Anastasia Felcher is an archivist responsible for the Slavic Collection at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives of the CEU. She completed her MA at the CEU (2010) and her PhD at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (2016). She is currently working on her first book, tentatively titled Jewish Cultural Heritage post-1989. Debates on Memory and Preservation in Eastern Europe.
“CEU was my first international educational experience, and the one-year MA program at the History Department did not only introduce me to the takes of the Anglo-American research on East-Central Europe and the historiography inaccessible in my home country, but also broadened my understanding on history as an academic discipline. Engaging with the introductory visits to the Open Society Archives offered to students also introduced me to a variety of historical materials and their practical applicability. Currently, as an archivist at the OSA, I rely on the principle of conscientious information management, a concept learned back during my time as a student at CEU.
Four years after graduating from the MA program, I got back to CEU as a one-year Doctoral Support Program (DSP) fellow affiliated with the cutting-edge program Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. I received highly valuable academic and infrastructural support, which directly contributed to the successful completion of my PhD thesis in heritage management. Moreover, I am indebted to the CEU for a vast and sustainable network of colleagues and friends, most of whom are spread around the world. Some, on the contrary, remained in Budapest, which, apart from professional engagement, now that I work and live here permanently, makes the place feel like home.”