Éva Pócs (born 1936) is a Hungarian ethnographer and

folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

Education and academic career

Éva Pócs was born in 1936. She is the younger sister of botanist Tamás Pócs (born 1936). She began her career at the Néprajzi Múzeum where she was an intern between 1959 and 1960. On gaining her first degree in 1960 in Hungarian Folklore, Museology, and Secondary School Teaching from

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...

(ELTE), she joined the curatorial staff of the in

Szolnok Szolnok (; also known by #Name and etymology, alternative names) is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary. A city with county rights, it is located on the banks of the Tisza river, in the heart of the Great Hungarian ...

. Between 1965 and 1968 Pócs worked as a graduate researcher (aspirantúra) in the Department of Folklore at ELTE. Following her studies at ELTE, Pócs joined the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

(MTA Néprajzi Kutatóintézete), where she was a fellow between 1968 and 1989, and then as Head of department for the Institute of Ethnography from 1990 until she took partial retirement in 2001. She received her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree in Ethnology (Folklore) in 1982 and her

DSc DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...

in 1998. During her time at MTA Néprajzi Kutatóintézete, Pócs also lectured for the

University of Szeged The University of Szeged () is a Public university, public research university in Szeged, Hungary. Established as the Jesuit Academy of Kolozsvár in present-day Cluj-Napoca in 1581, the institution was re-established as a university in 1872 by ...

between 1991 and 1999. Following her partial retirement in 2001, she continued to work as a senior research fellow at MTA Néprajzi Kutatóintézete. Between 1999 and 2007 she was Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Janus Pannonius University (PTE) in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, and since 2008 she has been Professor Emeritus. Pócs has lectured at many European universities, including

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, and

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. She is an author of several books dealing with supernatural beliefs and patterns of communication in early modern Europe.

Awards

Pócs has received a number of awards and scholarships over her career. * 1972: Jankó János prize (Hungarian Ethnographic Society) * 1995: Pro Scientia prize and medal * 1995: István Györffy medal (Hungarian Ethnographic Society) * 1998: "Year of Outstanding Intellectual Creation" prize (University of Pécs) * 2000: Jenő Szűcs Prize (

Soros Foundation Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the st ...

) * 2002: Gyula Ortutay medal (Hungarian Ethnographic Society) * 2003: "Year of Outstanding Intellectual Creation" prize (University of Pécs) * 2004: Herder Prize * 2009: Honorary membership of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR) Pócs is a past president of the Folklore Section of the Hungarian Ethnographic Society^hu (a post currently held by Dániel Bárth).

Publications

Her publications in English include: *''Fairies and Witches at the Boundary of South-Eastern and Central Europe'' (1989) *'' Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age'' (1999) *(co-author) ''Communicating With The Spirits'' (2005) *(editor) ''Witchcraft, Mythologies and Persecution'', with Gabor Klaniczay. *(editor) ''Christian Demonology And Popular Mythology : Demons, Spirits, Witches'', with Gabor Klaniczay. ''Fairies and Witches'' was deemed an "important monograph" on the subject of the link between folklore on fairies and belief in witches, by

Hilda Ellis Davidson Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson (born Hilda Roderick Ellis; 1 October 1914 – 12 January 2006) was an English folklorist. She was a scholar at the University of Cambridge and The Folklore Society, and specialized in the study of Celtic and G ...

, especially as it covered the folklore in regions such as Hungary and Southwestern Europe whose language are "Europe not normally accessible" to many readers.

References

External links

Listing at the Hungarian Academy of Science

Hungarian Doctoral Council - Profile
*
Works of Éva Pócs
in the Kriza János Ethnographic Society's Text Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Pocs, Eva 1936 births Living people Hungarian anthropologists Hungarian ethnographers Hungarian women anthropologists Herder Prize recipients