THE CENTER FOR AUSTRIAN StUDIES 2007-08 Annual Report the Left to right: Matthew Konieczny, Joshua Kortbein, Linda Andrean, 2007-08 staff Simon Loidl, Daniel Pinkerton, Gary B. Cohen. Photo: Karl Krohn. Director: Administrative Manager: Gary B. Cohen, professor of history, University Linda Andrean, B.A. in Anthropology and of Minnesota. Education: B.A., University of History, B.S. in Secondary Education, came Joshua Kortbein is a Ph.D. candidate in the Southern California, 1970; M.A., Princeton to the Center in June 2004 after 20 years of Department of Philosophy at the University University, 1972; Ph.D., Princeton University, service in the University of Minnesota Academic of Minnesota. His dissertation research is on 1975. He was a historian at the University of Health Center, including work for the Cancer the rhetorical and literary structure of Ludwig Oklahoma from 1976 to 2001 prior to taking Protocol Review Committee, the Medical School, Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations.” His the CAS directorship in August 2001. His and the School of Public Health. At CAS, she other philosophical interests include aesthetics publications include two books, The Politics of oversees the Center’s administrative and financial and the role of genre and self-knowledge in the Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861-1914 affairs and is involved with program planning, history of philosophy. He worked as an editorial (1981, 2006), and Education and Middle-Class fundraising and student and community outreach. assistant for the CAS book series and the ASN, Society in Imperial Austria, 1848-1918 (1996). Linda is the author of Where in the World Is and as conference coordinator for the upcoming In addition to serving as director, he is executive Austria?, a text for second- and third-graders. fall 2008 conference. editor of the Yearbook and the CAS book series. Student Staff: Simon Loidl, a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Vienna, was the CAS/BMWF Fel- Editor: Matthew Konieczny is a PhD student in low for 2007-08. His dissertation research is on Daniel Pinkerton, M.F.A. in playwriting, M.A. European history at the University of Minnesota. colonial discourses and activities in the Habsburg in European history, has worked at the Center Matthew holds an M.A. in history from Indiana Empire. See page 16 (back cover) for more about since 1990. He has edited the Austrian Studies University and an M.A. in public policy from Simon and the fellowship program. Newsletter since January 1992 and the Annual the University of Michigan. He is working on a Report since 1991. He also assists the director dissertation examining a cadre of physicists at in special projects such as writing grants, website Polish universities in the Habsburg Empire in the design, and preparing graphics for the Austrian late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He CAS 2007-08 ANNUAL REPORT History Yearbook. served as assistant editor of the AHY in 2007-08. ©2008, The Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Designed and edited by Daniel Pinkerton. contents Editorial assistants: Linda Andrean, Gary Cohen, and Jessie Van Berkel. Staff 2 Faculty 12 The Center for Austrian Studies is an inde- The Director’s View 3 Support & Collaboration 14 pendent unit of the College of Liberal Arts, Publications 5 Making a Gift 15 University of Minnesota. The University of Minnesota is committed Events 8 BMBWK Fellowship 16 to the policy that all persons shall have equal Student Support 11 access to its programs, facilities, and employ- ment without regard to race, color, creed, COVER: Eva Kor, survivor of Nazi medical experiments, speaking to a packed auditorium during “The religion, national origin, sex, age, marital Ethics of Medicine,” a two-day workshop held by CAS (see p. 9). Photo: Simon Loidl. status, veteran status, or sexual orientation. 2 the director’s view Each year the Center for Austrian Studies value that exchange program so highly that faculty and faces the challenge of finding better ways to sup- students of the highest caliber eagerly participate. This port new research and education on Austrian past year we had immensely profitable visits from no and Central European affairs and meet the needs less than three professors from Graz: the ethicist Kurt of its various constituencies. The Center tries to Remele and the sociologist Christian Fleck, both of provide these services in as many venues and in as whom came to teach for a whole semester, and another many disciplines as we can imagine. In part, my sociologist, Max Haller, who gave several lectures during colleagues and I do this by addressing new issues a week’s stay. All three gave richly learned and insightful within the framework of the Center’s existing talks for the Center’s lecture series. programs, but we also work to launch initiatives The continuing collaboration between the Center and for new audiences by new means and enlist new the Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch partners in our efforts. In this vein I am