József Slezák

Country: 
Hungary
Year of Enrollment: 
2019

My doctoral research examines the evolution of European Union public policies and governance in relation to food systems, with a focus on developing the concept of “food citizenship” in the EU. The preliminary title of my dissertation is From Fragmentation to Framework: Towards Food Citizenship in the European Union.

By background, I am a researcher, project manager, and educator focusing on European Union policies related to resource and waste management, household energy efficiency, and sustainable food consumption.

As a researcher, I am the co-author or author of several publications aimed at or published by major policy-influencing organizations in Europe, including the European Commission, the European Environment Agency, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the United Nations Environment Programme.

I began lecturing in the late 2000s, mainly within my research projects, addressing business, government, and non-profit audiences on EU resource and waste management. Since 2019, I have been a part-time departmental co-lecturer at CEU, linked to my PhD studies and focusing on the Circular Economy and the research–policy–practice interface. During the 2023/24 academic year, I was a guest teaching fellow at Corvinus University of Budapest, delivering lectures and seminars on the topics of Circular Economy and sustainable food consumption, among others.

WORK EXPERIENCE

At present (since January 2021)
PhD candidate
Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Vienna, Austria

October 2025
Guest Research Fellow
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 
Brussels School of Governance, Brussels, Belgium

August 2025 – ongoing
Research Associate, Citizen Deliberation Academy
Central European University - Democracy Institute, Environment and Democracy Workgroup, Budapest, Hungary

June 2024 - July 2025
Collaborating Researcher (REAL DEAL project: June 2024 - January 2025 and Citizen Deliberation Academy: February - July 2025)
Central European University - Democracy Institute, Environment and Democracy Workgroup, Budapest, Hungary

Academic Year 2023/24
Guest Teaching Fellow
Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of Sustainable Development, Budapest, Hungary

2014 – 2020
Independent Expert (part time, project-based activities as a self-employed) – Sustainable Consumption and Production in a Globalized World
Zürich, Switzerland and Budapest, Hungary

2012 – 2013
Associated Researcher, Sustainable Consumption and Production
GreenDependent Institute, Gödöllő, Hungary

2003 – 2011
Researcher and Project Manager, Sustainable Consumption and Production
The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Szentendre, Hungary

FAMILY

I am married and the father of two children.

Qualification

BSc Eng (specialized in the Food Industry), College of Food Industry, University of Szeged, Hungary
MSc Inf.Eng (specialized in Systems Engineering), Institute for Information Engineering, University of Miskolc, Hungary
MSc Econ (specialized degree in Engineering Economics, with major in Environmental Management), Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Interdisciplinary Environmental Analysis Postgraduate Specialization Certificate, Közép-európai Egyetem, Budapest, Hungary
Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education, Central European University, Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research, Budapest Hungary & Vienna Austria

Supervisor