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SUMMER SCHOOL TOPIC ........................................................................................................... 4
PROJECT ORGANIZATION ........................................................................................................... 5
AIMS & OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................................... 5
DATES ......................................................................................................................................... 5
COSTS & FUNDING ..................................................................................................................... 6
PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................................................................ 8
ACADEMIC PROGRAM .............................................................................................................. 10
SOCIAL PROGRAM .................................................................................................................... 11
SEMINARS ................................................................................................................................. 11
CREATIVE WRITING SEMINAR .................................................................................................. 21
KEYNOTE LECTURE ................................................................................................................... 22
MORNING LECTURES ................................................................................................................ 23
EVENING LECTURES .................................................................................................................. 40
PANEL DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................. 42
MORNING MEDITATION ........................................................................................................... 44
A STUDENT’S REPORT ON THE GUSEGG .......................................................................................... 45
MEDIA REPORTS ....................................................................................................................... 46
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG AUF DEUTSCH ...................................................................................... 59
IMPRESSUM .............................................................................................................................. 62
THANK YOU to all the people and institutions who made the "Graz International Summer
School Seggau 2013" possible: the students, the lecturers, Prof. Dr. Roberta Maierhofer as
the academic coordinator, and the University of Graz and its staff of the Office of
International Relations and the Center for Inter-American Studies, H.E. Bishop Dr. Egon
Kapellari, Mag. Peter Rosegger and the Diocese of Graz–Seckau, Drs. Michael Kuhn and the
Commission of the Bishops‘ Conferences of the European Communities (COMECE), the
dedicated collaborators of Seggau Castle, the Government of Styria, the City of Graz, the
Office of the Mayor of Graz and finally, a big thank you to our sponsors, who through their
generous contributions made it possible to put an idea into practice and make GUSEGG 2013
once more become a reality.
WEBSITE of the GUSEGG 2013
http://international.uni-graz.at/gusegg
4
GRAZ INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL SEGGAU 2013
Collective Identities: Nationalism, Transnationalism – Europe & Beyond
Since the 19th century, nation states as a construction of collective identities have defined
the political, economic and social realities in Europe and beyond. In Benedict Anderson’s
term of an imagined community, the nation state has determined both individual as well as
collective identities in terms of inclusion and exclusion. This is especially true when it comes
to the rights of citizens or ethnic majorities versus the legal status of minority groups or the
situation of foreigners and migrants. Although the essentialist nature of state definition has
never been able to do justice to the social, cultural, and economic realities and challenges, it
has since the 19th century determined the political and social structures of Europe, led to
war and destruction, but also to reconstruction and peace-building in the 20th century, if one
takes the European Union as an example of a supranational governance structure. Within a
radically changed global world, where migration and transnationalism play an important
role, a reconsideration of the notion of the nation state as well as an analysis of the
interconnections between collective and individual identity formation is necessary. Focusing
on the emphasis areas of the University of Graz – South Eastern Europe and North, Central
and South America – the discursive and symbolic constructions of Europe and beyond will be
investigated from an interdisciplinary vantage point thus contributing to a redefinition of
European and Inter-American Studies. The Americas provide us with many examples of an
early development of the nation state in connection with processes of democratization in
the late 18th and early 19th century, as well as with the question of heterogeneity versus
homogeneity. South Eastern Europe can be seen as an example for a region that has been
contested by European and non-European actors and therefore as a mirror image of larger
dynamics in European history. This area is also a good example for discussing diversity in
terms of opportunities provided and challenges faced in the past, present and future.
Studying collective identities by focusing on European and American issues will thus provide
a basis for meeting James Tully’s demand that "21st century identities must be supported
rather than imposed, reasonable rather than unreasonable, empowering rather than
disabling and liberating rather than oppressed" (2003).
Roberta Maierhofer for the Advisory Board
5
PROJECT ORGANIZATION
The project was carried out by the University of Graz in cooperation with the Diocese Graz-
Seckau and the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community
(COMECE). The Center for Inter-American Studies of the University of Graz acted as the
coordinating unit in collaboration with the Office of International Relations of the University
of Graz.
Steering Committee of the Graz International Summer School Seggau 2013: Prof. Dr. Roberta
Maierhofer (Academic Coordinator of the University of Graz), Mag. Peter Rosegger
(Representative of the Diocese Graz-Seckau), Drs. Michael Kuhn (Representative of the
COMECE), Mag. Heidrun Moertl (Program Manager of the University of Graz), Mag. Daniela
Murhammer (Representative of the rectorate of the University of Graz), Mag. (FH) Ulrike
Schoenbacher (Student Coordinator of the University of Graz)
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
The interdisciplinary cooperation of lecturers and students focused on the cultural,
intellectual and historical dimensions of current European and American affairs in view of
their positioning in a globalized world. Presentations in research and teaching referred to
focus areas of the University of Graz – South Eastern Europe and North, Central and South
America. Shaping profiles of young leaders of tomorrow in different areas such as political
and social science, economics and the humanities was an important aim.
Some keywords about the Graz International Summer School Seggau 2013:
• two-week summer school
• 98 students and 21 lecturers
• plenary sessions, lectures, 10 parallel seminar modules, excursion to Graz
• discussions with lecturers and guests
• accreditation via ECTS-credits (6 ECTS for participation and obligatory seminar paper)
DATES
June 30th – July 13th, 2013
WEBSITE
http://international.uni-graz.at/gusegg 1
1 This website will be updated in October 2013 for next year’s summer school. PDFs of the website 2013 are available upon request.
6
COSTS & FUNDING
The total costs (room and board for lecturers, external lecturers and students, honorariums
and travel expenses for teachers, technical infrastructure, excursions, and evening program)
of about € 142,920 were covered by the University of Graz, the Diocese Graz-Seckau, the
Commission of the Bishops‘ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), student
fees (€ 350/€ 600 Euros) and third party funding.
Grants to support our program and scholarships for individual students came from:
- ERASMUS Intensive Program LLP-AT/230/05/12
- Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS)
- European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS)
- David-Herzog-Fonds
- Das Land Steiermark: Abteilung Kultur, Europa und Außenbeziehungen
- The Embassy of the United States of America in Austria, Vienna
- The Embassy of Canada in Austria, Vienna
- The Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries (GKS)
- Renovabis
- Stichting Communicantes
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the
author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
7
The summer school was further supported by the International Association of Inter-
American Studies (IAS), Graz Tourism, and GRAWE.
Stichting Communicantes
8
PARTICIPANTS
Kemisola Agbeniyi, Nigeria
Dominique Ken Aguilar, Philippines
Adelia Albanova, Kyrgyzstan
Sabina Andreeva, Kyrgyzstan
Arta Ankrava, Latvia
Mehmet Akif Ayhan, Turkey
Cynthia Marie Balagtas, USA
Marilis Leticia Maria Becker, Netherlands
Vally Bellu', Italy
Masa Berkovic, Slovenia
Vanja Bobas, Slovenia
Vladimir Bobu, Moldova
Karol Bokszczanin, Poland
Marta Alexandra Da Costa Mancelos, Portugal
Katherine Rose DeVane Brown, USA
Pavlos-Zinon Dimitrakou, Greece
Dorde Durdevic, Serbia
Christopher Edyegu, Uganda
Andreea-Veridiana Farcasel, Romania
Jakob Fiser, Slovenia
Erika Fontanesi, Italy
Abdelkarim Friaa, Tunisia
Barbara Gebauer, Austria
Ejona Gjeci, Albania
Katharina Golitschek Edle von Elbwart, Germany
Pablo Gomez Munoz, Spain
Cora Grespi, Italy
Thomas Hadley, Austria
Anja Hardi, Croatia
Francisca Alida Heese, South Africa
Ursula Hirmann, Austria
Marko Hocevar, Slovenia
Mina Hristova, Bulgaria
Andreea-Oana Iftime, Romania
Petya Ivanova, Bulgaria
Leart Kamberi, Macedonia
Edo Katanic, Croatia
Ana Kavcnik, Slovenia
Albina Kildeeva, Russia
Kerstin Kogler, Austria
Eva Kolberg, Germany
Martin Kollar, Slovakia
Yana Kovaleva, Russia
Svitlana Kykot, Ukraine
Taras Lehinevych, Ukraine
Kuzma Leshakov, Russia
Dina Lijic, Croatia
Antonia Ljaci, Croatia
Simona Lokvenec, Macedonia
Lisa Lotter, South Africa
Andrii Maksymiv, Ukraine
Marija Manasijevic, Serbia
Anna Marasso, Italy
Sarah Meyer, USA
Darius Miliauskas, Lithuania
Rita Joana Miranda Costa Gomes dos Santos,
Portugal
Edina Miskei, Serbia
Nikolett Moricz, Hungary
Carl Felix Müller, Germany
Olga Mykoliuk, Ukraine
Oksana Myronko, Ukraine
9
Abdul Waseh Noerzay, Netherlands
Koen Noordenbos, Netherlands
Ivana Obucina, Croatia
Teresa Opis, Austria
Maricel Oro Piqueras, Spain
Hanna Parkhanovich, Belarus
Ines Daniela Pereira da Costa, Portugal
Antoaneta Petkova, Bulgaria
Bella Poli, Hungary
Emma Poli, Hungary
Elena Popa, Romania
Olivera Popovic, Serbia
Viktoria Potapkina, Ukraine
Filip Razum, Croatia
Claudia Rommelspacher, South Africa
Joanna Rybicka, Poland
Maria Sandorova, Slovakia
Irma Semini, Albania
Bohdana Sendziuk, Ukraine
Vitalii Skoblia, Ukraine
Tessa Smith, USA
Sviatoslav Sviatnenko, Ukraine
Dragana Tadic, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dora Tadic, Croatia
Ema Talam, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Seyedhamed Tayebi, Iran
Freya Thiel, Germany
Hüseyin Ufuk Toraman, Turkey
Marina Tsvetkova, Russia
Didem Uca, USA
Roman Ujbanyai, Slovakia
Oana Ursulesku, Serbia
Laura Van Slyke, USA
Milos Vlaisavljevic, Croatia
Visnja Vujin, Serbia
Anita Wohlmann, Germany
Aleksandra Zdeb, Poland
Participating students came from these universities: (university and number of participating students)
All-Russian State University of Cinematography
named after S. A. Gerasimov (VGIK), Russia 1
American University of Central Asia,
Kyrgyzstan 2
Arizona State University, USA 1
Canterbury Christ Church University, UK 1
Debreceni Egyetem (DE), Hungary 1
Evangélikus Hittudományi Egyetem – Budapest,
Hungary 1
Indiana University, USA 1
Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland 1
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz,
Germany 1
University of Graz, Austria 6
Masarykova Univerzita v Brne, Czech Republic 1
Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey 1
Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus 1
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia 1
National Aviation University, Ukraine 1
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,
Ukraine 4
Okan Universitesi, Turkey 1
Siberian Federal University, Russia 1
Sofiiski Universitet 'Sv. Kliment Ohridski', Bulgaria 2
South Eastern European University (SEEU),
Macedonia 1
Southern Federal University, Russia 1
Sveuciliste u Rijeci, Croatia 1
Sveuciliste u Splitu, Croatia 1
Sveuciliste u Zadru, Croatia 1
Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Croatia 4
Szegedi Tudomanyegyetem, Hungary 2
Szkoły Głównej Handlowej w Warszawie,
Poland 1
Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej, Poland 1
The City College of the City University of New York,
USA 1
Ukrainian Catholic University, Ukraine 1
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain 1
Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal 3
University College for Agrarian and Environmental
Pedagogy, Austria 1
Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Italy 4
Universitat de Lleida, Spain 1
University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany 2
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain 1
Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza Iasi, Romania 2
Universitatea Lucien Blaga din Sibiu,
Romania 1
Universitatea Tehnica a Moldovei, Moldova 1
Universiteit Stellenbosch, South Africa 4
Universiteti i Tiranës, Albania 1
University College Sjaelland, Denmark 1
University of Groningen, Netherlands 5
University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA 1
University of Minnesota, USA 1
University of Pennsylvania, USA 1
University Ss Cyril and Methodius Skopije,
Macedonia 1
Univerza v Ljubljani, Slovenia 5
Univerzita Komenskeho v Bratislave,
Slovakia 3
Univerzitet u Banjoj Luci, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1
Univerzitet u Beogradu, Serbia 2
Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Serbia 5
Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1
Uniwersytet Wroclawski, Poland 1
Vélikoturnovski Universitet 'Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodi',
Bulgaria 1
Vilniaus Universitetas, Lithuania 1
10
ACADEMIC PROGRAM
Morning Meditation (8.30 am – 9.00 am)
Every morning, meditation sessions led by Drs. Michael Kuhn provided spiritual guidance for
the students and lecturers.