pleased brought us a lecture by one of the most brilliant scholars to report that in 2007-08 both the Center’s ongo- of modern Austrian literature active today, Maria-Regina ing programs and its new initiatives had notable Kecht, and sent to Graz for the year a Minnesota doc- accomplishments. toral student in literature, Roger Skarsten. CAS also hosted a fascinating lecture on Eduard Hanslick and Collaborations & synergies Bedřich Smetana by a noted historian of Austrian and This year, more than ever, the success of many German music, David Brodbeck, thanks to the Center’s of our programs resulted from deliberate strate- collaboration with the Center for Jewish Studies and the gies that the Center has developed over a number School of Music on a lecture series, “Musical Confronta- of years. As always, we offered a full schedule of tions in Jewish Studies: Debates and Dialogues.” lectures and readings open to the campus and The great success of our conference on “Social Policy Twin Cities communities, with a dozen events in the New Europe” owed much to CLA’s strong depart- in addition to the Robert A. Kann Memorial ments of sociology, political science, and global studies, Lecture. The eclectic mix of subject areas, ranging which have developed broad interests in comparative compass. Volume 39 of the Austrian His- from history and art history to ethics, literature, international studies over many decades. Their help, tory Yearbook, issued this spring, marked music and cultural studies, political science and along with the Center’s ability to draw on researchers the beginning of a relationship with a new sociology, illustrated vividly the strength as well as from various Austrian universities and government publisher, Cambridge University Press, breadth of scholarly research devoted currently to agencies, the ties to universities in Finland and the which will enhance the electronic and Austrian and Central European affairs. The high Netherlands which CLA has cultivated, and synergies international circulation of the Yearbook. quality of our lectures derived in large part from with programs elsewhere in the university, including the This year’s articles, edited with great skill our efforts to establish and capitalize on syner- Humphrey Institute and the School of Social Work, by Pieter Judson, were particularly rich gies among various programs of the Center, other made it possible to bring together an outstanding group in cultural and intellectual history, dem- units in the College of Liberal Arts, the Univer- of scholars from the U.S. and Europe. onstrating how historians have profited sity of Minnesota, and universities in Austria. The Center’s publications in 2007-08 demonstrated in recent years from new approaches to Over several decades, for example, the Center the same ability to capitalize on diverse collaborations to literary and cultural studies to develop new and the College have developed a particularly present new voices and fresh viewpoints. The gifted edi- analytic tools. Similarly, there was much active program for exchanging professors and stu- tor of our Austrian Studies Newsletter, Daniel Pinkerton, innovative work in the most recent volume dents with the Karl-Franzens University in Graz. produced two issues this year with richly varied content in the CAS book series, Austrian and Departments and institutes in both universities that drew praise and comment from many points of the Habsburg Studies,The Limits of Loyalty: Imperial Symbolism, Popular Allegiances, and State Patriotism in the Late Habsburg OUR MISSION Monarchy, edited by Laurence Cole and Daniel Unowsky. THE CENTER FOR AUSTRIAN STUDIES • serves as a focal point in the United States for the study of Austria and the New directions Several of this year’s initiatives took the Central European lands with a common Habsburg heritage across disciplines in the Center for Austrian Studies in important humanities, the social sciences, the applied sciences, and the fine arts; new directions. Here, too, collaborations • analyzes Austrian perspectives as a powerful tool for understanding the new Europe with other centers, institutes, and founda- in the age of the European Union; tions played a crucial part. Since summer 2006, the Center has been developing • connects scholars, students, and an international community to resources in plans for an ambitious team research Austria, Central Europe, the EU, and Minnesota; project entitled “Understanding the Migra- tion Experience: The Austrian-American • reaches out to a local, national, and international community of educated Connection” in cooperation with the nonacademics, bringing an awareness of Austria and the new Europe and its Immigration History Research Center and relevance to American life. the Minnesota Population Center on our The Center pursues its mission through a variety of activities including research projects, campus and scholars from the Institute for publications, international interdisciplinary symposia, student and faculty exchanges, Economic and Social History at the Uni- versity of Vienna.