Iván Szelényi

Biography

He is a noted Hungarian sociologist awarded with Széchenyi prize, professor and fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 
An internationally famous researcher of urban sociology and the structural problems of capitalism and socialism.

His grandfather was Ödön Szelényi, teacher, theologist and university professor. He is the son of Gusztáv Szelényi, a zoologist and entomologist; his mother is Julianna Csapó, his wife is Mária Várady, children: Sonja (1960), Lilla (1963) and Balázs (1967). After graduation at the External Trade Faculty of the Karl Marx University of Economics in Budapest he was employed at the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (Department of traffic statistics) from 1 July 1960. He spent much time in the library of Hungarian Central Statistical Office, he translated articles, wrote reviews of foreign books and journals that were published by Statisztikai  Szemle. From 16 May 1961 he was employed in the library as the guardian of foreign  journals. By his reminiscence, he was interested in sociological writings much more than in statistical or economical ones; so, that was the motivation and the reason why he became a sociologist.

He used the expression sociology already when it was considered as bourgeois pseudo science by many; he was brave enough to refer to examples of bourgeois sociologists.
He had professional relationship with Zsuzsa Ferge who dealt with stratification surveys at that time, and László Cseh-Szombathy, who made researches in the field of suicide. He and István Bibó often worked in the same room. In 1964 he received a Ford Scholarship and studied at the University of California  in Berkeley for one year.

After his return he was a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1965 when he resigned from the job as a librarian; he became scientific secretary of the institute and was appointed to the person responsible for statistical methodology. He considered the period of 1963-1968 as the most exciting time of his life intellectually and it had the biggest effect on his progress.

In 1970 he was elevated as the Head of the Department of Regional Sociology and he edited Szociológia, a scientific journal; besides it he was the leader of a special team of urban sociology.
He dealt with the issues and problems of urban sociology, sociology of flats and settlement; he played a voluntary role in the launch of researches in these fields in Hungary.  In 1973, he earned the title Candidate of Sciences  at the HAS.  In 1974, a transcript of a book which he wrote with fellow sociologist and author György Konrád, titled The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power, was brought out of Hungary. It contained critical thoughts;  after this move,  Iván Szelényi was arrested, later expelled from Hungary and stripped of his citizenship, too.
After it, in 1975, he was a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Kent. Between 1976 and 1980 he lived in Australia, where he founded Sociology Department of  Flinders University of South Australia in Adelaide and he was the Foundation Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department until 1980.  One year later, he joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison  where he was Professor of Sociology for five years. From 1986 to 88, he was the director and Distinguished Professor of Sociology Department at the City University of New York. 
From 1988 he worked as Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles for 11 years.  In 1999, he was appointed the chair of Sociology Department of Yale University.
In 2010, he became the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University Abu Dhabi and he occupied this position until 2014. Then he returned home to Hungary.
He had significant role that he played in Hungarian scientific life even during the years of forced emigration, when he dealt with the issues of interrupted embourgeoisement, effects of market and redistributive distributional systems made on social inequalities and structural problems of modern capitalistic and socialistic societies.  
Since 1990, he has held a Doctor of Science degree and became a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1995 he was elected to full membership. In 2006, he received the highest state prize for scientific work, the Széchenyi Prize, and two years later he became an Honorary Citizen of Budapest. Beyond that, he was elected to fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000.
He was the member of the editorial boards of International Journal of Urban and Regional Research  and Theory and Society and the Hungarian journal Esély.

His works are appreciated worldwide; they are published in several languages such as English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Russian, Chinese, Polish and Romanian, among others. 

The compilation of the biography is based mainly on the following book: Szelényi Iván műveinek válogatott bibliográfiája (összeáll. Éva Bedecs,  Angelika Pásztor. Bp. : KSH, 2015)