Morning Lectures (9.00 am – 12.30 pm)
Selected lecturers teaching in the afternoon seminars also presented morning lectures
during the week. All students attended the morning lectures; thus, the topic of these
lectures was directed towards a general audience, following the overall summer school
theme of "collective identities". In order to implement different styles of instruction in the
discussion period following a 15 minute break, the organizers introduced numerous models
of structuring this period - some of the periods were open plenary discussions, others were
inspired by pre-formulated questions from the lecturers, and on other mornings students
were asked to formulate questions for the speakers in dedicated groups.
Creative Writing (1.30 pm – 3.00 pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)
This year, ten excellent students taking part in the GUSEGG had the opportunity to
participate in a Creative Writing workshop led by renowned author and University of Texas
at Austin professor Rolando Hinojosa-Smith.
Seminars (3.00 pm – 6.00 pm)
According to their interest, students ranked the following ten seminar modules on their
application and were selected to participate in accordance with their application materials.
Seminar 1 - Literature & Culture
Seminar 2 - Cultural Identities
Seminar 3 - Indigenous Identities
Seminar 4 - Urban & Regional Identities
Seminar 5 - Politics & Law
Seminar 6 - Media, Society & Culture
Seminar 7 - Economics & Power
Seminar 8 - Ethics, Religion & Leadership
Seminar 9 - Transnationalism & Migration
Seminar 10 - Cultural Narratives of Longevity
11
SOCIAL PROGRAM
Besides the morning lectures, creative writing, the afternoon seminars, and meditation,
students went on a one-day excursion to Graz, the capital city of the province of Styria. The
trip took place on Saturday, July 6th and included a visit to the University of Graz, a reception
at the office of Mayor Mag. Siegfried Nagl, sightseeing through Graz and also time to stroll
around within the unique city of Graz.
The social program furthermore included a guided tour through Seggau castle, in which the
historical importance of the bishop seat was related to students and lecturers.
In lecture free periods students were further able to utilize the outdoor swimming pool at
the venue. Volleyball, table tennis, and soccer tournaments were organized and the winners
awarded with prizes. Furthermore, movie nights, a karaoke evening and evening discussions
took place and the opening ceremony included a wine tasting in Seggau Castle’s historic
wine cellar, famous for its excellent local wine.
SEMINARS Students participated in one of the following ten seminar modules in the afternoon. Seminar 1 – Literature & Culture
Week 1: "Literary Views of the American Other" – Josef Raab This seminar examined portrayals of
North America(ns) in Latin American
Literature and portrayals of Latin
America(ns) in U.S. and Canadian
Literature. Participants looked at
recurring stereotypes and tried to
trace their origins and developments.
The writings discussed were published
in the 19th to 21st century. They
included essays by Domingo Faustino
Sarmiento, José Martí, and José Enrique Rodó, poetry by José Martí, Rubén Darío, Pablo
Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, and Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles, as well as excerpts from John
Steinbeck's The Tortilla Flat, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, Carlos Fuentes' The Old
Gringo, and Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo.
Week 2: "Negotiations of Inter-American Identity in US Literature on Latin America" –
Simone Francescato
This seminar contributed to the GUSEGG 2013 through the close reading of late 20th century
literary texts centered on the negotiation of "American" identity within the Americas.
12
Students were asked to read the texts in advance
in their entirety, and then to analyze and discuss
them in class from both an aesthetic and cultural
viewpoint. Milestones in their own genre, these
books stand out as unique meditations on the
many roles of the US (male) subject in Latin
America - renegade, entrepreneur, inventor,
reformer, humanitarian, and tourist - and North
America's imperialism, familism and traditionalism. The works discussed were by P. Theroux,
P. Matthiessen and M. Thomsen.
Seminar 2 – Cultural Identities
Week 1: "Negotiating Cultural Identities in the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands" –
Marietta Messmer
At least since the end of the U.S.-Mexican war of 1846-1848, the relationship between the
two nation states has been characterized by multidimensional cultural, economic, and
political interdependencies, with Mexico finding itself increasingly torn between maintaining
its Latin American cultural identity while at the same time becoming more deeply integrated
into a U.S.-dominated North American political and economic union. This complex
interrelation between Mexico and the U.S. has turned the borderlands between the two
nation states into a highly dynamic cultural space with multiple geopolitical significations. In
this seminar, participants focused in particular on the following topics: the U.S.-Mexican
borderlands as a unique contact zone that enables cultural encounters, intercultural
exchange, cross-cultural friendship, and cultural hybridization; constructions of the U.S.’s
national identity in relation to its cultural other(s); the U.S.’s war on terrorism and drugs and
its effects on the treatment and representation of undocumented Mexican and Central
American migrants; the effects of transnational maquiladora factories on Mexican (female)
workers; and the transnational implications of the drug trade.
Week 2: "Negotiating Cultural Identities in the African Diaspora" – Isabel Caldeira
"They are seen as black therefore they are black; they are seen as women, therefore, they
are women. But before being seen that way, they first had to be made that way." (Monique
Wittig, “One Is Not Born a Woman". The Straight Mind and Other Essays. Boston: Beacon
Press, 1992, 12).
"It is only by analyzing racism and its function in capitalist society that a thorough
understanding of class relationships can emerge. Class struggle is inextricably bound to the
struggle to end racism." (bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. London: Pluto
Press, 2000. 3).
13
These statements by Monique Wittig and
bell hooks served as mottos in this seminar
to study texts of black feminism and
postcolonial feminism in order to
understand that the major systems of
oppression are interlocking. The main focus
were discourses by women of the African
diaspora − US and the Caribbean − in search
of issues of displacement and the power
relations involved; counter-hegemonic
discourses by means of which voices resist
the politics of silencing, assert their
identities and make their experiences visible; forms chosen to convey the violent deprivation
of history, memory, and representation (or the feeling of unrepresentableness); strategies of
resistance and emancipation leading to new expressions and aesthetics invented to
negotiate their contingent "entre-lugar" (Silviano Santiago) or "in-between" space (Homi
Bhabha).
Seminar 3 – Indigenous Identities
Week 1: "(Re-)defining indigeneity from an Inter-American Perspective" - Heidrun Moertl,
Alexia Schemien
The first week of the Indigenous Identities seminar module approached the native
population of the Americas from an Inter-American perspective. The aim was to explore
trans-indigenous relations which are often overlooked in scholarship by both Native and
Non-Native scholars. In observing the interconnected indigenous world through the lens of
cultural and literary studies, participants engaged in a multidisciplinary scholarly discourse.
The initial stage of the course concentrated on the wider field of Inter-American Studies with
a special focus on indigenous identities and their role in transcending national boundaries.
After having established this toolbox of terminology, the remainder of the seminar focused
on specific examples of indigeneity in the Americas. Among the topics discussed were legal
frameworks that indigenous communities are subject to; religious identity constructions;
and identity discourses in borderlands.
Heidrun Moertl is a faculty member at the Center for
Inter-American Studies at the University of Graz,
Austria. She holds a masters’ degree in English and
American Studies from the University of Graz, Austria,
and Seattle University, USA. She is currently working
on her dissertation in the fields of Indigenous Studies,
Inter-American Studies and Aging Studies, for which
she conducted ten months of extensive research at
the University of Minnesota - Minneapolis, the
Newberry Library in Chicago as well as fieldwork on
several Minnesota reservations in 2011-2012 (Marietta-Blau Scholarship of the Austrian
14
Government – BMWF). She is also the co-editor of a special issue of Comparative American
Studies: An International Journal titled "Hemispheric Approaches to Native American
Studies" (with Barrenechea, Maney Publishing, 2013) and currently serves on the Executive
Board of the International Association of Inter-American Studies and on the Steering
Committee of the Europe based American Indian Workshop.
Alexia Schemien is a faculty member of the North
American Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen,
Germany. She holds a master’s degree in English,
Spanish, and Anthropology from the University of
Münster, Germany, as well as the University of Burgos,
Spain. She is currently working on her dissertation
which deals with the indigenous and religious
implications of Mexican American literature from an
Inter-American perspective. She is the co-editor of a
forthcoming issue of the Inter-American
Studies/Estudios Interamericanos series, with the title Inter-American Flows: Transnational
Imaginaries and Impacts (with Josef Raab, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag/Bilingual Press, 2013).
Complementary to her work at the University of Duisburg-Essen, she monitors the social
media for the International Association of Inter-American Studies and in the summer of 2011
she conducted a research stay at the Arizona State University in Tempe.
