and journal articles and book chapter publications.

                                 file:///Users/krisztinalajosi/Desktop/lajosi-krisztina---national-styles-in-music.pdf

2004-2005                 Opera and Nation-Building movements (PhD project), University of Amsterdam - she designed and wrote the project individually.

2000-2004                 Ideologies and Romantic Nationalism (funded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Teaching

SKO Qualification (2018) - Sucessfully completed the national Senior Teaching Qualification program with a portfolio focusing on research-based learning and Blended Learning in the Humanities

Courses taught:

• National Thought in Europe (Nationaal denken in Europa) - BA - co-developed
• Cultures of Nationalism in Europe - MA - designed
• Research in Nationalism Studies - BA - designed
• History of European Literature (Europese Literatuurgeschiedenis) - BA - co-taught
• Europe and (post)colonial discourse - BA - designed
• Europe and America. Transcultural exchanges in the works of Henry James and Edith Wharton - MA - designed
• National Theatre in Europe- MA - co-taught
• Opera and Politics - BA - designed
• Romanticism - MA - co-taught
• Gothic Traditions and Cultural Critique - MA - co-taught
• Nineteenth-Century British Literature - BA - designed
• Twentieth-Century British Literature - BA - designed
• Theater in Britain - BA - designed
• Opera and National Identity in Britain - MA - designed
• Imagination, dream, experiment - MA - developed
• Introduction to World Literature - BA - taught

Selected Publications

BOOKS:
Staging the Nation. Opera and Nationalism in 19th-century Hungary (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2018) http://www.brill.com/products/book/staging-nation-opera-and-nationalism-19th-century-hungary

Choral Societies and Nationalism in Europe, eds. Krisztina Lajosi and Andreas Stynen (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2015) http://www.brill.com/products/book/choral-societies-and-nationalism-europe

Maticas: Literary Societies and Nationalism in 19th-Century Europe, co-edited with Andreas Stynen. Forthcoming 2019, Brill.

Nationhood and the Image of the Gypsy - book, forthcoming, 2020.

Opera and Nineteenth-Century Nation-Building. The (Re)sounding Voice of Nationalism, Amsterdam, 2008. (http://dare.uva.nl/document/2/56874 ) - comparative study of cultural nationalisms and opera in the period of modern nation-building in the nineteenth-century East-Central Europe
 

Articles:

"Disinformation, Digital Nationalism and the Hungarian Minority in Ukraine," In European Center for Minority Issues. National Minorities and the War in Ukraine -  https://doi.org/10.53779/SLWE2333  . (2023)

"National Stereotypes and Music", In Nations and Nationalism (20:4, 2014) pp. 628-645.

"Collapsing Stages and Standing Ovations. Hungarian Choral Societies and Sociability in the Nineteenth Century", In Choral Societies and Nationalism in Europe, Eds. Krisztina Lajosi-Andreas Stynen, (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015) pp. 206-224.

"Introduction. National Mobilization and Choirs", In Choral Societies and Nationalism in Europe, Eds. Krisztina Lajosi-Andreas Stynen, (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015) pp. 1-13.

"Shaping the Voice of the People in Nineteenth-Century Operas", In. Folklore and Nationalism in Europe during the Long Nineteenth Century, ed. Timothy Baycroft, (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012) pp. 27-47.

"Textual and Musical Representations of the Past in the Public Sphere", In. Free Access to the Past, eds. Marita Mathijsen and Joep Leerssen (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2010) pp. 227-246.

"Áthallások Zenében és Irodalomban. Zene és irodalom mint fordítás". In Újrateremtett világok: írások Cs. Gyimesi Éva emlékére, Eds. A.F. Balogh, I. Berszán & GC. Gábor, (Budapest: Argumentum, 2011), pp. 165-176.

"Translator as Critic - Critic as Artist - Translator as Artist", In. The Importance of Reinventing Oscar. Versions of Wilde During the Last 100 Years, Eds. BÖKER, Uwe, Richard CORBALLIS and Julie, HIBBARD (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2002) pp. 257-267.

"Why did Faust go to Hungary? National Ideology and Hungarian Music" In. Cultural Studies Now:

  http://www.uel.ac.uk/culturalstudiesnow/documents/LajosiWhyDidFaustGoToHungary.pdf

"The love of power and the power of love. A cultural-poetical approach to Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen", In. QUEST, Issue 4, 2007.

http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/QUEST/JournalIssues/Issue4ProceedingsoftheQuestConference

"Music in Nineteenth-Century European Imagination", In. Donau 2007/3, 36-46.

"Music asa Marker of National Identity", In. Kommunikáció, Média, Gazdaság - Special Issue for the Proceedings of the Conference on National Stereotypes - 2007/2, 67-91.  

"National Opera and Nineteenth-Century Nation Building in East-Central Europe", In. Neohelicon XXXII/1, 2005, 51-69.

"Historical Memory as Rhetorical Trope: A Reading of Paul de Man's Aesthetic Ideologies" ("Felejtésés emlékezés alakzatai a Paul de Man-i életműben: a retorikai olvasás mint a történelem (el/le)leplezésére tett kísérlet"), In. Literatura 2005/3.

Perfectie zoeken in stilte , In. Ablak 2004/6, 12, 24-25.

"Queritur: Opera as Ideology in the Oeuvre of Richard Wagner" ("Queritur: A tizedik múzsa nyomában. Az opera ideológiája Richard Wagnernél"), In. (Tév)eszmék bűvöletében, (eds.) : Éva Jeney - Mihály Szegedy-Maszák, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 2005, 105-130.

"Music as Cultural Practice in Nineteenth Century Europe" ("A zenemint kulturális gyakorlat a 19. században. Mátray Gábor zenetörténetétõl a Zenészeti lapokig"), In. A kultúra átváltozásai. Kép, zene, szöveg, (eds.) Éva Jeney - Mihály Szegedy-Maszák, Budapest, Balassi Kiadó,2006, 70-97.
Book Review Essays:

" '1956, Hungary', GATI, Charles: Failed Illusions. Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt", In. European Review of History: Revue Europeenne d'Histoire, 2008/1, 78-80.

"History and Representation on the Russian Opera Stage" ("Történelem és reprezentáció az orosz színpadon"), In. Budapest Review of Books, 2008/1, 62-65.

Translations:

Book:

Wolfgang Iser: Az értelmezés világa (The Range of Interpretations), Trans. Krisztina Lajosi (Budapest: Gondolat, 2004).

Teaching Philosophy

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Courses taught:

• National Thought in Europe (Nationaal denken in Europa) - BA
• Cultures of Nationalism in Europe - MA
• History of European Literature (Europese Literatuurgeschiedenis) - BA
• Europe and (post)colonial discourse - BA
• Europe and America. Transcultural exchanges in the works of Henry James and Edith Wharton - MA
• National Theatre in Europe- MA
• Opera and Politics - BA
• Romanticism - MA
• Gothic Traditions and Cultural Critique - MA
• Nineteenth-Century British Literature - BA
• Twentieth-Century British Literature - BA
• Theater in Britain - BA
• Opera and National Identity in Britain - MA
• Imagination, dream, experiment - MA
• Introduction to World Literature - BA

Samples of course evaluations

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