Corvinus University

OK, sorry to keep hopping back and forth between Austria and Hungary (I feel like a Habsburg emperor), but now that I have finally figured out how to post on this one computer - and before I start the trip home tomorrow and things truly get crazy - let me try and get caught up a little. The first university that I visit in Budapest was Corvinus University. It has a long and storied and wandering history. For a long time, under communist rule, it was renamed Karl Marx University (and, as you can see above) there is still a statue of Marx in the main part of the building. There is also a small, wall-mounted plaque honoring Imre Nagy on the far opposite wall, but it has now been obscured by a tree that has been moved in front of it (and, if you know anything at all about Hungarian history it all makes sense). The very fact that I was buying Corvinus University t-shirts for my son in the former Karl Marx University is about as obvious an indication of the victory (at least for now) of the capitalist world over the communist/socialist one. The building itself is very historic. It is located right on the Danube, on the Pest side, and it used to be the old customs house. There used to be a train track that ran right through the middle of the building (where Marx is sitting now). After the fall of the Soviet Union it was named Corvinus in honor of a scholarly Hungarian king of the fifteenth century (a golden age in Hungarian history).

Corvinus is very excited about the Global Modules project, especially in the economics, business and history departments. We should have at least a couple GMs up and running with them in the Concepts of Community classes this coming spring semester. I think they are so excited about the project because of Hungary's own struggle to join the EU and to fashion a more lasting connection with the rest of the world. In one of the many meetings I had with faculty members and administrators, I also had the chance to sit down with some doctoral students in economics, and I think they were the most excited of anyone. They were suggesting GM themes during the meeting and started emailing me more ideas before I had made it back to my hotel.