Week 2: "Twenty-two Nations: The Story of Arizona's Indigenous Peoples" –
James Blasingame
From Geronimo (Bedonkohe Apache)
to Dr. Carlos Montezuma (Yavapai),
Indigenous peoples of what is now
called Arizona, have had a storied
and dramatic past. Spanish, Mexican,
and American invaders spent
centuries attempting to subdue and
colonize the peoples and land of
Arizona, often finding both to be
almost magically indomitable and
resilient. Arizona holds the largest Indigenous sovereign nation in the United States, the
Navajo Nation, home to more than 250,000 enrolled members. The San Juan Southern
Paiute Tribe, recognized by the federal government in 1989, however, has only 254 enrolled
members who reside in areas woven between Hopi and Navajo lands. This course traced the
evolution of Indigenous peoples of Arizona into modern day nations, attempting to separate
fact from fiction.
15
Seminar 4 – Urban & Regional Identities
Week 1: "Americas - Regional Landscapes and Human Induced Changes" – Daniela Larion
The wide variety of natural conditions in the
Americas (North, Central and South America) –
from the polar to the tropical ones – generates
a multitude of regions with unique identity,
depending on the influence of people on the
environment. While there are spaces in which
humans are absent and landscapes are
preserved almost in their natural state, other
regions are not only completely modified, but
even experiencing severe environmental
degradation.
The seminar focused on the interference between people and nature in representative
regions from all the Americas, considering the causes of the changes, the effects (local,
regional, global), and the possible solutions. A number of case studies was debated
(deforestation in the rainforest, urban growth in regions with scarce resources, water supply
diminution etc.) but also positive examples of sustainable development projects
implemented in different regions of the Americas.
We live in a fragile world, with people changing the environment, with catastrophic effects
sometimes, and it is time that clear measures are taken to prevent irreversible events from
happening, and keep this planet healthy and capable to sustain human civilization.
Week 2: "Rhetorics of Sustainability, Globalization, and Presence in Transnational
Landscapes"– Peter Goggin
The seminar started with an introduction to theories, theorists, texts and influences on
environmental issues, place, and identity in American Studies: Enlightenment and the
Industrial Revolution, migration, the emergence of environmental ethos, the establishment
of national parks, the debate between conservationism and preservationism, the concept of
a land ethic, and Deep Ecology. From Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir,
and Gifford Pinchot to Rachael Carson, Edward Abbey, Al Gore, and Sarah Palin (Drill, baby,
drill!) the seminar explored the rhetorics on crucial environmental issues, social change,
culture, politics, movements, and geographies that inform, and are informed by, the North
American landscape. The discussion then moved on to contemporary concepts of
sustainability, resilience, and globalization that impact on rural, urban, island, and other
place-based identities in the Americas and beyond.
16
Seminar 5 – Politics & Law
Week 1: "Conflict Resolution in Ethnically Divided Societies" – Soeren Keil
In this seminar, participants looked into
different forms of conflict-resolution in
divided societies. Multiculturalism and
Multinationalism have become key
features of the 20th and 21st century and
challenge our understanding of a
"nation-state." Seminar participants
looked into ways in which
Multiculturalism and Multinationalism
have been addressed in so-called
"divided societies." The seminar proceeded in three steps. In the first session, participants
looked into the normative case for addressing diversity and discussed the relationship
between multi-ethnicity and liberal democracy and some of the arising problems in this
context (such as individual vs. group rights, collective identity vs. nationalism, secession vs.
territorial integrity). In the second step, some of the most prominent theories of conflict-
resolution in divided societies, such as consociationalism (consensual democracy),
integration approaches (Donald Horowitz), and multinational federalism were discussed.
Finally, a good amount of time was spent looking at some case studies, both in the West and
beyond. These included Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Malaysia and Ethiopia. The
lecturer and students also discussed how these countries addressed Multiculturalism and
Multinationalism and whether their institutional approaches are successful or not.
Week 2: "Creating European Identity: The EU in post-accession Central Europe and pre-
accession Western Balkans" – Robert Austin
This module offered students the chance to
examine the legacy of the 2004 enlargement in
Central Europe and how it shaped policies
toward the Western Balkans states of Albania,
Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia.
Of particular focus was the EU's role in
developing new and more inclusive
constitutional orders in the Western Balkans. As
a starting point, the module offered a case study
of Hungary which, since 2010, has implemented
dramatic changes to its constitutional order. What does Hungary's "new course" tell us
about future enlargement rounds and the EU's real influence after membership? Other
topics included: What is the future of the made-in-Europe constitutional projects in Bosnia,
Kosovo and Macedonia? Can civic constitutions, the removal of physical borders and
institutional supra-nationalism actually work in the Balkans when populists throughout
Central Europe seem to be on the upswing and there is little the EU can do about it?
17
Seminar 6 – Media, Society & Culture
Week 1 and 2: "New Media and the New Public Sphere" – Krešimir Krolo
This module examined the role of
different media practices in the
contemporary political space. The first
week was devoted to the discussion of
the complex relation between the
media and politics, which included a
survey of different approaches to
political campaigning in different media
ages. The second week examined the
contribution of digital interactive media practices to the constitution of a potentially "new,"
transnational, and individualized public sphere.
Seminar 7 – Economics & Power
Week 1: "Development: An ever-changing stage" – Luis San Vicente Portes
This session provided an overview of the
process of economic development around the
world - with emphasis on the Americas and
Europe’s industrialized and emerging economies
- serving as the backdrop of collective and
individual identity formation. The focus was on
the dynamics of socio-economic indicators
based on the countries’ economic size, income
per person, wealth inequality, gender
differences, and natural resources. Related
topics such as institutional development and economic policies were connected to the
frequent economic/financial crises that Latin America has gone through, and Europe’s
current economic turmoil and its links to the 2008/2009 global recession.
Week 2: "Understanding the European Single Market" – Soeren Keil
The lecturer and seminar participants looked into the workings of the European Single
Market and assessed its potential as a model for other regional integration projects. This
seminar focused on four main areas: In the first part, participants looked at the origins of the
European Single Market and how the idea came about as a result of the Second World War
and the arising Cold War. Then the European Coal and Steal Community was analyzed and
students discussed the Treaty of Rome, which established the principle of a European Single
Market in 1957. In a second step, the practical side of economic integration was looked at by
discussing the economic elements of the Single Market project. In this context the seminar
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had a focus on the consequences for industries and businesses as well as on the
consequences for individual citizens. The third part of the seminar looked at the European
Monetary Union as a key element of the Single Market. The economic benefits of a single
currency were assessed and some of the current issues and problems that resulted from the
introduction of the Euro discussed. Finally, participants discussed to what extent the
European Single Market can be seen as a model for other projects of regional integration
such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the African Union and similar projects in
Asia. An important question was: Can these regions learn from the European experience?
Seminar 8 – Ethics, Religion & Leadership
Week 1: "Ethics, Religion & Leadership" – David Bates
These sessions used the resources of
political and moral philosophy to explore
the politics and ethics of collective
identity. The sessions gave a specific
focus to religions, class and cultural
modes of expression. Key questions
addressed included: To what extent do
certain modes of identity (religion, class
etc.) over-determine others? How do
modes of transnational identity intersect with more particular and localized modes of
cultural expression? How do modes of political and cultural leadership serve to mobilize
collective identities? Can seemingly divisive modes of cultural expression be operationalized
within "progressive" political movements? How does "globalization" impact on the politics of
identity?
Week 2: "Leadership, Religion and Politics" – Johan Verstraeten
In this seminar, Prof. Verstraeten and students
participating in the sessions explored the link
between spirituality/religion and leadership.
The focus was on why spirituality has become
crucial in leadership theory and practice and
how some traditions can contribute to it. With
regards to Europe the following question was
clarified: In what regards can religion (and
religious leadership) intervene in politics?
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Seminar 9 – Transnationalism & Migration
Week 1: "Immigration, Pluralism and Integration in Europe and in the Americas." –
Guy Laforest
In the past quarter of a century, high migratory fluxes have been an integral part of
globalization. This social phenomenon has been accompanied by the renewal of liberal and
republican pluralism in Political Theory. This seminar explored how a number of European
and North American countries have redesigned their model of governance and their public
policies to manage the human and social diversities associated with immigration. At the level
of Political Theory, recent debates surrounding Liberal Nationalism, Integrative and
Pluralistic Republicanism, Multiculturalism and Interculturalism were analyzed and further
discussed.
Week 2: "To America!" – Jewish Migrations to the Americas in the 19th
and 20th
Century –
Ulla Kriebernegg, Gerald Lamprecht
In the second week of this team-
taught seminar, lecturers and
students discussed questions of
cultural identity and migration to and
within the Americas from the
perspectives of history and
literary/cultural studies. To begin
with, the most important theoretical
concepts were introduced. Based on
these theoretical backgrounds, the
seminar focused on Jewish migrations in the 19th and 20th century, analyzing a range of
sources including historiography, poetry, fiction, autobiography, and film in order to explore
the historical, social, and cultural contexts of Jewish identities in the Americas.
Seminar 10 – Cultural Narratives of Longevity
Week 1: "Alive and Kicking at All Ages? Cultural Constructions of Age and Identity in North
American Fiction" – Ulla Kriebernegg
As baby boomers have recently started to reach retirement age and the "Silver Tsunami" is
allegedly threatening our economies, a new rhetoric of crisis makes it necessary to
reconsider cultural constructions of aging and old age. Taking into account that narratives of
aging have become increasingly recognized as lending important insights to gerontological
knowledge (Zeilig 2011), this course aimed to bridge the gap between gerontology and
literary criticism. From this perspective lecturer and students looked at representations of
aging and old age in US-American and Canadian literature and film and discussed how critical
analyses of fictional texts can contribute to theorizing the function of age in the construction
of identity. As feminist theory distinguishes between sex and gender, so should a distinction
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be made between chronological age and the cultural stereotypes associated with old people,
which would help escape the confining binary opposition of young and old. In this first week
of the seminar module, students were made familiar with some of the most important
concepts in the fields of cultural and literary gerontology.
Week 2: "The Making and Unmaking of Aging Identities" – Stephen Katz
The course explored aging and the life-
course by looking at the subjective
dimension of social life. In doing so, the
seminar emphasized the practical,
experiential and interpretive insights of
sociological discovery from the 'inside' of
aging through selected sub-fields such as
falling and cognitive decline. The
theoretical, methodological and
illustrative strands of the course found
common ground in the elaboration of
narrative practices, contexts and environments that shape aging identities and bodies. More
broadly, the course borrowed from critical frameworks in feminism, social inequality,
consumerism and medicalization to rethink gerontological concerns about population,
retirement, intergenerational relations, health and longevity. Overall, students were made
familiar with the importance of narrative in aging studies as a way of bridging macro and
micro sociologies, coherent and disruptive life courses, and common and expert ways of
knowing.
