Newsletter Austrian-American Educational Commission

Issue 10 Spring 2015 Editorial: Looking Ahead

Some birthdays have more symbolic import than others, but all birthdays are a good opportunity to look back, to take stock, and to look into the future, too. Since the Austrian-American Fulbright Program is on the eve of the sixty-fifth year of its bilateral exchanges, I also want to encourage you to save a few dates to “...to promote celebrate. mutual Looking Back: An Ingenious Idea understanding In 1946, J. William Fulbright, a junior Senator from Arkansas, based between the on his own experience abroad as a Rhodes scholar in the mid- 1920s, was intented to contribute to the creation of a more people of the peaceful, tolerant, and collaborative world, and he came up with a ingenious idea: amending a piece of legislation that had nothing to do with education or exchange – the War Surplus Property Act of 1944 – in a manner that would allow the U.S. government to use Dr. Lonnie Johnson and the peoples the proceeds from the sale of U.S. wartime surpluses overseas to AAEC Executive Director of other nations fund an educational exchange program that came to bear his name. The so-called Fulbright Act also innovatively provided for the by means of establishment of binational commissions in the handful of countries that initially participated in the program, thus sharing the educational and responsibilities for the decision-making related to the program and the nomination of grantees with partner countries. was among that inaugural cluster of countries to cultural conclude an executive “Fulbright agreement” with the United States between 1948 and 1953. The picture of the signing of this agreement on June 6, 1950 in Washington, D.C. is iconic: the good senator exchange...” from Arkansas standing been the U.S. Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, and Ludwig Kleinwächter, the (from the plenipotentiary representing Austria. The Austrian-American Fulbright Program is almost as old as the Fulbright Program itself, and it will be 65 years young this year! Fulbright-Hays Act)

AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL From l. to r.: COMMISSION (FULBRIGHT COMMISSION) Dean quartier21/MQ Acheson, Museumsplatz 1 Senator Ful- A-1070 bright, and Phone: (+431) 236 7878-0 Ludwig Fax: (+431) 236 7878-17 Kleinwächter www.fulbright.at

Issue 10 Page 2 IN THIS ISSUE

www.fulbright.at Editorial: Looking Ahead pg. 1-4

Fulbright Program Orientations 2014 and 2015 pg. 5 Like us on USTA Orientation and Second-Year Kick-Off pg. 6

Unexpected Connections- Utah to Austria to Tajikistan pg. 7

Highlights of International Education Week pg. 8

The Ambassador‘s Reception pg. 9 Follow us on

Vienna Saxfest 2015 pg. 10

AUT Fulbrighter Lisa Truttman's Short Film Babash pg. 10

FLTA Maria Hitzginger Blogs for American Corner Innsbruck pg. 11

US Scholars Orientation pg. 11 Watch us on

New: USTA Regional Coordinators pg. 12

Update: Fulbright Women’s Round Table pg. 12

Fulbright- MQ–MuseumsQuartier Wien/ quartier21Artist-in-Residence Keith Kovach pg. 13

EducationUSA–An Update pg. 14

AAEC Program Participants pg. 15

www.fulbright.at

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Continued from Page One

Part of the first class of Austrian Fulbright grantees on the S.S. Constitution, Genoa, September 1951

Commemorations lend themselves to looking back with a certain nostalgia, and it is exactly this sentiment that another iconic photo associated with the inaugural year of the Austrian-American program awakens: part of the initial class of over 100 (!) Austrian Fulbrighters on board the S.S. Constitution in Genoa bound for the unbelievable adventure of a fully-funded year of study at colleges and universities all over the United States. Those were the olden days, and for Austria certainly not the good old days: war-torn, poverty-stricken, and occupied by four powers, in the midst of the gigantic projects of political and economic recovery. For decades, the Fulbright Program was the parade opportunity – and one of the few existing opportunities – for Austrian students and scholars or scientists to study or pursue research abroad. And how times have changed! Today, it is one among many opportunities that students and university personnel have to pursue their studies all over the world, and it still indisputably is a great opportunity.

