Andrea Peto

Andrea Peto is a Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University (CEU), Vienna, Austria, and a Doctor of Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She is also affiliated with the CEU Democracy Institute and the Undergraduate Studies program. Her academic work spans gender studies, Holocaust memory, political violence, and the challenges of illiberalism in higher education.

• Ph.D. (summa cum laude), Contemporary History, Eötvös University, Budapest (1992)
• Dr. habil., Contemporary History, Eötvös University (2005)
• Doctor of Science (Dr. Sc.), Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2014)
• M.A. in Sociology and History, Marx University of Economics and Eötvös University

Her research centers on European comparative social and gender history, women’s movements, oral history, and the Holocaust, with a particular focus on gendered memory, women as perpetrators, and reproductive politics in authoritarian regimes. She has published 7 monographs and over 300 articles and chapters, and her work appears in leading journals such as Journal of Women’s History, Feminist Theory, and Journal of Genocide Research. Her recent publications analyze the transformation of higher education under illiberal regimes, museum memory politics, and abortion regulation in Hungary.

The latest articles reflect a deep engagement with themes of illiberalism, academic freedom, gendered war memory, and public history. Her scholarship reveals a consistent focus on how gender, memory, and power intersect in shaping historical narratives and contemporary politics, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

• Officer’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary
• Bolyai Prize, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values (2018)
• University of Oslo Human Rights Award (2022)
• Doctor Honoris Causa, Södertörn University, Sweden

Peto has supervised numerous students and is actively involved in academic advising and mentorship. She has received research grants from major international bodies and has served on advisory boards including the Horizon2020 Societal Challenge Advisory Group and the Hungarian Accreditation Committee. She contributes to public scholarship through op-eds in Project Syndicate, OpenDemocracy, and Le Monde.

She leads and participates in research teams such as the COST Action on gender and science, and the interdisciplinary project 'When Nationalism Fails' on Holocaust museums. She is editor-in-chief of East European Holocaust Studies and serves on the editorial boards of seven international journals. Her podcast series on WWII memory and democracy reflects her commitment to public engagement and interdisciplinary dialogue.