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Creative Writing Seminar
The creative writing workshop took place multiple times every week and the ten nominated
students also had the chance to work with Prof. Hinojosa-Smith on an individual basis. The
selection of participants was based on writing samples submitted prior to the summer
school.
Rolando Hinojosa-Smith is the Ellen Clayton Garwood
Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA,
and one of the most prolific and well-respected
Hispanic novelists in the United States. Not only has
he created memorable Mexican American and white
characters, but he has completely populated a
fictional county in the lower Rio Grande Valley of
Texas through his continuing generational narrative
that he calls the Klail City Death Trip Series. The first
Chicano author to receive a major international
literary award, Rolando Hinojosa won the prestigious Premio Casa de las Américas for Klail
City y sus alrededores (Klail City), part of a series of novels known to English-speaking readers
as "The Klail City Death Trip." Hinojosa's fiction, often infused with satire or subtle humor, is
widely praised for its multiple narratives that unite many characters' individual perspectives
into the unique combined voice of the Chicano people. Hinojosa has also produced essays,
poetry, and a detective novel titled Partners in Crime.
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KEYNOTE LECTURE
Manfred PRISCHING: Collective Identities: Does Europe Exist?
Prof. Manfred Prisching studied law and economics
and thereafter became an assistant professor at the
Departments of the Philosophy of Law, of Economics,
and of Sociology at the University of Graz. In 1985,
he obtained his habilitation in sociology. He received
numerous awards such as the Innitzer Award 1985,
the Krainer Award 1994, and the Haslauer Award
1996. He was a research fellow and guest professor
at the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg (Maastricht, NL), at
Harvard University (Boston), at the University of
Louisiana at New Orleans, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of
Nevada at Las Vegas as well as at several Austrian universities. During 1997-2001, he was
Rector of the University of Applied Sciences (FH Joanneum) in Graz. Prof. Manfred Prisching
is also member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
In his keynote lecture, Manfred Prisching dealt with crucial questions concerning European
identity and provided students and faculty with many starting points for discussions during
the summer school. What are we speaking about when we talk about Europe and European
identity? It is not easy to define Europe. There are many Europes since borders have often
shifted during the course of history. Even today, Europe's demarcation lines are constantly
being shifted, for example when we talk about cores and peripheries of Europe in the
context of the current crisis.
The keynote addressed wrong assessments
concerning the EU such as over-optimistic
expectations in the past, the exaggeration of
achievements, and deficiencies in the reliability and
stability of the system. Also polarizations in the
current debate about Europe, especially in regard to
its upcoming state-like structure, were discussed.
Furthermore, Prisching elaborated on the role of
nation states in Europe, problems of economic
functioning, political challenges such as the
establishment of political legitimacy in the EU, and
demographic changes in Europe.
The talk then continued with the discussion of a vision of the "United States of Europe"
which will not be based on an already existing collective identity. According to Prisching, the
“USE" can be described as a pragmatic process, which will develop step by step.
The lecture ended with a presentation of crucial arguments for Europe such as Europe as the
creator of the idea of rational arguments, market society, democracy, and human rights.
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MORNING LECTURES
LITERATURE & CULTURE Josef RAAB: Thinking Beyond the Nation in the Americas
Josef Raab is Professor of American Studies at the
University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. He received
his PhD from the University of Southern California in
Los Angeles (USA) and from 1993 to 2000 he was
Assistant Professor at the Catholic University of
Eichstätt in Germany. Between 2000 and 2004 he was
Associate Professor of American Studies at the
University of Bielefeld. From there he moved on to
becoming Chair of American Studies at the University
of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, where he has been
since 2004. Josef Raab’s research interests include Inter-American Studies, ethnicity,
borders, cultural hybridity, and the whole range of U.S. American literature as well as
Mexican-American literature and culture.
From 2008 to 2010 Josef Raab was one of three organizers of the international and
interdisciplinary research group "E Pluribus Unum? - Ethnic Identities in Transnational
Integration Processes of the Americas." It is at the concluding conference of this research
group that the International Association of Inter-American Studies was founded in the
summer of 2009. Since this founding conference Josef Raab has been the president of the
International Association of Inter-American Studies.
In his morning lecture, Josef Raab discussed the topic of transnationalism and changes in the
conceptualization of the nation state. His main thesis in this talk was that in view of
migration, transnational flows and mediascapes, and multiple connections across national
borders in the Americas, the nation is no longer the measure of all things. Therefore, he
argued, our academic practice needs to go beyond national container models. We need to
think beyond the nation and be aware of inter-American, transnational entanglements.
Raab started his lecture with two proverbs. First, "nothing is as permanent as change." And
second, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Contradictory though they
may seem, both of these statements are true at the same time. If we look at Mexico for
example, we will find constant change over the past few millennia: from the Mayan and
Aztec civilizations to Spanish conquest and
domination, to national independence, a
revolution, industrialization, and to the country’s
proud present position. Despite such changes,
many things have stayed the same in several
regards if we think of mestizaje, ethnic,
linguistic, and cultural pluralism, or economic,
political, and regional inequalities. When for
example NAFTA, the North American Free Trade
Agreement between Canada, the United States,
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and Mexico, was signed twenty years ago, its introduction was hailed as a major change in
Mexico’s relations with the USA. But whether the flow of migrants has really diminished
because of NAFTA or whether the average Mexican citizen is better off today than twenty
years ago still is debatable.
In his talk, Raab also elaborated on different cultural representations of border crossing such
as Frida Kahlo's work and the writings of Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.
Furthermore, Raab introduced the field of Inter-American Studies to the audience as a
research area which is still in the process of formation and open to change. Drawing on the
work of Olaf Kaltmeier, he also explained why moving beyond the nation state in academic
discourses does not mean to abandon the idea of nations altogether but rather recognizes
its dynamic nature. Simone FRANCESCATO: Hallucinated Identity in P. Matthiessen’s "At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965) and H. Babenco’s Filmic Adaption (1991)"
Dr. Simone Francescato is Lecturer in American
Literature and Culture at the Department of Linguistics
and Comparative Cultural Studies at Ca' Foscari
University of Venice. He earned his PhD at Ca' Foscari
University in 2008 conducting research at Harvard
University, USA, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany,
and the University of Birmingham, UK.
His main areas of interest include late 19th and early
20th century American literature (realism, naturalism,
aestheticism, decadence and their European models,
literature and aesthetics, travel writing and the representation of tourism in literature and
Aging Studies. He is the author of the book Collecting and Appreciating: Henry James and the
Transformation of Aesthetics in the Age of Consumption (Oxford, 2010) and he is currently
co-editing the 23th volume of The Complete Fiction of Henry James: The Aspern Papers and
Other Tales with Prof. Rosella Mamoli Zorzi which will be published by the Cambridge
University Press.
Simone Francescato’s lecture was aimed at stimulating reflection on the construction of
individual and collective identities by
focusing on excerpts taken from Peter
Matthiessen’s novel At Play in the Fields
of the Lord and two short clips from the
eponymous movie (dir. Hector Babenco,
1991). The book and its cinematic
adaptation fictionalize the delusionary
attempt of an American mixed-race
man to dislocate and re-imagine his
ethnic affiliation in a foreign land, which
ultimately leads to the very destruction
of the (imaginary) community he
attempts to preserve.
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The novel and also its filmic adaption deal with racial discrimination and also the
deployment of the frontier myth in Latin America. They also address rivalry between
missionaries, the advance of corruption and capitalism, and cultural genocide in the context
of Native American cultures.
Francescato concluded that topics of identity, civilization, and desire are central motifs in the
novel and its adaption and that the text particularly challenges essentialism.
CULTURAL IDENTITIES Marietta MESSMER: Outsourcing Immigration Control: A Comparative Analysis of Current Immigration Policy Measures in the United States and the European Union
In her home Department of American Studies at the
University of Groningen, The Netherlands, Prof.
Marietta Messmer teaches a wide range of
undergraduate courses that focus on contemporary
relations between the U.S. and Latin America, current
theories of race, gender, and ideology, Mexican and
Central American migration to the U.S., as well as a
graduate seminar on "Identity in Postethnic America."
In her research, she is particularly interested in
exploring the United States’s ambivalent relationship
to Canada and Mexico; the problems encountered by undocumented immigrants along the
U.S.-Mexican border; migration movements and the impact of immigration policy measures;
as well as questions of integration and the political rights of cultural and ethnic minorities.
Before coming to the Netherlands, she taught American Studies at York University in
Toronto, Canada (1992-1997), where she also received her PhD; and at the University of
Göttingen in Germany (1997-2004), where she completed her Habilitationsschrift analyzing
the impact of postmodern cultural theories on ethnic identity movements.
In her morning lecture, Marietta Messmer
explored the complex effects that the
reconceptualization of legal and political borders
has on buffer countries such as Mexico, Morocco,
and Senegal.
Both the US and the EU are currently negotiating
increasingly large streams of migrants, and both
have responded in very similar ways: (1) by further
militarizing their (external) borders; (2) by
initiating bilateral readmission agreements with
neighboring states to safeguard their own national security interests; and (3) by outsourcing
the control of migrant streams to countries of transit which become responsible for
preventing Central American respectively sub-Saharan migrants from reaching the US’s /
EU’s external borders, and for sending these migrants back to their countries of origin. In this
context, Mexico, Morocco, and Senegal have started to assume a crucial role as buffer zones
and legal outposts of the US respectively the EU while at the same time being more strongly
26
incorporated (politically, economically, and militarily) into a larger North American
respectively European Union through measures such as El Plan Sur (2001), the "Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America" (2005), the "Dublin Regulation" (2003), or the
"Global Approach to Migration" (2005). In this context, we can observe that both the United
States and the European Union have started to significantly extend their areas of political
and legal influence beyond their own national borders. This destabilization of the principle of
national legal sovereignty in the context of the management of migration movements can
ultimately be said to lead, in Naomi Klein’s words, to a silent extension of the US’s / EU’s
national borders further South.
