László Szarka is a historian. After studying philosophy at Comenius University in Bratislava he worked at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, before moving to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest in 1977, where he became Director of the Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities.
From 2001 he was Director of the Institute of Historical Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Since 2009 he has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Teacher Training of the János Selye University in Komárno, Slovakia.
Szarka was a member of the ENRS Advisory Board until 2019.