The Austrian-American Fulbright Program has evolved as the environment of the program has changed. The Fulbright Program initially relied exclusively on U.S. government funding, but when these resources ran out, a new piece of legislation, the Fulbright- Hays Act of 1961, provided for U.S. government funding for the program as a line item in the federal budget, and it foresaw contributions by partner governments and from other nongovernmental sources. In Austria, the Austrian government endowed the program with 60 million Schillings in 1963 that came of the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan) funds that the U.S. had recently turned over to the Republic of Austria, and this funding provided for the Austrian contribution for the bilateral program for over 20 years. When this fund was depleted in the mid-1980s, the Austrian government then stepped in with direct annual contributions that first matched and then later surpassed the U.S. government’s support for the program. Austria is among those partner countries in the global Fulbright community that distinguish themselves in this manner.

The heyday of government support for the program was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, animated no doubt by the end of the Cold War, the enthusiasm for European integration, and the first wave of “internationalization” at Austrian universities. However, funding faltered in the mid-1990s when the Clinton administration introduced a series of budget cuts to reduce the U.S. deficit, and ever since then there have been periodic funding challenges for education and exchange on both sides of the Atlantic. For so many institutions that have relied on public funding, regardless of its sources, the twenty-first century seems to have been characterized by different kinds of “budget consolidation,” “fiscal packages,” “rebalancing,” and the like.

The Fulbright Program Today

The Austrian-American Fulbright Program has not only fared well under changing circumstances but also responded to challenges innovatively, and it weathered the funding crunch in the 1990s well. The core funding for the program from both governments has been relatively stable since then, on the one hand, and starting in the late 1990s, the Fulbright Commission began to expand the opportunities it has been brokering for its grantees by enhancing its collaborative relationships with institutions in Austria and the United States, on the other hand. There were 50 Austro-American Fulbrighter grantees in 1997-98, but there will be 80 on the program in 2015-16.

For example, the Austrian-American Educational Commission has concluded over 26 partner agreements with Austrian universities, Fachhochschulen, research institutes, and museums as well as the Hall Foundation and the Botstiber Foundation as well as the Center for Austrian Studies at the in the United States, and these partnerships that have substantially increased the number of grants available to scholars, and U.S. scholars in particular. As a small country, Austria may be proud of being among the top ten U.S. Fulbright scholar programs in the world.

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Continued from Page Three Austrian and U.S. Fulbright students receive support from a wide variety of public and private sources on both sides of the Atlantic, too. In the coming year of 2015-16, for example, the Austrian government committed $325,000 to funding Austrian Fulbright students, and U.S. univerisities provided them with an additional $268,000 in scholarships, grants, and tuition remissions: 80 cents of additional support for every Fulbright dollar.

Between ten and fifteen U.S. colleges and universities host Austrian German Foreign Language Teaching Assistants each year by providing them with generous packages of on-site support and tuition remission to facilitate their stays. Finally, since the late 1990s, the number of U.S. Teaching Assistants at secondary schools Austria in the program that the AAEC has coordinated for the Austrian Ministry of Education since the early 1960s has doubled from 70 to over 140, and these U.S. TAs are in schools in communities large and small all over Austria.

The environment of the Fulbright Program certainly has changed dramatically since the inception of the program. Cash awards and in-kind contributions by organizations that are partnering with the Austrian Fulbright Commission on both sides of the Atlantic account for an increasing number of the opportunities program participants have today. In the olden days, the U.S. government and U.S. institutions exclusively bore the costs of the Fulbright Program, but the program eventually became a collaborative venture funded by both governments. Nowadays, the Austrian Fulbright Commission expends the majority of the discretionary or core funding it receives from both governments not on grants but on the effort and the infrastructure the AAEC needs to provide a wide range of services and opportunities for individuals and institutions in both countries, and the grants are increasingly being funded by a wide variety of partners committed to the ideas and values that have informed the Fulbright Program since its inception. (Incidentally, the AAEC’s Annual Report for 2013-14, is up on our website, if you want to take a look.)