In her talk, Messmer argued that the position of buffer countries like Mexico, Morocco, and
Senegal has, on the one hand, been empowered because of the material benefits,
institutional support and other privileges they accrue through a closer alliance with their
powerful neighbors to the North. On the other hand, however, these countries do not only
face a heavy social burden by complying with US respectively EU-driven migration policy
interests, but they are also often forced to make difficult and legally questionable decisions
that may alienate them from their immediate neighbors. Isabel CALDEIRA: Gender, Ethnicity, and Cultural Essentialism
Isabel Caldeira is Associate Professor of American
Studies at the Faculty of Letters and Senior Research
Fellow of the Center for Social Studies at the
University of Coimbra, Portugal. Her research fields
are American and African American literature and
culture, Caribbean literature, diaspora studies and
comparative studies of African American literature
and African literatures in Portuguese. She teaches a
wide range of undergraduate courses focusing on 19th
and 20th century American literature, myth and
identity in American culture, American imperialism,
African American literature and culture, as well as graduate seminars on the African
American postmodern novel and the rewriting of slavery, theories of American studies and
women, race and ethnicity. She has published on Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, Jean Toomer,
Sherley Anne Williams, Gayl Jones, Maryse Condé, the Harlem poets and the Black Aesthetic
poets, racism, the Angolan fictionist Pepetela and Cape Verdean poetry.
In her lecture, Isabel Caldeira reflected on the intersections of gender, class, and ethnicity in
a globalized world where issues concerning individual and collective identities demand a
transnational assessment. Caldeira addressed questions of essentialism, cultural relativism,
multiculturalism, ethnicization and remythicization.
27
Her special focus was on the Americas, whose
history was built by the logic of colonialism
and migration. According to Caldeira, to be
able to address the growing complexity of
identity formation in those areas, but also to
open possibilities of interchange, dialogue,
and emancipation, we need to be attentive to
the imposition of hegemonic models and
hierarchies, to the processes of othering, to
the diverse strategies developed to preserve
original cultural identities or to negotiate with
and reinterpret the imposed ones. Caldeira described major forms of oppression as
interlocking, argued for intellectual resistance, and posed the question what the
contribution of the humanities to questions of hierarchy and difference has been so far.
URBAN & REGIONAL IDENTITIES Daniela LARION: Vanishing Aral Sea – Aral Lake Area Ecological Disaster
Daniela Larion is Senior Lecturer at the University
Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi, Romania, Faculty of
Geography and Geology, with current teaching
activities in the fields of Regional Geography (mainly
America and Europe) and Environmental Geography
(including both physical geography and human
geography elements).
Her primary research interests are climate and
climatic changes, as well as urban climate and its
effects on human health. Her academic background
includes geography (as a major) and English language and literature. Daniela Larion has been
teaching at A.I. Cuza University in Iasi since 1992 and has published six books in the field of
regional geography, environmental geography, and climatology. She presented at
conferences on environmental issues in many countries (e.g. the UK, Switzerland, and
Belgium) for many years. Since 2008, she has been the coordinator of the Romanian team of
students participating at the International Geography Olympiad achieving the world's best
results with them in Tunis and Poland.
In her morning lecture, Daniela Larion analyzed causes of the Aral Sea disaster and
elaborated on its consequences for people living in the region in terms of health, social life,
and economic activity. She also drew participants' attention to consequences of this disaster
for the ecosystem which in this case involves several countries. In a world with an increasing
population, an efficient management of resources is required in order to provide a decent
living for people with a minimum impact on the environment at the same time.
Unfortunately, many alarming cases on the planet show how irresponsibly measures have
been taken in different regions, and how severe the consequences already are. The case of
Aral Sea is one of the biggest ecological disasters our planet has been facing: It is the only
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example in the history of humanity of a great body of water disappearing during the life-
course of just one single generation, affecting about 35 million people in one way or
another. At present, the lake only has 10% of its initial surface and transforms into the
newest desert on the planet known as Aralkum.
After having presented geographical facts on the disaster of Aral Sea, Larion continued her
lecture analyzing causes for the vanishing of the lake and also discussed its consequences on
a local and regional scale.
Conclusions then referred to estimating the future of Aral Sea and potential measures to be
taken by the governments of the affected countries. Finally, Larion also shortly presented
other areas on the planet with similar environmental problems.
Peter GOGGIN: Identities in the Fringes: Glocalization and Literacy Sponsorship in Islands (and other Geographical Oddities)
Dr. Peter Goggin studies environmental rhetoric and
sustainability. He is the editor of Rhetorics, Literacies,
and Narratives of Sustainability (2009), and
Environmental Rhetorics and Ecologies of Place
(forthcoming 2013), and author of Professing Literacy
in Composition Studies (2008). His articles on literacies
of sustainability, environmental rhetoric, and
environmental discourse, rhetoric and writing and
literacy have appeared in Composition Studies,
Community Literacy Journal, Rhetoric Review,
Enculturation, and Computers and Composition. His current research includes the study of
rhetorics and discourses of sustainability and globalization in oceanic islands. He has taught
graduates and undergraduates in Cluj, Chengdu, Bermuda, Boston, Pittsburgh, and now at
Arizona State University in Tempe. He is founder and director of the annual Western States
Rhetoric and Literacy conference which features themes on sustainability, culture,
transnationality, and place.
Peter Goggin provided summer school participants with a lecture on glocalization, identity,
and literacy sponsorship in islands. When children in the pene-exclave of Port Roberts,
Washington, leave for school each day, they take a 40 minute bus ride that takes them
across two national boundaries, from the US to British Columbia, Canada, and then from
Canada back into the US. At the end of the school day, they do it again in reverse. In the Isles
of Scilly students who wish to attend school beyond the national leaving age of 16 to attend
the US equivalent of 12th grade must leave the islands by helicopter or ferry and acquire
boarding accommodation on the UK mainland. Likewise, students in Alderney, Sark, and
Herm in the Channel Islands must travel by air for host-family lodging in the much larger
States island of Guernsey. These cases are just a few of many where presumptions of
globalized society, and the end of place-identity would render “off shore" school-based
literacy learning impacted by the nuances and lived realities of geopolitical and geographical
boundaries as invisible and irrelevant (see Christopherson, Susan, Harry Garetsen, and Ron
Martin, eds. The World is not Flat: Putting Globalisation in its Place. 2008). But for the
teachers, students, parents, and administrators who live in these "fringe" places of
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otherwise mainstream Western society, literacy schooling requires negotiating not just
physical distance, but travel requirements and conditions most would likely associate with
extended vacations. Land space limitations, accommodations, limited resources, and
physical isolation make it difficult to attract and keep educators, and the children
themselves, once they have experienced life on the mainland.
School-based literacy learning itself is informed by mainland/mainstream perspectives that
sponsor knowledge construction that competes with local knowledges and place-based
literacies (See Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection.
2005). How then, do these places where literacy dwells well off the beaten path, do local
knowledges, and local literacy sponsors negotiate for presence in the global/public sphere?
(See Reynolds, Nedra. Geographies of Writing: Inhabiting Places and Encountering
Difference. 2004).
POLITICS & LAW
Soeren KEIL: Power-Sharing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq and Cyprus
Dr. Soeren Keil is a lecturer in International Relations
at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He is also
a visiting professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in
Barcelona, Spain. He teaches European Politics and
International Relations with a special focus on EU
external affairs, nationalism and diversity
management, and international relations theory. His
main research focuses on the Western Balkans and he
has published on the role of the EU in the region,
power-sharing in divided societies and federalism in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before joining Canterbury Christ Church University, Dr. Keil worked
as an assistant lecturer at the University of Kent. There he taught European and Comparative
Politics. He completed his PhD in 2010 with a dissertation on Multinational Federalism in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also holds an MA in International Relations and a teaching
degree from the University of Kent.
In his first morning lecture, Soeren Keil discussed power-sharing in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, and Cyprus. According to Keil,
collective identities have become a key feature in the 21st century.
Minority nations - often remembering years of oppression and
suffering - demand recognition and also political participation.
Drawing on the examples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, and
Cyprus, three deeply divided societies that have suffered from
violent conflicts between different groups, the lecture examined
the role of institutional frameworks in addressing challenges of
multinationalism and competing nation- and state-building
projects.
Power-sharing as a strategy for conflict resolution and joint exercise of power has become a
main tool of state-building and democratization in the post-Cold War era. Its advantages are
30
that it provides for consensual decision-making, inclusion of multiple groups in government
and administration as well as for veto rights and self-government.
So why are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, and Cyprus good examples for power-sharing?
First of all, these post-conflict societies have a deep-rooted ethnic and religious diversity.
Secondly, in all three cases international actors played and still play a key role in the current
political situation. Thirdly, all three states remain contested. Additionally, all three have used
forms of federalism and power-sharing (often consociationalism) to accommodate existing
diversities and ensure democratic decisions, remain internally unstable, and experience on-
going secession movements.
Referring to these three countries, Keil introduced three applied models of power-sharing to
participating students and faculty and then concluded that the key challenge of today
remains making these systems self-sustainable.
Robert AUSTIN: What Is All the Fuss About Hungary's New Constitution?
Robert Clegg Austin is a specialist on East Central
and Southeastern Europe in historic and
contemporary perspective. In the past, Dr. Austin
was a Tirana-based correspondent of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty; a Slovak-based
correspondent with The Economist Group of
Publications; and a news writer with the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. Austin has
written articles for The Globe and Mail, The Toronto
Star, Orbis, East European Politics and Societies and
East European Quarterly along with numerous book chapters. He now teaches at the Centre
for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the
University of Toronto and coordinates the Undergraduate Program in European Studies and
the Hungarian Studies Program. In his morning lecture, Robert Austin provided the audience with an overview of the
problematic aspects of Hungary’s new controversial constitution delivered by the Hungarian
government. First and foremost, he addressed the question whether Europe should be
worried about what is inside. One of the problematic aspects of the situation is that Hungary
has a very strong government with little
consultation of the public and that a super
majority in parliament allows for major
constitutional changes.
Troubling issues in regards to the constitution are
difficult historical perspectives, the new
regulations on citizenship which created about 3.5
million new Hungarian citizens, and some
religious aspects. Also worrying is the enforced
media control through the establishment of a new
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media body which will be able to impose fines on media outlets for “imbalanced media
coverage." Another very problematic and worrying aspect is the constitutional ban on
homelessness.
According to Austin, although the EU is only reacting slowly, it will come up with ideas and
will try to change inappropriate laws. This is especially important because many consider the
current developments in Hungary as a slip towards authoritarianism.
MEDIA, SOCIETY & CULTURE Krešimir KROLO: Digital generation and transnational public sphere(s): rewiring identities?
Once also a participant of the summer school at
Seggau, Krešimir Krolo received his PhD from the
University of Zadar, Croatia, and the University of
Teramo, Italy, within the frameworks of the
international joint doctoral program "SOCREG –
sociology of regional and local development" in 2013.
