Program: Budapest Fellowship Program
Year: 2023/24
Host Institution: Committee of National Remembrance
Research Focus: Perceptions of the U.S.A and U.S.S.R in Hungary During the Cold War
Quote: “I immediately welcomed the opportunity to continue my intellectual interests in international security in a country that was close to my heart.”
Read his introduction here: hungaryfoundation.org
Born in London to an American father and an Australian mother, James has a multicultural background that is defined strongly by his mother’s Hungarian roots. James’s maternal grandparents met en route to Australia in a Hungarian refugee camp in 1952/1953. Their story has inspired James’s interest in the strong presence of Hungarian communities in the English-speaking world, including the impressive rate of representation that people of Hungarian origin enjoy at the highest levels of international industry, academia, and the performing arts.
James completed his undergraduate degree at Yale University, where he double-majored in Global Affairs and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations. He also studied Piano Performance at the Yale School of Music. James has a particular interest in American foreign policy and international law, and while at Yale he spent summers interning at embassies and think tanks in Washington D.C. In his final year at Yale, he completed a project on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which ignited his desire to study the politics of Central Europe more closely. It was through his participation in the “War Studies Program,” hosted jointly by the Hertog Foundation and the Institute for the Study of War in Washington D.C., that James was introduced to the Budapest Fellowship Program.