Save the Dates: October 3 in DC and November 19 in Vienna

The German Studies Association will be holding its annual early October meeting in Washington, D.C. this year, and the Austrian Embassy will be organizing a reception for all of the “Austrianists” attending the GSA on the evening of October 3 that also will serve to acknowledge the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Austrian-American Fulbright Program. The GSA reception and the Fulbright commemoration dovetail nicely because so many scholars, who have specialized in Austrian studies in the United States over the years, “started” their careers in Austria as Fulbright grantees and are alumni of the program.

On November 19, there also will be a commemorative event with U.S. Ambassador Alexa Wesner and Austrian State Secretary Harald Mahrer in the Oval Halle at the MuseumsQuartier for the alumni, friends, associates and partners of the Austrian- American Program. Details on both events will be posted on the AAEC website at www.fulbright.at. We hope to see you there!

Photo by Media Intern Susan Bryant

Current U.S. Fulbrighters (2014-15) with the outgoing cohort of Austrian Fulbrighters (2015-16) and AAEC staff at the Fulbright Seminar in American Studies in Strobl on Wolfgangsee in Salzburg in April

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September 16-19: Orienting U.S. Fulbrighters

The Fulbright Commission welcomed 16 U.S. Fulbright student grantees and 4 scholars at the Fall 2014 US Fulbright orientation from September 16th-19th to kick off the 2014-15 program year and the academic year in Austria. The orientation program provides grantees with an important opportunity for students and scholars to get to know the other Fulbrighters in their cohort and brings grantees outside of Vienna — the out-of-towners — in to the capital.

Photos by Media Intern Celeste Maus and Program Assistant Betsy Akins

Orientation, which is held on the AAEC‘s premises in the MQ, naturally addresses a variety of hands-on and housekeeping issues related to getting set up and running, but it also includes a series of meetings with experts conceived to give grantees a feeling for the cultural, historical, and institutional landscape of Austria, too, including apparently small but important details on local manners and customs. It also includes a walking tour of Vienna‘s Ringstrasse and a tour of the Austrian National Library as well as a day trip out to the beautiful Wachau Valley to see the monestary of Melk and castle ruins on the banks of the Danube at Dürnstein. Four full days, well spent!

U.S. Fulbright Students (with the Burg Tor and the Hofburg Palace in the background) on walking tour led by Executive Director Dr. Lonnie Johnson.

In a casual moment at the U.S. Fulbright Orientation between sessions U.S. Fulbright Students Ariana Lipkind, Philip Pierick, Courtney Fowler, Luca Antonucci, and Christina Pump chat with US Fulbright Scholar Professor David Luft and U.S. Student Program Officer Molly Roza.

Issue 10 Page 6 September USTA Orientation More than 100 U.S. teaching assistants (USTAs) in Austria participated in two orientations held in Graz and Saalbach Hinterglemm orangized by the Pädagogische Hochschulen of Styria and Salzburg, respectively, and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education and Women's Affairs, in conjunction with the respective provincial Boards of Education (Landesschulräte). Over the course of five days, USTAs participated in workshops, learned about the Austrian educational system, the duties of teaching assistants, and finer points of lesson planning: with some singing, dancing and hiking thrown in for good measure!

USTAs in Graz brainstorm about lessons they will be giving to students in Graz as a part of their training.

There is no feeling of success like making it to the summit! USTAs and program officer Jürgen Hörmann take a hike together at orientation in Hinterglemm.

USTA Second-Year Kick-Off Workshop and Reception

The U.S. Teaching Assistant Program provides opportunities for USTAs to extend their positions for a second year, and this year thirteen second-year USTAs participated in a workshop at the AAEC offices in the MuseumsQuartier aimed at network building, providing a platform for feedback about the program, sharing experiences, and discussing challenges of the coming year. A reception followed the workshop so that incoming first-year USTAs could meet, network with and gain insight from their second-year colleagues.

USTAs discuss highlights and challenges at the AAEC office

Issue 10 Page 7 Unexpected Impacts – Wildlife Biology from Utah in Vienna impacts on Snow Leopards in Tajikistan

When Dr. Sam Zeveloff, a zoology professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah was preparing for the classes he would teach in Vienna, Austria, he had certain goals in mind. In the course of perparing for his Fulbright award, he was developing courses for graduate students at the Institut für Wildbiologie und Jagdwirtschaft (Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management) at the Universität für Bodenkultur in Vienna: better known by the acronym BOKU (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences). Among his primary objectives was to share his knowledge about wildlife conservation in the United States. The BOKU is highly regarded for its programs in natural resources management and attracts students from throughout the world. He had no idea that he would soon be contributing to an effort to save snow leopards in far off Tajikistan.