His academic work focuses on the understanding and
mapping of the media environment and media uses of
youth with a special emphasis on social media, video
gaming and online social networks and how they
interact with everyday private and public practices. Other interests include new youth
cultures in digital environments as well as new forms of popular culture mediated,
developed and practiced through digital interactive technologies.
Krešimir Krolo provided participants of this
year's summer school with an overview of
the latest trends, both theoretical and
empirical, in the context of online life and
digital interaction. The main goal of his
lecture was to examine whether practices of
online interaction encourage the
transgression of local, national, and other
identities or whether the so-called "digital
youth" prefers the more secure and stable
environment of their original socio-cultural
communities. Furthermore, he discussed how the complexity of the public sphere is being
reorganized in the contemporary digital context and what it means to the 'digital youth' but
also to other social groups and society as a whole.
In his lecture, Krolo argued that an interdisciplinary approach is needed in order to
understand the complexities of developments in the context of digital media. Sociology,
Urban Studies, Cultural Studies, Postcolonialism, and also theories of globalization can,
among others, provide important insights and theoretical frames when it comes to studying
digital media phenomena.
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ECONOMICS & POWER
Luis SAN VICENTE PORTES: Economic Development: Why poverty? (and wealth)
Luis San Vicente Portes is Associate Professor at the
Department of Economics and Finance at Montclair
State University. He joined MSU in the fall of 2005
after the completion of his doctoral degree at
Georgetown University. He earned his bachelor's
degree at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de
Mexico (ITAM), holds diplomas in Business
Development and Administration from ITAM, and on
the Economics of the European Union awarded by the
London School of Economics. Dr. San Vicente Portes
has worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and for the World
Bank in Washington, DC; and full-time for the Ministry of Finance and Petroleos Mexicanos
in Mexico.
At MSU Luis San Vicente Portes’ teaching responsibilities include undergraduate courses in
macroeconomics, international economics, and development. He also teaches a course on
economic development at Montclair’s MBA program. He has also taught at ITAM, Mexico,
Georgetown University, USA, the University of Graz, Austria, and is currently a lecturer of
international business in the Executive MBA program at Rutgers University, USA.
Luis San Vicente Portes’ research focuses on macroeconomics and international economics.
Using computational techniques he takes a theoretical approach in the study of business
cycles, international trade and inequality. In particular, his research analyzes the
macroeconomic effects of greater economic integration on business cycles and the
distribution of income and wealth and has been published in journals such as Quarterly
Review of Economics and Finance, The Berkeley Journal of Macroeconomics, The Global
Economy Journal, and the Journal of Development Economics, among others.
The goal of Luis San Vincente Portes' lecture was to introduce students to the concepts and
to the notion of economic development. There is large variation in income levels across
countries (and within) that shape daily lives and ultimately
identities. Uncovering why such differences exist and how they
change over time, is essential for understanding cultures, politics
and societies; and how at the individual level, art, literature, and
beliefs are shaped in turn. Unveiling and measuring countries’
drivers of economic performance ought to provide a lens
through which students were able to reveal such invisible
threads.
In his morning lecture, San Vincente Portes provided students
with an overview of important macroeconomic measurements
(e.g. GDP or GDP per capita). He also elaborated on common
macroeconomic theories associated with economic development
such as the general structural change of societies from
agriculture to industry and then service, demographic
transitions, and migration patterns from rural to urban regions. San Vincente Portes
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furthermore highlighted the crucial role of institutions as rules and customs that govern
economic and social interaction in the context of economic development.
Soeren KEIL: The European Single Market after the Economic Crisis – Building a Federal Europe?
Soeren Keil provided participants of the summer school with a lecture during which he
briefly outlined the initial reasons of the European unification process and then addressed
the current economic crisis in the context of European integration.
The main reason for the start of the European unification in the early 1950s was World War
II. Especially the aim to avoid another (European) war was a crucial argument for the
European unification project. Although it is key to note that it was a political project first and
an economic second, European integration has focused on economic integration ever since
the creation of the Coal and Steal Community in the 1950s. However, economic and political
integration have resulted in the largest single market in the world, and have created a new
supranational institutional framework. Since different EU states have different rules and
regulations, the European Single Market is a project of harmonization. As an instrument of
regulation and harmonization the European Single Market is of special importance to
business leaders. Yet, the EU and its single market were particularly hard hit by the
economic crisis in 2008/9. The following financial crisis in the Eurozone has led to political
decisions which not only change the nature of the European Single Market, but of the overall
European integration process.
ETHICS, RELIGION & LEADERSHIP David BATES: Identity, Conflict and Leadership in a globalized world
Dr. David Bates is Principal Lecturer in Politics and
International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church
University, UK. His research interests encompass a
number of key areas: contemporary radical political
thought, particularly post-Marxism and
anticapitalism/anti-globalization. Dr Bates’ recent work
has dealt specifically with the work of Antonio Gramsci,
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and Michael Hardt
and Antonio Negri and with issues of political
participation, specifically though not exclusively in
liberal democratic societies, and in particular how active political engagement might be
encouraged. He is currently involved in a number of research projects, which address this
issue and he is especially interested in the political role of "the intellectual" in contemporary
societies, both in terms of political philosophy, and the relationship with wider movements
of social change.
What is globalization? Is globalization a positive phenomenon? How has globalization
impacted on the political process? And what about the anti-globalization movement? Are we
34
witnessing a new politics, which challenges the way in which "leadership" has carried out?
Are we witnessing the emergence of "leaderless networks of revolution"?
David Bates' lecture drew critically on the thought of the radical thinkers Michael Hardt and
Antonio Negri (2000; 2005; 2009; 2011) in order to explore the possibilities of a politics of
radical engagement in the context of the so-called information age. For Hardt and Negri, the
advent of what Castells (2000) terms the "informational society" has created the potential
for new "networks" of radical political engagement,
new modes of "horizontal" communication, and a new
form of (possibly leaderless) "commons." This process
enables those wishing to resist the power of "Empire"
(of globalized capitalism) to organize and create a new
politics, a politics of the networked "multitude," a
politics, which refuses inequality and exploitation, and
in so doing forges new radical identities. While on the
one hand this may be a politics of conflict – involving
as it does a mode of refusal – it may also be a positive
politics in which there is a pre-figuration in the present
of an alternative possible future (or futures). Johan VERSTRAETEN: Why Nationalism or the Absolutisation of Collective Identities are Inadequate Answers to the Crisis
Johan Verstraeten teaches leadership and spirituality,
business ethics, peace ethics and Catholic Social
Thought at the University of Leuven. His research
interests are in ethics and the spirituality of
leadership. He is a member of the editorial board of
Business Ethics, A European Review, Ethical
Perspectives and Journal of Catholic Social Thought.
He holds a licentiate in Philosophy and a PhD in
Religious Studies, STD. Furthermore, he worked at the
University of Leuven from 1982-1987 as researcher at
the Department of Political Sciences and from 1987-1990 as researcher at the Faculty of
Economic Sciences (Center for Ethics and Economics). From 1990-2000 he was director of
the Center for Ethics and is now a full professor at the research unit Theological Ethics
(Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies). From 1997-2000 he was an extraordinary
professor of Business Ethics at the University of Tilburg and a regular guest professor at TIAS
(Tilburg Institute of Advanced Studies) and the Avicenna Academy of Leadership.
In his morning lecture, Johan Verstraeten explained why the economic crisis is only the tip of
the iceberg and a symptom of a more profound crisis of culture, institutions, and identity. As
a moral crisis the current crisis has led to a social system of compliance and the dominance
of manipulation in many areas. The current crisis has also influenced the psychological
wellbeing of many people. A feeling of "being tired of being oneself" seems to spread and
depression becomes a more frequent phenomenon in many Western societies. We are
35
currently living in a situation of crisis where the only constant is change and overall
frameworks of meaning collapse.
According to Verstraeten, one of the illusory ways to overcome
the fear for a collapse of the frameworks of reference is seeking
absolute identities (e.g. in nationalism). The answer should be
different: (1) we must learn to live with multiple identities (e.g.
as parent, citizen, man or woman), (2) we should revalue
traditions as basis of community building in order to create
more social capital, and (3) we have to abandon "downloaded
ideas" and instead learn from the future as it emerges.
Verstraeten described authenticity and spirituality as basis of
genuine autonomy and meditation as a way out of restlessness.
At the end of his lecture, Verstraeten discussed two urgent tasks
in confronting this crisis. Possibilities different from the
economic logic of scarcity have to be suggested and inter-
subjective abundance and generosity have to be valued. The most urgent task though is
political and not economic: victims of capitalism should be actively involved as subjects in
conversations about their future.
TRANSNATIONALISM & MIGRATION Guy LAFOREST: Integration, Deep Diversity, Staying Together, Separating, Seceding
Guy Laforest is Professor of Political Science at
Université Laval, Québec, Canada. He teaches Political
Theory, Canadian Constitutional Politics, Theories of
Federalism and of Nationalism, Intellectual History in
Québec and elsewhere in Canada. Beyond Canada, he
is interested in comparative research with Great
Britain and Spain, where he regularly teaches and
attends conferences. He is a member of GRSP (Groupe
de recherches sur les sociétés plurinationales) and of
CRIDAQ (Centre de recherches interuniversitaires sur
la diversité au Québec). Most recent publication: Michel Seymour and Guy Laforest (eds), Le
fédéralisme multinational: Un modèle viable? Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2011. Using the approaches of political theory and of political sociology, the languages of idealism
and of realism, the lecture by Guy Laforest explored arguments concerning the theory of
integration developed by liberal multiculturalists and by interculturalists. Laforest therefore
presented and discussed arguments explaining why existing states and existing political
communities can count on the support of a majority of citizens. These arguments included
(1) common values or common principles, (2) shared conceptions of history (e.g. textbooks,
celebration of victories), (3) joy of diversity, (4) efficacy and trustworthiness of institutions,
(5) the preferability of the status quo as “the devil you know," (6) economic arguments such
as wealth and prosperity, welfare and well-being, (7) security, military protection, and
common enemies, (8) larger states as theater of action for minority elites, (9) symbolic
36
reasons (religion, language, and culture), (10) common actions and common projects, (11)
the fear of living in a post-separation, intellectually and socially impoverished public sphere,
(12) the exemplarity of a nation's situation for the world, and finally also (13) integration and
empowerment. According to Laforest, common actions and common projects most probably
constitute the most important argument why people stay politically together.
