Inside the Marshall Center
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CENTER FOR AUSTRIAN STUDIES Vol. 21, No. 2 • Fall 2009 Inside the Marshall Center ASNAUSTRIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER plus: Meet the new Botstiber Fellow! HABSBURG newsgroup changes ASN/TOC spring snapshots I Letter from the Director 3 Minnesota Calendar 3 News from the Center 4 ASN Interview: Anselm Wagner 6 A Look at the George Marshall Center 8 ASN Interview: Andrej Rahten 10 Opportunities for Giving 13 Publications: News and Reviews 14 Hot off the Presses 17 News from the Field 18 Report from New Orleans 19 ASN Interview: Gloria Kaiser 20 News from the North 22 SAHH News 23 Review: Salzburg Festival 2009 24 Announcements 26 On February 24, Daniel Gilfillan (above), German Studies, Arizona State University, gave a lecture entitled “Sounding Out Austrian Radio Space: Tactical Media, Experi- ASN mental Artistic Practice, and the ÖRF Kunstradio Project.” The Department of German, Austrian Studies Newsletter Scandinavian, and Dutch cosponsored the talk. Photo: Daniel Pinkerton. Volume 21, No. 1 • Spring 2009 Designed & edited by Daniel Pinkerton Editorial Assistants: Linda Andrean, Matthew Konieczny, Mollie Madden, Allison Nunnikhoven ASN is published twice annually, in February and September, and is distributed free of charge to interested subscribers as a public service of the Center for Austrian Studies. Director: Gary B. Cohen Administrative Manager: Linda Andrean Editor: Daniel Pinkerton Send subscription requests or contributions to: Center for Austrian Studies University of Minnesota Attn: Austrian Studies Newsletter 314 Social Sciences Building 267 19th Avenue S. Minneapolis MN 55455 Phone: 612-624-9811; fax: 612-626-9004 Website: http://www.cas.umn.edu Editor: [email protected] ABOUT THE COVER: Left to right, Gary Cohen, CAS director, and Ruth Wodak, professor of applied liguistics, University of Lan- Left to right, Austrian musicians Florian Kitt and Rita Medjimorec performed works by caster. Taken March 13, 2009, after the spring event, “Racism vs. Schumann, Liszt, Strauss, and others in a February 7 concert cosponsored by the School Xenophobia: Transatlantic Perspectives.” Photo: Daniel Pinkerton. of Music, the European Studies Consortium, and the Center. Photo: Thomas König. 2 Austrian Studies Newsletter .. Letter from the Director The current recession has caused much concern CAS for those who work or study in North American colleges and universities. In many places govern- ments have been forced to cut funding signifi- cantly, the value of endowments has fallen, col- fall 2009 lege administrators have reduced programs and payrolls, and students face curtailed curricular calendar offerings and/or higher tuition and fees. In Eng- land, government authorities in May announced cuts of £340 million for the Learning and Skills Wednesday, September 30. Lecture. Council and £180 million for the Higher Educa- Klaus Hoedl, Center for Jewish Studies, tion Funding Council for 2010-11, putting more University of Graz, Austria. “Jews than 4,500 jobs at risk in higher education. In in Viennese Popular Culture around Austria, the universities, which have been under- 1900.” 3:30 p.m., 710 Social Sciences. funded for years, are at loggerheads with the par- Co-sponsored by the University of liament and federal government over a proposal Minnesota Center for Jewish Studies. to cancel tuition fees, which would result in seri- ous budget cuts. Thursday, October 29. The 25th Robert In contrast to the vulnerability of college and A. Kann Memorial Lecture. David S. Luft, university education to swings in the business Horning Endowed Chair in Humanities cycle and shifts in public policy, the academies and Professor of History, Oregon State of science and other government supported University. “Austrian Intellectual History research institutes in Europe, such as the Ludwig ence Foundation and National Endowment for before the Liberal Era: Grillparzer, Stifter, Boltzmann institutes in Austria, the Max Planck the Humanities combined, faced months of and Bolzano.” 3:30 p.m., Wilkins Room, institutes in Germany, and the Centre national uncertainty and delays in making new grants at 215 Humphrey Center. de la recherche scientifique in France, have typi- the beginning of 2009. In the spring, the Minis- cally enjoyed more insulation from external eco- try of Science and Research made a new commit- Friday, November 6. Lecture. Herbert nomic conjunctures and momentary political ment to provide €160 million annually through Blau, the Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood contention. Recent news from Austria and the 2013. While that represents an increase over Professor of the Humanities at the Czech Republic, however, indicates that govern- previous years, the total grant budget will still be University of Washington. “Cultural ment supported research programs also face the a remarkably small sum when one considers the Performance in Modern Austria: From the threat of major restructurings and reductions of costs of present-day scientific research. Dreamwork of Secession to the Orgies their funding. Despite the serious challenges to government- Mystery Theater.” 