When classes started, Dr. Zeveloff was delighted to learn that his students were from many different countries. Not only Austrians, but also young women and men from Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands were in attendance. During introductions on the first day, he learned that one of his students, Dr. Khalil Karimov, was from Tajikistan: the mountainous land-locked country in Central Asia that became independent in 1991 following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Tajikistan is renowned for its rugged alpine landscape which accounts for more than 90% of its territory. Dr. Karimov, who holds a degree in veterinary medicine, had recently started graduate work in wildlife ecology at BOKU. Before arriving in Vienna, he worked for several years as a biologist in this nation’s rugged landscapes. Khalil has been involved in studies of Tajikistan’s wolves, Marco Polo sheep, and other mammals. For his thesis work at BOKU, he is studying one of Central Asia’s most beautiful and rare mammals, the snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Sam Zeveloff on the Danube According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the snow leopard is endangered. Their global population is estimated to be only between 4,000 to 7,000. Sadly, they may have declined by at least 20% over the past two generations (16 years) due to the loss of habitat, as well as that of their prey (e.g., the bharal or blue sheep, and the ibex). Furthermore, their “poaching” or illegal killing is likely to continue due to the growing demand for their hides, especially from China. Indeed, the majority of the snow leopard’s range is in China. As a result, major efforts have been initiated to prevent its further decline. A prominent organization, Panthera, which is devoted to the conservation of wild cats, is supporting Khalil’s snow leopard research. He is a recent recipient of its Kaplan Award, the world’s only scholarship program which supports young biologists in the field of cat conservation. To facilitate his training in the techniques for monitoring Tajikistan’s snow leopards, this past December, he spent three weeks studying cougars in northwestern Wyoming. There, Panthera supports the Teton Cougar Project, which utilizes cutting-edge GPS (global positioning system) collars to track their movements. Khalil has expressed that his participation in Professor Zeveloff’s classes have helped prepare him for his experiences in Wyoming, and ultimately Tajikistan. In his Mammalian Conservation Issues in North America course, Dr. Zeveloff and his students have discussed various issues pertaining to the cougar’s status in North America. They have addressed the conservation of mammals in the northern Rocky Mountains, as well as the missions of the governmental agencies responsible for managing the region’s wildlife. Fortuitously, Dr. Zeveloff’s research experiences in that area, beginning with his own graduate work at the University of Wyoming, proved valuable to a young Tajik ecologist. Moreover, they have had numerous conversations outside of class, during which they have learned much from one another about the issues facing wildlife in their countries. Quite unexpectedly, Dr. Zeveloff’s Fulbright experience may play a role in the survival of Tajikistan’s snow leopards. The serendipitous nature of his friendship with Dr. Khalil Karimov will surely result in a continued and fruitful dialogue about the conservation of wildlife across the globe.

Text and photos courtesty of Sam Zeveloff, Leopard photo Dr. Khalil Karimov courtesy of Khalil Karimov

Issue 10 Page 8 International Education Week, November 17-21, 2014: Taking a look at Austrian-American Academic Mobility

Fulbright Austria sponsored two workshops under the auspices of International Education Week, which is always scheduled for the third week of November, this year: the first was conceived to foster connections between resident directors of the various U.S. study abroad programs in Austria, and the second (cohosted by ETS), was designed to help Austrian international offices share best practices and prepare their students for the GRE and TOEFL.

The seminar for directors of American resident study-abroad programs in Austria on November 13-14 aimed to improve cooperation and coordination betweeen individual directors and programs, and it was an opportunity to share experiences and explore synergies. Held at the Amerika Haus and co-sponsored by Fulbright Austria, EducationUSA and the Cultrual Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy Vienna, it was the first meeting of its kind and provided the directors of various „stand- alone“ study abroad programs with opportunities to discuss common concerns. According to the Insitute for International Education‘s Open Doors statistics, over 2,600 Americans study in Austria annually in a wide range of short and long-term programs.

