November 10, 2008

Professor of Hungarian Language and Culture Inaugurated in Chapel Hill, NC
British linguist Peter Sherwood held his inaugural lecture as the first 'László Birinyi, Sr. Distinguished Professor of Hungarian Language and Culture' in the Dey Hall of the Department of Slavistic Languages and Literatures at the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, NC on Thursday evening, November 6, 2008.

 

Peter Sherwood holding his inaugural lecture in Hungarian studies

His lecture bore the title 'An Island of Sound and the Tell-Tale Peep-Hole: Hungarian Studies Today', and included the Hungarian poem ‘Tanár az én apám’ (My father is a teacher) by Dezső Kosztolányi. The Embassy of Hungary was represented during the lecture by Cultural Attaché Béla Gedeon.

 

The invitation to the inaugural lecture in Hungarian studies by Professor Peter Sherwood

Peter Sherwood is a British Professor of Linguistics, who was born in Hungary, and left the country with his family after 1956. He worked as a linguist in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University College London in the capital of the United Kingdom between 1972 and 2007, his first and only employer for 35 years. Between 1982 and 1990, he worked closely with the ‘Hungarian Noah Webster’, Professor László Országh on the editing and abridging of the English-Hungarian and Hungarian-English academic dictionary, which were later published in 1990 and 2002 by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Press. Peter Sherwood has been working at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill since January 1, 2008.

 

After the lecture, Cultural Attaché Béla Gedeon presented Professor Peter Sherwood the gifts of the Embassy: an illustrated book on Hungary, classical piano music CDs, and a bottle of Hungarian red wine

He is one of the most outstanding living English interpreters and promoters of Hungarian literature and culture, a translater of volumes by several Hungarian writers and poets (among others, Bálint Balassi, István Bibó, Ferenc Herczeg, Attila József, Amy Károlyi, Zsigmond Móricz, István Örkény, János Pilinszky, György Somlyó, Zsuzsa Takács, Krisztina Tóth). His latest translations include a novel, The Book of Fathers by Miklós Vámos (Apák könyve, in Hungarian) and a collection of essays titled Trees by Béla Hamvas (Fák, in Hungarian). He published several volumes on the grammatic system of the Hungarian language; and on the Khanti (Ostyak) and Mansi (Vogul) groups of the Finno-Ugrian language family.

 

Professor Peter Sherwood wearing his Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (middle), with Cultural Attaché Béla Gedeon and Mónika Varga

As a recognition of his three and a half decades long academic career, Peter Sherwood was presented the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary by the Hungarian Ambassador in London, England on October 13, 2007, for his work in translating and promoting Hungarian literature and culture.