4:00 p.m., Arena In late 2008, the Austrian Academy of Sci- sponsored research in Austria, scholars who Theatre, Rarig Center. Co-sponsored by the ences was expecting a budget of €106.6 million depend on the Austrian Academy of Sciences Department of Theatre Arts and Dance and for 2009. When the parliament failed to pass a and FWF should be grateful that they are not the Institute for Advanced Study. new budget for 2009 on time, the Academy insti- facing the current problems of the Czech Acad- tuted an emergency budget of €73.5 million. At emy of Sciences. Government support for sci- Tuesday, November 10. Lecture. Franz present, the Academy is working on the assump- entific research grew significantly in the Czech Kernic, Institute for Political Science, tion of €85 million for the calendar year 2009. Republic from its joining the EU in 2004 until University of Innsbruck, Austria, and All institutes and commissions have had to cut the current recession. Facing fiscal hardship, Institute for Strategy and Security their program costs by 20 percent (excluding the Czech government has frozen total research Policy, Vienna, Austria; Visiting Fulbright personnel costs), and the Academy’s vice presi- funding, and in late June it adopted a new uni- Professor, Dept. of Political Science, dent has warned that 50 positions will have to be form point system for measuring the productivity University of Minnesota. “The Rise of cut out. In April the Austrian Federal Ministry and usefulness of all government funded research Europe: Public Opinion and European of Science and Research (BMWF) announced in universities and research institutes. All scien- Foreign and Security Policy.” 3:30 p.m., small increases in its funding for the Academy tific and scholarly disciplines, regardless of the 609 Social Sciences. in 2009 and 2010, but in the meantime critical specific character of their research enterprises revenues from the National Endowment, funded and research products, will be evaluated utiliz- Thursday, November 19. Lecture. Harald by the Austrian National Bank, have plum- ing this new system. Under these provisions, the Rohracher, sociology, Inter-University meted from the €30 million originally projected Czech Academy will lose 20 percent of its total Research Centre for Technology, Work for 2009 to €5 million. This reduction in total government funding for 2010, currently 5 billion and Culture (IFZ), Graz; University funding to the BMWF will cause serious harm crowns annually, and face a net 45 percent reduc- of Klagenfurt; 2009-10 Schumpeter to many programs, but one must also express tion of state funding by 2012. Critics of the new Fellow, Harvard University. “Social amazement that the whole Academy, before the government funding policy argue that it deliber- Science Research for Green Technology cuts, was expected to support its far flung pro- ately favors applied and industrial research pro- Development: Experience from Austrian grams in the humanities, social sciences, and nat- jects at the cost of basic scientific research and Research Programs.” 3:30 p.m., 710 Social ural sciences with such a small base budget. would sacrifice much of the strength and capa- Sciences. In the meantime, the Fonds zur Förderung bilities of the Czech Academy of Sciences. wissenschaftlicher Forschung (FWF), the Aus- Much as scholars would like guarantees of trian equivalent of the American National Sci- continued on page 5 Fall 2009 3 News from the Center Chrysler chosen as Botstiber Fellow The Dietrich W. Botstiber Foundation dialect differed so much from the standard.” has created a graduate fellowship in Austrian Chrysler picked the University of Minnesota not Studies for the 2009-10 academic year. Jen- only because of the overall quality of GSD’s fac- nifer Adelia Chrysler, a graduate student in ulty and students, but also because of its empha- German, Scandinvian, and Dutch (GSD), sis on interdisciplinary study. was awarded the Botstiber Fellowship and Chrysler hopes to focus her research on inter- entered the University of Minnesota in Sep- cultural interactions, as well as religion and sexu- tember. ality. She is fluent not only in German but also in Chrysler graduated from Grinnell College French, and hopes that she will be able to, in her in 2005. She praises her alma mater, saying words, “examine the meeting of different cultures that study at Grinnell “provided me with through the lens of comparative literature.” opportunities to become fluent in German Her goal, ultimately, is to research and to teach. and French and develop critical thinking Her professors at Grinnell and her experience skills.” teaching in Austria have given her an apprecia- After graduation, she spent a year as a Ful- tion for what she calls “help[ing] others to have bright English Teaching Assistant in Steyr, the joy of learning and using a new language,” as Upper Austria. Although she possessed near- well as helping them to experience the literature native fluency in High German, she appreci- of another culture in its original language.