The purpose of the second workshop held at Raum D in the MQ on November 20 was to take a look at the current status of academic exchange between Austria and the U.S. from the prespective of those organizations responsible for promoting academic mobility and funding awards. . The workshop opened with a analysis of the latest statistics on student mobility between Austria and the US, provided by the Institute for International Education (IIE)‘s Open Doors report and augmented by self-reported numbers provided by Austrian insitituions. Then the Fulbright Commission, the Marshall Plan Foundation, OeAD, the Austrian Exchange Service) held a brief „fair“ to provide staff from the international offices of Austrian institutions of higher education with the opportunity to ask detailed questions on a one-to-one basis. The panel of practioners that followed took a comparative look at best practices in international mobility at selected institutions. After a brief break, workshop co-sponsors from ETS provided an inside look into the TOEFL and GRE to participants with the tools that they need to advise students on how to best prepare for these tests and test-taking strategies. The purpose of this exercise was not only familiarize international office staff with the GRE and TOEFL, but also to enable them to reassure students that the tests need not be an obstacle to mobility. The workshop concluded with an informal networking reception, sponsored by ETS.

Text and photos by the Fulbright Staff

Issue 10 Page 9 US Ambassador Wesner hosts Fulbrighters The highlight of International Education week was the reception for Fulbrighters that US Ambassador Alexa Wesner hosted at her residence on November 17. She invited "homecoming" Austrian grantees, who had just finished their stays in the U.S,. to join the "incoming" U.S. grantees of the 2014-15 cohort, to her residence, along with many other friends, associates, and partners of the AAEC. Over eighty guests enjoyed an evening of refreshments and animated conversation. In her welcoming remarks, Ambassador Wesner underlined the enduring importance of the Fulbright Program as an ongoing Austrian-American joint enterprise, and Director General Barbara Weitgruber from the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research, and Economics — an alumna of the Fulbright program and current chair — highlighted the contributions of the Fulbright-University of Nagtural Resoureces and Life AAEC’s many institutional partners. Sciences Vienna Visiting Professor Sam Zeveloff and his wife Linda Zeveloff chat with AAEC board member Prof. Mitchell Ash

Photos courtesy of the US Embassy of Vienna http:// bitly.com/1xW2UqG

Fulbright-University of Vienna Visiting Professor Stefan Bird-Pollan (l.) in the receiving line with Blaine Wesner, Ambassabor Wesner, and Dr. Lonnnie Johnson

U.S. Fulbright Student Zachary Rothstein-Dowden, US Fulbright Student Richard Lambert, and Christen Lambert have a lively discussion

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Vienna Sax Festival 2015 2014-15 U.S. Fulbright Student Phil Pierick was assistant director of the third Vienna International SaxFest. Phil performed in and helped to organize fourteen concerts over seven days in March, celebrating the saxophone throughout Vienna in venues such as Wiener Konzerthaus, ORF Radiokulturhaus, 21er Haus Museum, Karlskirche and Stefansdom. The festival also featured master classes by saxophonists from around and exhibitions at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität. Visit ViennaSaxFest.com to learn more.

Photo and description courtesy of Phil Pierick

Austrian Fulbrighter’s Film “Babash” featured at the New York Film Festival in October

"Babash is a parrot. He lives in Los Angeles. Kept by an Iranian family, he speaks mostly Farsi. Sometimes Babash mixes English and Azeri into his conversations. Behrouz Rae has made friends with Babash over the years..." Austrian Fulbrighter Lisa Truttman's short film "Babash" was shown at the New York Film Festival on October 3 and later at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. Lisa graduated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna and is enrolled in an MFA program at CalArts School of Art, where she created "Babash" with Behrouz Rae. Read more on Lisa's website: www.lisatruttmann.com.

