Ivan Kalmar
@ivan-kalmar.bsky.social
Prof U of Toronto. Studying illiberalism, race, periphery: how are these three connected? East and South peripheries of the EU. Jews, Muslims, Islamophobia, antisemitism. Author of White But Not Quite: Central Europe's Illiberal Revolt.
How are Whiteness and Westness related? I'm organizing a panel at the Council of European Studies conference in Leiden, June 2027, relating white-but-not-quite Central Europe, Chile, Argentina to West-adjacent but not Western Japan, South Korea, etc. CfP: i.kalmar@utoronto.ca.
The postsocialist parts of the EU and Pacific East Asia (Japan, the two Koreas, etc.) are both at the periphery of the Global North: West-adjacent/White-adjacent. If interested in an online workshop on studying them together then contact i.kalmar@utoronto.ca. Spread the word!!
Does anyone have information on cooperation between North Korea and East Bloc states in Europe (other than the USSR), during the Cold War? If so, I would much appreciate hearing from you. Please email i.kalmar@utoronto.ca
Ended my lectures in Japan on how not only Central Europe but also Japan may be "white but not quite" & how this impacts our understanding of peripheralization and racialization in general. Hope to explore more with colleagues I met here. Anyone else interested in the topic DM me!
What happens if we study peripheralization and racialization as seen not from the center but from the margins of the Global North: Central Europe and Japan? I explore this question in talks in Japan. Yesterday @seijouniversity I spoke w @79mid.bluesky.social & Š. Zorko. Thx H. Fukuda and E. Kato.
Such a privilege to have talked about “White-Adjacent, West-Adjacent: Central Europe and Japan in the Racial Hierarchies of the West,” at Hokkaido University’s Slavic and Eurasian Centre, hosted by Prof. Yoko Aoshima. I learned a lot from the audience.
Roma children were asked to play a "Roma anthem" to the new Hungarian Parliament. Far fright deputies walked out (they also didn't like to hear the EU anthem). dailynewshungary.com/hungary-far-...
Political uproar erupts after far-right MPs walk out during Hungary’s parliamentary opening session
The scene sparked outrage among many viewers and politicians, particularly because the walkout coincided with the entrance of a group of tambura-playing children performing at the event.
dailynewshungary.com
The best assessment of the future of post-Orbán Hungary that I've seen, by @gscheiring.bsky.social . jacobin.com/2026/05/hung...
Democracy After Orbánism?
Péter Magyar will be sworn in as Hungary’s new prime minister this week. His government has a strong technocratic thrust — a departure from Viktor Orbán’s cronyism but hardly a revitalization of demo...
jacobin.com
Who was missing from Salvini's European Patriots rally in Milan? 1. Anyone from Orbán's party, 2. a large crowd. They couldn't even fill the Piazza del Duomo. milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2026...
Remigration, Salvini riunisce i sovranisti ma non riempie piazza Duomo: “Ue e Fmi coppia malefica”
Altri due cortei di dem e centri sociali attraversano la città: nel secondo, qualche momento di tensione con idranti e lancio di lacrimogeni
milano.repubblica.it
"Magyar stated Hungary's openness to cooperation with Russia," says the major Russian paper, Izvestia. And it ends with: "after the elections, the situation on the streets of Budapest remained tense." Were their reporters actually there? iz.ru/2078080/lide...
Мадьяр заявил об открытости Венгрии к сотрудничеству с РФ
Венгрия открыта для прагматичному сотрудничеству с российской стороной. Об этом 13 апреля сообщил лидер партии «Тиса» Петер Мадьяр.«Я благодарю всех за поздравления, я также вижу, что Москва и Кремль, а также Пекин высказались», — сказал он на пресс-конференции.Мадьяр также поблагодарил Москву и Пекин за уважительное отношение к выбору венгерских избирателей и выразил готовность к взаимодействию на основе взаимного прагматизма.
iz.ru
"Magyar stated Hungary's openness to cooperation with Russia." This is how the Russian paper Izvestia titles its report on Magyar's election. And it ends with: "after the elections, the situation on the streets of Budapest remained tense." Were their reporters actually there? iz.ru/2078080/lide...
Мадьяр заявил об открытости Венгрии к сотрудничеству с РФ
Венгрия открыта для прагматичному сотрудничеству с российской стороной. Об этом 13 апреля сообщил лидер партии «Тиса» Петер Мадьяр.«Я благодарю всех за поздравления, я также вижу, что Москва и Кремль, а также Пекин высказались», — сказал он на пресс-конференции.Мадьяр также поблагодарил Москву и Пекин за уважительное отношение к выбору венгерских избирателей и выразил готовность к взаимодействию на основе взаимного прагматизма.
iz.ru
Neither Trump nor Putin. A European Hungary shows the way forward to all of Europe. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEPZ...
FULL: Péter Magyar Declares “Historic Election Day” in Hungary Exit Poll Reaction Speech | AC1N
YouTube video by DRM News
youtube.com
Orbán congratulates Magyar and adds, "We'll never give up!" magyarnemzet.hu/belfold/2026...
Orbán Viktor: Mi soha nem adjuk fel!
