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Gábor Havas first obtained a university degree in Hungarian language and literature and later an academic candidate degree in sociology. In accordance with his degree, he got a job as a high school teacher, though a few years later he already participated in research projects led by István Kemény and Ottilia Solt. In 1973 he became an associate research fellow at the Institute of Popular Culture, where he was dealing with the life style of poor village people and Roma people. Meanwhile, he organized an amateur drama movement. Starting from 1982 he contributed to a five-year documentary film project. He worked with Pál Schiffer on two films awarded the prize of the best documentary at the Hungarian Film Week. Havas was active in the organizations of the democratic opposition during the 1980s, a co-founder of SZETA (Fund to Support the Poor), an editor and later the editor-in-chief of Beszélő that was first published as a samizdat and later functioned as a weekly. He was an MP of SZDSZ (Party of Free Democrats) during the first cycle of the new democratic Parliament.
He led the national representative Roma survey in 1993, and became a research fellow at the Institute of Sociological Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a professor at the Wesley János College in the same year. Working together with István Kemény and Ilona Liskó, he was engaged in research concerning the educational situation of Roma children and children suffering multiple disadvantages for many years to come. In 2007 and 2008 he worked with a group of people on the Green Book reforming Hungarian education. From 2001 until his retirement in 2008, Havas was director of studies at Romaversitas Foundation.
(written by András Páldi university student)
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