Vilmos Voigt, folklorist and semiotician (1940–2025)
Vilmos Voigt, folklorist and semiotician (1940–2025)

Summary/Abstract: Vilmos Voigt, a versatile and prolific scholar, contributed significally to several disciplines, but his most outstanding impact remains in the field of folkloristics and semiotics. Born in Szeged, he moved to Buda during his childhood and later studied Hungarian ethnography at the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University. He graduated in 1963 and began his career at his alma mater, rising through all academic ranks – from assistant lecturer to professor of Hungarian and comparative folklore, head of the Folklore Department, and director of the Institute of Ethnography. Vilmos Voigt was a frequent keynote speaker at international scholarly forums, and the geographic range of his academic travels was wide. He lectured at many universities across Europe and North America. He was an elected Fellow of the American Folklore Society. His first visit to Tartu took place in 1964, and he maintained strong ties to Estonia ever since (see Voigt 1995). In 2010, the University of Tartu awarded him an honorary doctorate in folkloristics (after Felix Oinas) and semiotics (after Thure von Uexküll and Umberto Eco).

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