Dr Orsolya Szakaly

Dr Orsolya Szakaly is a holder of two MAs and a PhD (ELTE, 2001) in history. She has been lecturing on the interdisciplinary module Understanding the Modern World on the international foundation course at SOAS since 2005. In 2021, she joined the team delivering Introduction to Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities on the Foundation Year programme. Orsolya has also taught undergraduate history and liberal arts modules at the LSE, Queen’s University Belfast and St Mary’s University Twickenham. She has extensive experience in supporting students as an academic English teacher.

Orsolya’s research interest is the early modern period, especially the Enlightenment, enlightened absolutism, military professionalisation, international networks and the history of applied science. She is the author of a book on an aristocratic reformer and entrepreneur, Baron Miklós Vay (2003), and has published many articles and chapters on the Habsburg Monarchy, Hungary, economic history and various aspects of enlightened reform. She was co-editor of the most up-to-date version of the Hungarian historical bibliography: Bevezetés Magyarország történetének forrásaiba és irodalmába (Vols 1–4, 2000–2015), and co-convenor of the Forum on Early Modern Central Europe, a seminar series at UCL-SEES (2009–2014).