Dr. mult. Bálint Kovács

From 1999 to 2005, Bálint Kovàcs studied history and theology at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPCU) in Budapest. In 2010, he obtained his PhD with a thesis entitled »Armenian Culture after the ecclesiastical union in Transylvania«. Thereupon, from 2006 to 2012, he studied at the Faculty of Law of the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, graduating with a law degree (dr. jur.). In 2016, he was appointment as Head of the newly established Department of Armenian Studies at Budapest’s Pázmány Péter Catholic University. From 2020 to 2021, he taught at the MESROP Centre for Armenian Studies at Martin Luther University, Halle/Wittenberg. 

Kovács has been the curator of three exhibitions: »Far away from Mount Ararat« (History Museum – BTM, Budapest, 2013); »The Tragedy of the Armenian People – The Armenian Genocide happened one Hundred Years ago« (National Széchényi Library, Budapest 2015) and »Unity and Variety: The Armenian Bible and Religious Tradition« (Hungarian National Library, Budapest 2019). In 2024, he was awarded an Honorary doctorate from the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU), Yerevan for his outstanding research on Armenians in East-Central and Eastern Europe: GWZO press release 4/2024.

From 2008 to 2019, Bálint Kovács was Research Fellow at the GWZO in the research and publication project »Armenians in the Economy and Culture of East-Central Europe (14th–19th Centuries)«. Since 2023, he has been editor-in-chief of the GWZO series »Armenians in Eastern Europe«.

• History of Armenians in Eastern Europe
• History of theory and philosophy of history
• History of the Caucasus region

• Co-editor of the GWZO series »Armenians in Eastern Europe« (Sandstein Verlag, Dresden) – in collaboration with Hakob Matevosyan and Stefan Troebst  
• Editor of the series »Studia Armenologica Hungarica« (L'Harmattan Publisher, Budapest) – in collaboration with István Monok and Stefan Troebst
• Co-editor of the series »Armenian Cultural Heritage in the Carpathian Basin« (Leipzig University Press, Leipzig) – in collaboration with István Monok and Stefan Troebst

• Co-Principal Investigator – together with Prof. Elke Hartmann (FU Berlin) – of the project »AZ 02/LC/21 Lost-but-found: Armenian Capital Ani at Contested Crossroads« (Gerda Henkel Stiftung)
• Elected member of the Structural Commission »Africa - Asia - Europe« (AAE) at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig
• Member of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS)
• Member of the Association Internationale des Etudes Arméniennes (AIEA)
• Member of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
• ELTE Origo Language Center (Budapest), official examiner (Eastern Armenian language)

Since 2010, Bálint Kovács has been teaching at Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Social Sciences; at Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and at Martin Luther University Halle/Wittenberg in various degree programmes, including history (on BA, MA and PhD levels), Oriental Christian Studies (MA level) and International Relations (BA level). Head of the Global Armenian Studies PhD programme at the Graduate School of History, Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Guest lecturer at Yerevan State University and at Armenian State Pedagogical University in Yerevan.

• 2024 – Honorary doctorate (Armenian State Pedagogical University, Yerevan, Armenia)
• 2023 – Pro Cultura Minoritatum Hungariae (national award, Hungary)
• 2022 – Khachatur Abovyan Award (Armenian State Pedagogical University, Yerevan, Armenia)
• 2017 – Ministerial recognition for research, teaching and dissemination of Armenian culture in Europe (Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia)
• 2013 – »Szongott Kristóf Prize« (Armenian Self-Government, Budapest)