In the final part of the lecture, the example of Great Britain and Scotland was used to briefly
illustrate the normative dimensions of political action when parts of a political community
think seriously of separation. Gerald LAMPRECHT: Transnationalism and Migration – Jewish Migration
Gerald Lamprecht is Assistant Professor and the
Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the
University of Graz. He holds a Master's and a doctoral
degree from the University of Graz. In his numerous
publications, he discusses topics such as transnational
Jewish migrations, National Socialism and its
discourses in Styria, as well as conceptions of
Jewishness. His fields of research focus on Jewish
history, Anti-Semitism, history of National-Socialism
and the persecution of the Jewish people.
Gerald Lamprecht began his lecture with a short historical overview of Jewish migration
since the Middle Ages. By doing so, he also talked about aspects of transnational migration
and the transformation of identity construction.
Lamprecht distinguished three main phases of Jewish migration: (1) the expulsion from Spain
from 1492-1789, (2) mass migration from Eastern Europe and urbanization/metropolization
from 1789 to 1914, and also (3) expulsion, Shoah and the foundation of Israel in the time
span from 1914 to 1948. He argued that Jewish migration in general is very closely linked to
the experience of diaspora. In the first phase of Jewish migration, expelled Jews from Spain
spread all over the world and played an important role as cultural traders. Most of them
settled in North Africa and in the Mediterranean. During the second phase of Jewish
migration from 1789 to 1914, ideas of enlightenment brought important changes to Jewish
communities. Jews, at that time mostly migrating to America but also to urban centers,
underwent complex processes of assimilation, emancipation, and acculturation. Important
for migration at that time were technological changes such as railway systems and
transatlantic shipping. During the third phase of Jewish migration, Lamprecht outlined in his
lecture, hundred thousands of Jews left their homes but new migration acts made migration
more difficult. As an example Lamprecht mentioned the case of the SS St. Louis, a German
ocean liner with hundred Jewish refugees on board which was denied entry in Cuba, the
USA, and Canada in 1939 and had to return to Europe.
37
CULTURAL NARRATIVES OF LONGEVITY Roberta MAIERHOFER: Let's Talk About Age: Traces of Time and Experience
Roberta Maierhofer is Professor at the Department of
American Studies of the University of Graz and
Adjunct Professor at Binghamton University, New
York. Her research focuses on American literature and
Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, transatlantic
cooperation in education, and Age/Aging Studies. She
holds a master's and a doctoral degree from the
University of Graz, as well as an M.A. degree in
Comparative Literature from SUNY Binghamton. In
her publication, Salty Old Women: Gender and Aging
in American Culture, she developed a theoretical approach to gender and aging
(anocriticism). She was elected Vice Rector for International Relations in 1999, and then
served as Vice Rector for International Relations and Affirmative Action for Women (2003-
2007) and from 2007 to 2011 as Vice Rector for International Relations and Interdisciplinary
Cooperation at the University of Graz. Since 2007, she has been directing the Center for
Inter-American Studies of the University of Graz.
In her lecture, Roberta Maierhofer argued that since the 1980s, scholars in the field of
cultural gerontology have turned to cultural manifestations to investigate ideas about the
meaning of identity within the life course, and discuss models of aging presented in
literature, art, and film. Within the interplay between the fields of sciences and humanities,
textual representations are important sources that contribute towards understanding
"identity in movement, " the matrix of time and experience within the many contexts in
which a person moves over the duration of a life. Examining reactions to personal crises and
turning points as expressed in cultural representations provides researchers with unique
insights into the way individuals construct their lives. The fluidity of identity opens up
possibilities to move beyond the defined position of self and makes it not only possible but
necessary to view family structure and relationships in new
ways. If identity is defined by both continuity and change over a
life course, the importance is to not only narrate one’s life, but
also interpret these narrations in an ongoing process of
dialogue.
In this context, Maierhofer also introduced participating
students and lectures to "anocriticism," an approach in Age and
Aging Studies she developed based on Elaine Showalter‘s
definition of "gynocriticism," which enables an understanding
of what it means to be “aged by culture" – in Margaret
Morganroth Gullette’s term. Germaine Greer used the term
"anophobia" to speak about the fear of old women. Maierhofer
uses the term "anocriticism" to express an interpretational approach that validates
individual experience of age and aging in resistance of normative assumptions.
38
Ulla KRIEBERNEGG: Ending Aging in the Shteyngart of Eden: Challenging Scientific Anti-Aging Discourse
Ulla Kriebernegg is an Assistant Professor at the
Center for Inter-American Studies (C.IAS) at the
University of Graz, Austria.
She studied English and American Studies and German
Philology at the University of Graz and at University
College Dublin, Ireland, and holds a master's and a
doctoral degree from the University of Graz. Her
research focuses on North American literature and
Cultural Studies, transatlantic educational
cooperation, and Aging/Age Studies. Currently, she is
writing a monograph with the working title Locating Life: Intersections of Age and Space in
which she analyzes the intersection of space, place, and aging in Canadian and US American
literature and film. Her publications include The Transatlantic Dialogue on Higher Education:
An Analysis of Cultural Narratives (Logos, 2010) and The Ages of Life: Living and Aging in
Conflict (transcript, 2012) which she co-edited with Roberta Maierhofer. In her morning lecture, Ulla Kriebernegg talked about the topic of biogerontology as
presented in Gary Shteyngart’s dystopic novel Super Sad True Love Story (2010) from the
perspective of cultural gerontology and examined how the novel manages to challenge
predominant discourses in the field of scientific anti-aging studies, especially the notion that
old age is a disease that can be cured. It compares the novel’s presentation of
biogerontological knowledge to current developments in the field, using Cambridge
biogerontologist and immortality prophet Aubrey de Grey’s book Ending Aging (2007) as an
example. Based on the assumption that cultural
criticism can and should impact scientific and
medical research on aging, Kriebernegg discussed
whether (the analysis of) fictional texts can be
seen as a cultural critical intervention into the
ageism so often openly displayed in scientific
discourses. Kriebernegg concluded that she
understands her analysis of Shteyngart’s novel
and the juxtaposition with biogerontological texts
as bridging the gap between literary criticism and
gerontology. She argued that if cultural
gerontologists will successfully manage to become "resisting readers," challenging
stereotypical assumptions regarding aging and old age in society, a sequel to the Super Sad
True Love Story might be written with a different focus.
39
Stephen KATZ: Music, Performance and Generation: The Making of Boomer Biographies
Stephen Katz is a sociologist from Trent University in
Canada. His research and publications are in the areas
of critical gerontology, sociology of the body, memory
and cognitive culture, aging futures and life-course
biopolitics. His books include Disciplining Old Age: The
Formation of Gerontological Knowledge and Cultural
Aging: Life Course, Lifestyle and Senior Worlds.
Stephen Katz provided participants with a lecture on identity, narratives, generations, aging
and music. At the beginning of his lecture, Katz quoted famous sociologist Anthony Giddens
who said the following: "A person's identity is not to be found in behavior, nor — important
though this is — in the reactions of others, but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative
going." Thus, Katz argued that fertile sociological research often focuses on storytelling. In
this context symbols are important. For many members of the so-called boomer generation,
The Rolling Stones are an important symbol and a reminder of their cohort identity. While
aging rock stars are important icons signifying the youthful durability of rock music, Stephen
Katz’s lecture explored the music itself in relation to the boomer and "third age" cohort as a
kind of generational field, identified with post-traditional "liberational" consumerism and
lifestyle. The focus of Katz’s talk then was on the materialization of biographical and
generational narratives expressed in the form of imaginary soundscapes and fantasy
performative roles. Since the music has been carried forward as the generation itself has
aged, the contradictions of aging have also become infused in the musical industry.
At the end, the presentation also included journalistic entries from Katz’s own participation
in a boomer rock and roll fantasy club.
GUEST LECTURE Paul WILLIAMS: Canada's Engagement in the Americas Councelor Paul Williams has headed the political, economic and public
affairs program at the Embassy of Canada in Austria since 2010. His
responsibilities include bilateral contacts with the Austrian government,
civil society and academic institutions, as well as the promotion of
Canada as a study destination to students resident in Austria. In 2012,
he oversaw the launch of a pilot project creating a social media
presence for the Embassy. He joined the Canadian Foreign Service in
2001, and exercised responsibility for the Organization of Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and for bilateral relations with Bolivia
and Peru. From 2003 to 2006, he was posted to the Canadian Embassy in Santiago, Chile.
Upon his return, he assumed the role of Co-coordinator for the Summit of the Americas, and
helped prepare Canada's participation in the 5th Summit of the Americas, held in Port of
40
Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in April 2009. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he worked,
travelled, and studied extensively in Central and South America. He holds a Bachelor's
degree in Philosophy and International Development Studies from Trent University and a
Master's of Public Administration (with a focus on international development) from Carleton
University. He is the father of two young children, and is therefore a frequent visitor to
playgrounds in Vienna's many parks, and to the Schoenbrunn zoo.
Counselor Paul Williams provided this year’s summer school participants with a lecture on
Canada’s engagement in the Americas. At the beginning of the lecture he presented
important key facts on Canada’s geography, demography, economy, politics and history,
Canada’s diversity, and its foreign policy. He then focused on Canada’s engagement in the
Americas since 2007 and elaborated on the gradual tilt towards a hemispheric approach and
the priority placed on the re-engagement in the Americas. In doing so, counselor Williams
allowed students and faculty members to gain insight on Canada’s current undertaking from
an insider’s perspective.
At the end of his lecture, counselor Williams also talked about Canada’s academic support
options and then engaged in a lively discussion with the audience.
EVENING LECTURES James BLASINGAME: They Rhymed with their Boots On: Songs of the Cowboys
James Blasingame is an Associate Professor of English
Education at Arizona State University. He is Director of
English Education Program and President of ASU
Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Blasingame focuses on
young adult literature, secondary writing instruction,
the teaching of writing, and cowboy poetry. He is an
author of many publications on that subject.
James Blasingame centered his presentation on "The
Singing Cowboy, " and showed how this icon evolved
from the cattle drives following the Civil War to the early cinema, including Herb Jeffries, The
Harlem Cowboy; Gene Autry from Radio Ranch; Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys; Tex Ritter,
The Gringo; Dorothy Page, the Singing Cowgirl; and Rex Allen, the Arizona Cowboy. He ended
his presentation with a few notes on Elvis, who was influenced by black music. The first
cowboys were often black and the first known cowboy singer was Lead Belly (Huddie William
Ledbetter), a black jazz and folk artist, and Elvis himself first appeared on country western
music shows, like Louisiana Hayride.
