The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) at Central European University (CEU) is a complex archival institution. OSA is both a repository of important collections, primarily related to the history of the Cold War and grave international human rights violations, and a laboratory of archival experiments on new ways of assessing, contextualizing, presenting, and making use of archival documents.
OSA is a research institute dealing with archival, taxonomical, informational and historical problems related to its holdings, and also reflecting on the role, obligations, and limits (as well as how to overcome the limits) of repositories that preserve important historical sources. OSA, its holdings, and the research based on its collections, are the basis of an expanding teaching program. OSA receives students from around the globe, who come here to study the role and use of archival evidence, the changing functions of the archives, and the special methodological problems of studying the sources of the fantasies on which the Cold War was constructed. Its professional archival and research work is integrated with complex public programs, some of which OSA also archives, and its Galeria Centralis serves as the focal point of exhibitions, performances, installations, film screenings, lectures, and seminars.