Nora Malatinszky, undergraduate student
By Eric Young, Undergraduate Student
Nora Malatinszky is an undergraduate student at Mason where she enrolled in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution in the Fall of 2017. Ever since she was a child, Nora has made herself keen to the events and ideas of international politics and peacebuilding projects. She suggests that this interest may have come from her close-knit family background. “Lots of families have topics they avoid discussing or have a set opinion that they don’t bother trying to alter,” she says. “Growing up, there was nothing we couldn’t talk about. Since I was very young, the dinner table has always been the place to discuss politics, social inequality, finances, and culture.”
When I asked Nora where she has been and where she plans to go, she responded with just two words: “All over.” Nora has had the great fortune of visiting over 25 countries, participated in multiple foreign student exchange programs, and has often studied abroad since the age of 15. Through these opportunities, she has learned multiple languages and gained a variety of experiences she would not have otherwise seen.
As a Hungarian-American, she understands what it feels like to come from an immigrant family, whose ability to be heard in domestic politics has been limited. Because of this, she is interested in promoting the rights of individuals who reside in places they do not call home, whether they are temporary travelers, refugees, or immigrants.
Nora currently works at S-CAR’s John Burton Library (JBL) as a knowledge management assistant. As part of her job, she works as a librarian, and you might have seen her filming events, conferences, and dissertation defenses with the rest of the JBL team. In her time as a student at S-CAR, she has collaborated with her peers in creating Mason’s UN Peace Project and attended the youth peace conference at the UN Headquarters in September of 2017.
Nora will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in May of 2020, as she concentrates her studies on building peace in divided societies. Nora hopes to obtain her master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution by Fall of 2021. In the future, she looks forward to pursuing research on the structural violence, social instability, and psychological epidemics that are present in Eastern Europe. She feels inspired by her professors and student peers who travel to countries to directly work in conflict zones with policymakers. Outside of her work and studies, she enjoys outdoor activities and triathlete sports, as well as cooking with her grandmother.