Text and photo courtesy of Lisa Truttmann

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#mariascorner Maria’s Corner: A very warm good morning Austria from San Francisco! The last two weeks I was lucky Austrian FLTA enough travelling up the coastal highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco with my final stop in Palo Alto in order to attend Fulbright's in Hartwick, FLTA orientation at #. All this means: Hollywood sign, walk of fame, venice and other white beaches, sunburn for pale europeans, amazing city views, coastal cliffs, whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz and cable car and as topping for this delicious frozen yogurt my life Austrian FLTA Maria Hitzginger is seems to be right now I present: spending 4 teaching at Hartwick College in wonderful days with more than 60 people New York during the 2014-15 from 28 countries, combining 18 languages at Stanford University. Everything that is left for school year. In addition to me to say is: WOW! I can't even imagine what teaching she has been recording the rest of this year will bring. So stay tuned Photos and blog entries cour- her experience and sharing it with and you might want to check out tesy of American Corner Inns- the American Corner Innsbruck #FulbrightAustria 's homepage. Well, I have to bruck and Maria’s Corner via the name #mariascorner. board now - there is a flight to New York to https://www.facebook.com/ catch and a job as Language Teaching americancorneribk Assistant at #Hartwick College to begin. Warm wishes and love, Maria

#mariascorner after 4 intense yet simply fantastic days at #fulbright 's flta mid-year conference in washington d.c. full of interesting key note talks, breakout sessions, an international talent show and so much more I want to share my favourite moment of this weekend with you: 20 people from 8 different countries enjoying one last coffee together before heading in different directions again. We do not know if, when and where we will meet again but we all share this outstanding experience #fulbright simply is!

Loads of love and merry christmas everyone!!

February U.S. Scholars Orientation

Fifteen new U.S. Fulbright scholars participated in the 2015 U.S. Fulbright Scholars orientation from February 26th-27th, which included lectures and discussions in Fulbright Austria's MQ offices, a walking tour of Vienna's historic Ringstrasse, and a reception with U.S. Embassy Vienna colleagues, Gilman Scholars, current U.S. Fulbrighters, Austrian Fulbright candidates, alumni and more.

Photo by Media Intern Susan Bryant

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New to the USTA Program: Regional Coordinators

In an attempt to reach out to the USTAs who were placed at schools in some of the smaller and more rural Austrian communities and to facilitate networking and knowledge sharing among the second- year "veteran" USTAs and first-year "newcomers," USTA program officer Dr. Jürgen Hörmann identified a number of USTAs who were interested in serving as "regional coordinates" in each of the nine respective Austrian provinces. Equipped with a year of experience, a little bit of financial support from the AAEC, and lots of enthusiam, these nine coordinators focused on putting together local events for the USTAs in their respective provinces and helping advise USTAs who were new to the Program Assistant Betsy Akins, Coordinater for Lower area. The combination of recreating Austrian and second-year USTA Molli Bauke, USTA together, networking, socializing, and peer Program Officer Jürgen Hörmann, and Coordinator for mentoring has proven to be a great success Vienna and second-year USTA Tsesa Monaghan and will be regular part of the program in the future !

The Fulbright Womens’ Roundtable: Heather Laube

At the most recent event Fulbright Women's Round Table at the Amerika Haus in Vienna on March 24, Dr. Heather Laube, who is currently the Fulbright Visiting Professor in Cultural Studies at Karl- Franzens-Universität Graz discussed "Making Connections and Making Change: Women's Networking and Mentoring to Transform Society." Dr. Heather Laube is a feminist sociologist who is especially interested in the ways women, and feminists in particular, work to transform the gendered institutions in which they live, work, and play. Her scholarly work focuses on the role feminists have played, and continue to play, in transforming academia, the ways they practice their politics through their work, and how the possibilities and constraints of the academy shape individual careers, the construction of knowledge, disruption, and protest. She is also curious about the ways feminist academics and women and feminists outside the academy can work in concert to transform society. Dr. Laube has a PhD in sociology from the University at Albany, State University of New York, and is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Photo courtesty of University of Michigan-Flint

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Partnership in Focus: MQ-quartier 21 Artist-in- Residence Keith Kovach’s “Neo-Biedermeier” Photos

Since 2007, the Fulbright Commission has been fortunate to have its offices in the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna — one of the city‘s premiere cultural venues — and it is proud to be part of the MQ‘s quartier21: an umbrella and a support structure that provides space and support to about 50 small to medium-sized cultural initiatives in a wide variety of fields ranging from fashion, design, and digital media to photography, literature, and education. quartier21 sponsors an ambitious artist-in-residence program and the Fulbright Commission is pleased to co-sponsor one visiting artist each year under the auspices of this program.

