Violetta Zentai

Violetta Zentai serves as Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University (CEU), alongside her role as Senior Research Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest. With a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Rutgers University (2001), she has shaped public policy education at CEU since co-founding its MA-level public policy program and co-directing the Center for Policy Studies (2003-2020).

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Cultural Anthropology, Rutgers University (2001)

Zentai's research centers on ethnic and gender inequalities within European equality frameworks, critically examining post-socialist capitalisms and social exclusion/inclusion dynamics. She pioneers intersectional analyses of Roma integration across Central and Eastern Europe, while recently investigating anti-gender hate speech by radical right-wing movements and solidarity mechanisms for displaced Ukrainians in authoritarian contexts. Her work bridges academic rigor with policy impact through civil society monitoring and European comparative projects.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2021-2025) reveals evolving thematic clusters: Roma education and labor struggles (2021-2022), pandemic-era care solidarity (2024), and urgent responses to Ukraine's refugee crisis in Hungary (2023-2025). These works demonstrate interdisciplinary convergence across political anthropology, migration studies, and gender policy, consistently emphasizing civil society's role in challenging authoritarian governance while advancing social justice.

No scientific awards are documented in the provided materials.

Dr. Zentai supervises the coordinating team for the Civil Society Monitoring of National Roma Integration Strategies initiative (2017-2020, 2021-2025) and has led major EU-funded projects including:

• GENHA: Hate speech, gender, social networks and political parties
• NEUJOBS: Employment 2025: European Labor Market transitions
• EDUMIGROM: Ethnic Differences in Education and Urban Youth prospects
• QUING: Quality in Gender+ Equality Policies
• INTEGRIM/ChangingEmloyment: Marie Curie networks on labor and migrant inclusion

Her grant portfolio reflects sustained success in securing competitive European research funding for interdisciplinary equality studies.

She actively coordinates transnational civil society networks through the Roma Integration Strategies monitoring initiative and contributes to CEU's Open Learning Initiative (OLIve), providing educational support for refugees and vulnerable migrants across Europe. Her work maintains critical connections between academic research, policy advocacy, and grassroots activism through longstanding partnerships with MONA (Foundation for the Women of Hungary) and the Open Society Foundations.