Attila Melegh is a sociologist, economist and historian. Attila Melegh studied economics and sociology at Karl Marx University of Economics and social history at Oxford University. He has a PhD in history from Debrecen University.  He is habilitated associate professor at Corvinus University, Budapest, and a senior researcher at the Demographic Research Institute. Editor of Eszmélet and Demográfia English Edition journal. He was the founding director of Karl Polányi Research Center at Corvinus University between 2014-22. Hé has been a Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor at Vienna University of Economics, University of Vienna and Central European University. He is a member of Academia Europaea. President of the Demographic Committee of the Hungarian Academy. He is the author of the book ‘On the East/West Slope, Globalization, Nationalism, Racism and Discourses on Central and Eastern Europe. His new, 2023 book at Palgrave-Macmillan is: The Migration Turn and Eastern Europe: A Global Historical Sociological Analysis.

Adél Pásztor is an Associate Professor of Sociology with Habilitation and Head of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at Corvinus University of Budapest. She earned her PhD in Sociology from Corvinus University in 2005, during which she was also a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford. Following her doctorate, she held a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2006-7), followed by a Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Amsterdam (2007–09), where she contributed to the TIES (The European Second Generation) project. Between 2010 and 2021, she held lectureships at Northumbria University and Newcastle University in the UK. Since returning to her alma mater, she has served as Head of the Department of Sociology and has been actively involved in institutional governance. Adél’s research sits at the intersection of higher education and migration, with a focus on how these domains interact to shape access and opportunity. She has published widely on these themes in prominent journals such as Studies in Higher Education; Race, Ethnicity and Education; Ethnic and Racial Studies; Population, Space and Place, and Globalisation, Societies and Education, among others. Her full list of publications is available on her personal webpage and Google Scholar profile.

Zoltán Dujisin is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at Corvinus University of Budapest. Zoltán obtained his PhD in sociology from Columbia University and was previously a Marie Curie Leading Fellow at Erasmus University Rotterdam and an FNRS Postdoc at UCLouvain in Belgium. His research interests include the sociology of expertise, sociology of journalism, memory politics and political sociology. He is currently researching the counter-disinfo expert community in and around EU institutions and is working on a monograph on the historiographic expertise at the heart of illiberal memory regimes in post-communist Europe. He has published in journals such as Theory and Society, Memory Studies and History & Memory. Other publications can be found in his google scholar profile or his personal page.

Miklós Hajdu is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at Corvinus University of Budapest, where he obtained his PhD in sociology. His research primarily focuses on economic sociology and deviant behaviors. One key topic of interest for him in the intersection of these broader areas is corruption, an issue he has been studying since 2015, mainly from the perspective of the democratic backsliding in Hungary. He coauthored a recent book on this topic titled ‘Dynamics of an Authoritarian System’ (CEU Press, 2022). Miklós is also concerned with the methodological challenges of social research and has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods, as represented in his teaching portfolio.

Noémi Katona is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at Corvinus University of Budapest. Noémi obtained her PhD in sociology at the Humboldt University in Berlin in 2020. Her dissertation focused on prostitution and human trafficking. Since 2017 she has works at HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences as a research fellow. Her main research interests include gender, migration, sex industry and care work. She currently works on the transnational organization of senior care. She has published in journals such as the Critical Social Policy. Her other publications can be found in her google scholar  profile.

Jacob Thomas (Ph.D., UCLA) is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department of Corvinus University of Budapest and a Research Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Migration and Development. His mixed methods research generally addresses questions of why more people do not migrate/travel internationally, focusing on migrant selectivity, limits to nation-states’ ability to control migration, and how migratory opportunities are stratified along distinct dimensions. His relevant in-progress research projects include 1) a study of how the odds and speed of a potential migrant Hong Konger emigrating from post-2019 autocratizing Hong Kong is associated with pan-democratic ideology versus other oppositional ideologies, and 2) a study of how China’s government is more likely to allow a famous mainland Chinese dissident to emigrate is higher if they advocate for multi-party democracy rather than recognition of minorities or general social reforms.  He has published research in Theory and Society, European Journal of Sociology, International Migration Review, and International Journal of Sociology, among others (Google Scholar). His book Denial, Deterrence, and Disenchantment: Why Many Never Immigrate is under contract and forthcoming in 2025 with Cambridge University Press.

Fikadu Ayanie is an Assistant Professor of Governance and Development at Jimma University, Ethiopia, and a PhD candidate at Corvinus University of Budapest, specializing in digitalization, marketization and authoritarian political dynamics, focusing on the Global South. He is a founding member and former Managing Editor of the PanAfrican Journal of Governance and Development and an active member of the Karl Polanyi Center for Global Social Studies. With a multidisciplinary background, his research interests include the political economy of development and authoritarianism, contemporary migration, digitalization, (de)democratization and various aspects of the market economy in contemporary societies. His publications featured in books and peer-reviewed articles on various topics including poverty and social justice, business internationalization, digitalization and economic growth, migration trends, and neoliberalism and wars in Africa. More information available at: ResearchGate.

Beáta Nagy is a professor at Corvinus University of Budapest; Director of Centre for Gender and Culture. Her previous research dealt with work-life balance and adolescents’ technology use. Her current studies focus on gender and executive search, women's advancement in academic life, and intensive motherhood during the pandemic. She has published articles in both Hungarian and English journals, such as Gender in Management and Gender, Work, and Organization. Her last book, published in Hungarian (Gender Revolutions?, 2024) also goes beyond the Hungarian situation, it also gives examples from Japan and Poland. Between 2018 and 2024 she was a board member of the European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR). She helps with the work of several non-profit initiatives, for example the Equalizer Foundation, and Women in Science Association (until 2021), We Are Open Association. Since 2021 Beáta has been the President of the Hungarian Sociological Association. Further details: www.beatanagy.com