The lecturers of Blinken OSA have launched the Archives, Evidence and Human Rights (AEHR) course in the 2021/22 winter semester for CEU students for the 20th time. Offered continuously, the oldest element in the education portfolio of Blinken OSA was initiated in 2002 under the aegis of the Department of Legal Studies at CEU, but over the years many students from other departments joined as well. Since 2012, the course is announced at the Department of History as well, thus enriching the course’s workshops and discussions culturally and from the perspective of its disciplinary approach.
In the past decades, more than 200 students have completed the course, and some of them started working in the professional archival field after finishing their university education. Also contributing to this, since 2017 the Archives has offered an archival specialization course titled Archives and Evidentiary Practices Specialization, the application condition to which is to successfully complete the AEHR course.
An important aspect of the course is the individual research work of the students, primarily in the Blinken OSA holdings, with the support of a consultant. As teaching takes place in Vienna, and the documents preserved at the Archives—beyond online capacities—are physically located and accessible in the Research Room in Budapest, the students can spend a week during their research period at the Archives, when they can do intensive research on the textual and audiovisual collections and, also having personal consultations with their supervisors. The course is taught and put together by Blinken OSA colleagues Iván Székely, Csaba Szilágyi, and András Mink.