Fulbright-MQ/quartier21 Artists-in-Residence spend two months in Vienna and live in one of the eight studio apartments that are part of the MQ‘s infrastructure. This year‘s grantee, Keith Kovach, an associate professor from the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of Central Florida, was in Vienna during January and February to exectute his project: "Winter in Vienna: A Visceral Experience of Time and Place." Kovach‘s project proposal was to produce a cohesive body of photographs in the style of street photography with Vienna as the subjects to capture the sense of time and space in Vienna in the winter of 2015 (which also collaborated well with him. It was unseasonably warm and balmy, when he arrived, but it cooled down and snowed for him shortly thereafter.) Kovach described the style of the collection of images he produced while in Vienna as "neo- Biedermier," presented his Viennese oevre at an exhibition and closing celebration in the MQ Raum D on February 24 at the Prater amusement park, winter 2015 end of his stay, and is planning an accompanying publication. (All photos on this page courtesy of Keith Kovach) Applying for the U.S. Scholar Program! Deadline: August 3rd

Since the late 1990s, the Austrian-American Educational Commission has been fortunate to conclude a wide range of collaborative agreements with Austrian universities and universities of applied sciences as well as research centers, cultural incubators like quartier21 in the MQ, and museums.

As a result there are a total of twenty-five different Fulbright awards open to U.S. scholars and scientists in a wide variety of disciplines at an equally wide variety of institutions all over Austria that provide them with flexible opportunites for teaching and research.

For details on each of these opportunities as well as tips on applications, consult the website of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars at www.cies.org.

Viennese coffee house, winter 2015

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EducationUSA Update: MIUSA, OeAD Article, Ask an Adviser

Things have been busy lately for Molly Roza, the Fulbright Commission’s resi- dent educational adviser with Education USA. In November, she organized a workshop focusing on best practices for including students with disabilities in advising services at the EducationUSA Europe and Eurasia Regional Forum in Tbilisi, Georgia. Twenty participants and fellow advisors shared ideas for improving access to educational advising for students with disabilities. Photo courtesty MIUSA http://goo.gl/Do2hWU

An article written by Roza on the topic of sports and sports scholarships in the U.S. was featured in the March 2015 issue of OeAD‘ News.

Molly Roza was featured on the U.S. Embassy in Vienna’s Facebook page as the second expert in their Facebook Q&A Sessions. She produced a short promotional video about study in the US and the Q&A Session and then spent an afternoon ‘live’ on the Embassy’s page answering questions by peo- ple who wrote in with questions regarding studying in the U.S., from visa issues to which U.S. universi- ties would be a best fit. The live chat was followed by more than 2,000 Facebook users and can be found on the Embassy’s Facebook page.

Photo courtesty of the U.S. Embassy Vienna‘s Facebook page. http://goo.gl/Do2hWU

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2014-15 Austrian and U.S. Fulbright Grantees www.fulbright.at

Austrian Fulbright Scholars (7) Like us on U.S. Fulbright Guest Professors and Scholars (23)

Austrian Fulbright Students in the US (10)

U.S. Fulbright Students at Austrian Universities (18) Austrian Foreign Language Teaching Assistants at U.S. Colleges and Universities (13) Follow us on Austrian Fulbright Students in the U.S. - Extentions from previous academic years (24)

U.S. Foreign Language Teaching Assistants at Austrian Secondary Schools - a program coordinated by the Fulbright Commission for the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education and Women‘s Affairs (142) Watch us on

IMPRESSUM: AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION (FULBRIGHT COMMISSION) quartier21/MQ Museumsplatz 1 A-1070 Vienna Phone: (+431) 236 7878-0 Fax: (+431) 236 7878-17 www.fulbright.at