Dr Katalin Halasz
Lecturer in Sociology
- Social Science and Communications
- Social and Political Sciences
- College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences
Summary
Katalin is a body scholar, researching the affective dimensions of power with respect to bodies, race, gender and nationalism. She employs artistic research methods to investigate diverse forms of embodiment and senses of belonging working across film, video art, installation, performance, cross-dressing and curation.
She joined Brunel University as a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in 2021. As part of her Leverhulme research project entitled Affective whiteness: racializing Hungarian national identity Katalin produced the video installation You Are Invited on racial discomfort, which was staged at the Pratt Institute in NYC, at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and at the University of Veracruz in Mexico; and The Bell Rings, a short film, which was awarded Best International Documentary by the Young Jury of the Asti International Film Festival 2024 (Italy), Honorary Mention by the Activists Without Borders Film Festival 2024 (UK) and the CineFest São Jorge 2024 (Brazil), and selected for film festivals in Italy, Romania, Hungary, and the UK. She curated the event Breaking with Humanity? a double film screening and panel discussion in London.
After finishing her PhD in Visual Sociology, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Politics of Patents ERC funded research project at Goldsmiths, University of London. She held teaching positions at City and Goldsmiths universities.
Before her academic career, Katalin worked in the antiracist movement (European Network Against Racism, Action for Race Equality and The Runnymede Trust), and developed her art practice.
Katalin has staged a number of participatory and multimedia performances in Brazil, Bolivia, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, the USA and the UK and curated the exhibitions Visualising Affect and The Future of Art is Urban – Artistic Research Practices and Methods in Social Sciences.
More on her artful sociological research can be found on her website: katalinhalasz.com
Katalin is on the Board of the International Visual Sociology Association and on the Editorial Board of Qualitative Research.
Qualifications
PhD in Visual Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London
Foundation Diploma in Fine Art, Camberwell, University fo the Arts London
MSc in European Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science
LLM, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Pecs
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Newest selected publications
Halász, K. (2025) 'Capacities to be a Body out of Bounds', in Seigworth, GJ., Arthur, M., Truran, WJ. and Shomura, C. (eds.) Capacities To: Affect Up Against Fascism. Lancaster, PA; Vancouver, BC : Imbricate! Press. pp. 15 - 23. ISBN 13: 979-8-3076-1024-4. Open Access Link
Halász, K. (2024) 'Citizenship and discomfort: Wearing (clothing) as an embodied act of citizenship'. The Sociological Review, 72 (3). pp. 570 - 587. ISSN: 0038-0261 Open Access Link
Halász, K. (2024) 'How to do social research with... performance', in Coleman, R., Jungnickel, K. and Puwar, N. (eds.) How to Do Social Research With .... London : Goldsmiths Press. pp. 198 - 206. ISBN 10: 1-913380-40-8. ISBN 13: 978-1-913380-42-7.
Halász, K. (2023) 'Performance Art and Embodied Data Analysis in Arts-based Sociological Research on Whiteness', in Kara, H. (ed.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Creative Research Methods. London : Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 225 - 236. ISBN 10: 1-350-35577-1. ISBN 13: 978-1-350-35574-3. Open Access Link
Halász, K. (2021) 'Affects in making white womanhood', in Hunter, S. and Van der Westhuizen, C. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Critical Whiteness Studies. London : Routledge. pp. 54 - 65. ISBN 10: 0-429-35576-9. ISBN 13: 978-0-367-40379-9.