Polgári napilap és hírportál | Magyar Nemzet
magyarnemzet.hu
Orbán decisively beaten, say poll analyses. Hungary was the harbinger of the illiberal ascendancy in the western world. Now it is the harbinger of its defeat. But beware: Orbánism will outlive Orbán's defeat, just like Trumpism will outlive Trump's. atlatszo.hu/adat/2026/04...
Utolsó pillanatos kutatások: Tisza 54-55%, Fidesz 38-40% – rekordrészvétel volt a választáson | atlatszo.hu
Urnazárás után tette közzé a választás előtti utolsó napokban készült kutatását a Medián, a 21 Kutatóközpont, és a Závecz Research, mindhárom igen hasonló eredm
atlatszo.hu
TISZA solidly in the lead in Hungary, but nowhere near the 2/3 majority required to change institutions, according to atlatszo.hu
Classes are over at U of T for the 2025-26 year. I hope the students learned as much and have had as much fun as I have.
Have you read this? bsky.app/profile/szab...
Szabolcs Panyi@szabolcspanyi.bsky.social · 7mo ago💥Moscow has sent a task team to interfere in Hungary's April 2026 elections, @vsquare.bsky.social has learned from multiple European national security sources. The US has also shared intelligence with allies on the GRU-linked task force overseen by Sergei Kiriyenko. vsquare.org/putins-gru-l...
The German new and revised edition of White But Not Quite: Central Europe's Illiberal Revolt is now out, and has been reviewed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...
Ivan Kalmar: „Die illiberale Revolte in der Mitte Europas“
Warum sind ausgerechnet die Visegrád-Staaten Zentren des Illiberalismus? Für den Anthropologen Ivan Kalmar hängt die autoritäre Entwicklung in Osteuropa mit dem Rassismus des Westens zusammen.
faz.net
The defendant, Prof. Pankowski is represented by Dr Wojciech Marchwicki of the Rödl & Partner law firm, author of numerous publications on constitutional law, regularly recommended by international legal rankings as a leading lawyer in Poland. publicystyka.ngo.pl/free-speech-...
Free Speech at Stake in Polish Legal Battle over 1941 Pogrom Truth
A Polish far-right activist with US links is suing a co-founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. At the centre of the case are issues of freedom of speech, Holocaust distortion and the 1941 pogrom in...
publicystyka.ngo.pl
"As much as we like to see ourselves as part of so-called developed Europe, we're still closer to countries like Bulgaria than to France (...) current events – and perhaps even what ... Macinka said in Munich – only confirm this." - K. Veselý, @denikalarm.bsky.social www.expats.cz/czech-news/a...
What happened in Munich? Macinka's viral Clinton clash exposes a divided Czechia
The Czech foreign minister's culture-war pivot was a defining symbol of Munich's deepest tension: populist vs. progressive visions of the West.
expats.cz
Rubio to Orbán: "... your success is our success." Refuses to meet with the Hungarian opposition. www.euronews.com/2026/02/16/w...
‘We want you to continue,’ Rubio tells Orbán ahead of key elections
The US Secretary of State praised the Hungarian prime minister's relationship with Donald Trump as his ruling Fidesz Party trails the opposition ahead of an April election. Orbán has endorsed a peaceful transfer of power if he is defeated.
euronews.com
The new & revised version of White But Not Quite in German is coming out in March, and I was just shown the cover! www.picus.at/produkt/weis...
Weiß, aber nicht ganz - Picus Verlag
Ostmitteleuropäer sind im Vergleich zu Westeuropäern politisch unterentwickelt? Autoritätshörig? Diktaturaffin? Die lange Zeit unter sowjetischer Herrschaft hat sie entmündigt? Keineswegs. In den vier...
picus.at
Slovak minister pitched the PM, Robert Fico, via Epstein for Steve Bannon's project for a right turn in European politics. This, according to some Slovak media, is in the Epstein files. www.sme.sk/komentare/c/...
Prečo by nás mali zaujímať Lajčákove odkazy pre sexuálneho predátora Epsteina
Ako sa z diplomatickej korešpondencie stala kronika pedofila.
sme.sk
This is behind a paywall but well worth a read, a good introduction to some of the ways whiteness is avoided, misunderstood and underestimated. Dm for a copy
Ivan Kalmar@ivan-kalmar.bsky.social · 9mo agoVery grateful to Louis Howard Porter for a gracious review of my book White But Not Quite and its contribution to understand how racialization functions in postcommunist Europe. doi.org/10.1017/slr....
Very grateful to Louis Howard Porter for a gracious review of my book White But Not Quite and its contribution to understand how racialization functions in postcommunist Europe. doi.org/10.1017/slr....
Three Challenges to Racial Innocence - Ed. Catherine Baker, Bogdan C. Iacob, Anikó Imre, and James Mark. Off White: Central and Eastern Europe and the Global History of Race. Manchester: Manchester Un...
Three Challenges to Racial Innocence - Ed. Catherine Baker, Bogdan C. Iacob, Anikó Imre, and James Mark. Off White: Central and Eastern Europe and the Global History of Race. Manchester: Manchester Un...
doi.org
Me: "Do you have a bias that could be described as Western?" AI: "Yes, almost certainly. I was built by a San Francisco company, trained predominantly on English-language text, and my training data massively overrepresents perspectives from Western academic, journalistic, and internet discourse."