41
Lonnie JOHNSON and Roberta MAIERHOFER: How to Apply for (Fulbright) Scholarships
Lonnie Johnson has been the Executive Director of the
Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC),
which is responsible for managing bilateral Fulbright
exchanges between Austria and the United States,
since 1997. Before joining the AAEC staff, he directed
the Austrian Academic Exchange Service's Office for
International Affairs (1994-1997); was the Associate
Director for Program Development at Institute for
Human Sciences, Vienna, a center for advanced study
(1991-1994); and served as the Associate Director and
Dean of Students at the Institute of European Studies (IES), Vienna Program: the oldest and
largest study abroad program for U.S. undergraduates in Austria.
Dr. Lonnie Johnson, Executive Director of the Austrian-American Educational Commission
(the Fulbright Commission in Austria), has received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science
and Art First Class from Dr. Karlheinz Töchterle, the Austrian Federal Minister for Science and
Research, for deepening ties between Austria and the United States. The honor was
awarded to Dr. Johnson on June 21, 2011 as part of an award ceremony for those receiving
high honors of the Republic of Austria at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and
Research in Vienna.
He is the author of Introducing Austria (Ariadne Press, 1989); Vienna: The Past in the Present
(with Inge Lehne, 2nd edition, Ariadne Press, 1995), and Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors,
Friends (Oxford University Press: 3rd revised and expanded edition, 2010).
At the beginning of this joint lecture and discussion, Lonnie Johnson, Executive Director of
the Austrian-American Educational Commission, provided summer school participants with
an overview of the history of the Fulbright program. The program was named after Senator
J. William Fulbright who authored the 1946 amendment to the "Surplus Property Act of
1944" which allowed for the disposal of surplus government property overseas to "a State,
political subdivision of a State, or tax-supported organization (…)." Financial income the
United States Government acquired from the sale of wartime surplus goods overseas was
then designated to educational exchange. As a consequence, the Fulbright Program was
established in 1946. As stated in Public Law 87-256, 1961, the objective of the Fulbright
Program is to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and
the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange; to strengthen
the ties which unite us with other nations (…)."
In the lively plenary discussion following these introductory remarks, Lonnie Johnson and
Roberta Maierhofer advised students on how to successfully apply for Fulbright and other
scholarships. Tips on preparing an application essay included: 1. Tell a story about yourself,
2. Evaluate your career highlighting accomplishments, 3. State your goals, 4. Explain why you
want to achieve a certain degree. Johnson and Maierhofer also encouraged students to be
themselves when applying for a scholarship and not to second guess what committee
members possibly want to read, to be thoughtful and to take the opportunity to talk about
their experiences in a cohesive manner to make all pieces of the application fit together.
42
PANEL DISCUSSION
Challenges and Opportunities in terms of Collective and Individual Identities within the Context of EU Accession: Serbia as a Case Study
Serbia – along with 5 other Western Balkans countries – was identified as a potential
candidate for EU membership during the Thessaloniki European Council summit in 2003. In
2008, a European partnership for Serbia was adopted, setting out priorities for the country's
membership application, and in 2009 it formally applied. In 2010, the process to ratify the
Stabilisation and Association Agreement began, and in March 2012 Serbia was granted EU
candidate status. On April 22, 2013, the
European Commission recommended to the
Council of Europe and Member States to open
the EU membership talks with Serbia. The
Commission considered that Serbia had taken
very significant steps and sustainable
improvement in relations with Kosovo, and is
committed to proceeding with the reforms in
key areas of the rule of law, especially the
reform of judiciary and struggle against
corruption, as well as media freedom, the struggle against discrimination, minority
protection and protection of business environment.
The panel discussed political, economic, social, historical, and cultural issues in regard to
collective and individual identities, both on sides of the EU as well as of Serbia. In addition,
the panel discussed the enlargement policy of the EU in terms of member states,
neighboring countries, and international relations.
Introductory Remarks:
• MMag. Barbara Eibinger, Member of the Styrian Parliament
• D.I. Nada Knezevic, Serbian Embassy in Austria, Vienna
• Prof. Pavle Sekerus, Vice Rector, University of Novi Sad
Chair:
Prof. Roberta Maierhofer, University of Graz
Dr. Soeren Keil, Canterbury Christ Church University
43
Participating panelists:
D.I. Nada Knezevic, Serbian Embassy in Austria, Vienna
MMag. Barbara Eibinger, Member of the Styrian Parliament
Prof. Ferdinand Angel, Dean, Faculty of RC Theology, University of Graz
Prof. Pavle Sekerus, Vice Rector, University of Novi Sad
Prof. Ivana Sekerus, Dean, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad
Mag. Christoph Czettl, GRAWE Serbia
Dorde Durdevic, GUSEGG 2013 student
Oana Ursulesku, GUSEGG 2013 student
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Participating Panelist’s perspective on the panel discussion
Christoph Czettl, GRAWE Serbia
The panel discussion was followed by numerous conversations with interested students as
well as attending professors regarding possibilities for internships and guest lectures at local
universities as well as questions about products of our company.
It was also interesting that D.I. Nada Knezevic, the economic attaché of the Serbian Embassy
in Austria, offered to meet with us during her next visit to Belgrade to talk about necessary
reforms in the insurance sector.
MORNING MEDITATION
Michael Kuhn: Meditation and the Roots of Leadership
Drs. Michael Kuhn is a permanent deacon and
theologian. He studied theology and
film/communication sciences in Vienna, Amsterdam,
and Utrecht. Drs. Michael Kuhn is Senior Policy
Adviser on EU affairs of the Austrian Bishops’
Conference and Senior Policy Adviser of COMECE. His
publications focus on film and theology; religion,
theology and European public affairs.
One of the decisive elements of true leadership is the ability to enter into silence. Silence is
the privileged space where we meet and encounter ourselves, our strength and our
weakness. It is also the precondition for "the art of discernment," for the "discretio
spirituum. "
Entering into silence needs practice – and meditation offers different tools to practice. As a
"method" it is not bound to a particular religion but can draw on elements from different
traditions: Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist. We followed the method to "mindfulness" as it
has been mapped by Jon Kabat-Zinn (J. Kabat–Zinn, Wherever you go, there you are.
Hyperion, New York 1994). During our morning meditation sessions we learned first steps: to
get aware of our breath as a "path to tranquility," different "positions" – to sit, to stand, to
walk, and: we practiced patience.
At the end of each session of 15 minutes a short text from a religious and philosophical
tradition was offered to accompany us through the day.
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A student’s report on the Graz International Summer School Seggau 2013
Christopher Edyegu from Uganda studying at the University of
Stellenbosch
On the 30th
June 2013, I arrived for the 8th
Graz
International Summer School at Seggau Castle to find
95 students and 25 professors from almost 60
universities and 35 different countries. To be honest, I
did not know how to proceed as I had never met so
many people from such different and diverse countries and this was also my first time in
Europe. How could I ever get along with them given that we are so different? Fortunately,
Professor Guy Laforest’s wise words were the catapult that propelled me to action. He said
that sometimes people have more similarities than differences but they tend to focus on that
which separates them. Talking to fellow students, I realized that we have lots in common; we
like the same music and movies, we have read the same books, share a love for football,
among several other interests. Though international borders are becoming increasingly
irrelevant, they still matter and these imaginary boundaries have the ability to restrict us by
emphasizing our differences. Summer school taught me that if we can overcome the
boundaries in our minds, we can be able to open bridges to find connections between us. We
must develop ways in which we can use each other’s differences to enrich ourselves. The
future of this world may depend on new patterns of relations across difference.
Whoever thought summer school would be all fun was greatly mistaken. Yes, we played
football, volleyball, table tennis, did karaoke and several other fun activities but academics
were our main priority. We engaged in rigorous academic work focusing on the theme of
“Collective Identities: Nationalism, Transnationalism – Europe and Beyond." It was an
international and interdisciplinary academic experience that required active participation in
seminars and lectures. Between six to eight hours each day were dedicated to academic
exposure. It was critically challenging and intense. But I must say that it was good for me.
Before summer school, I avoided debates because I hated conflict but by engaging in
academic discussions with lecturers and fellow students, I realized that I actually enjoy
debates and I am good at it (something I did not know about myself). I realized that the
conflict of minds is needed to expose us to other points of views and experiences.
Summer school helped me to find wholeness in my identity. In the last three years, I have
lived and studied in Uganda (3 years), South Africa (3 years) and in Botswana (4 years). I also
travel regularly in these countries. Considering all three countries home, I have always been
divided about which was my "real home" and which one defined me. In summer school, I
learned that all these countries form part of my collective identity and I don’t have to choose
between them but I can incorporate them within my identity. I can gain from all these
countries to form a fuller, richer identity. At the same time identity is not fixed so with each
new experience (such as this summer school experience) we add a new layer to our identity.
The key to staying grounded, I have learned, is to "think globally and act locally." My mind
has been blown (positively) at summer school. I have absolutely loved my time at the Graz
International Summer School at Seggau and I will look back at my time here with nostalgia.
46
MEDIA REPORTS
katholische-kirche-steiermark.at. June 2013.
Europa zu Gast
Die „Graz International Summer School Seggau“
Vom 30. Juni bis 14. Juli wird Schloss Seggau
erneut zum internationalen Forum. Bereits zum
achten Mal veranstaltet die Diözese Graz-Seckau
in diesem Jahr mit der Comcece (Kommission der
Bischofskonferenzen der EU-Länder) und der Karl-
Franzens-Universität Graz die „Graz International
Summer School Seggau“. Diözesanbischof Dr. Egon
Kapellari wird die 14-tägige Veranstaltung am 30.
Juni um 20:00 Uhr gemeinsam mit Rektorin Univ.
Prof. Dr. Christa Neuper im internationalen Konferenzzentrum Schloss Seggau eröffnen.
Gespräch zwischen Kirche und Gesellschaft Zusammen mit dem Pfingstdialog „Geist & Gegenwart“, den die Diözese gemeinsam mit
dem Land Steiermark, Joanneum Research und Club Alpbach Steiermark veranstaltet, und
den „Seggauer Gesprächen“, die gemeinsam mit dem Institut für Philosophie an der Kath.-
Theol. Fakultät der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz und dem Institut für Europarecht und
Internationales Recht der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien durchgeführt werden, ist die
„Summer School“ ein wichtiger Beitrag zu einem Gespräch zwischen Verantwortlichen in
Kirche und Gesellschaft.
Internationale Vorlesungen und Seminare
An der „Summer School“ nehmen heuer mehr als 90 Studierende aus 35 Ländern teil.
Internationale akademisch Lehrende aus Toronto, Zadar, Canterbury, Leuven uvm. gestalten
dabei je einen allgemeinen Vorlesungsteil an einem der Vormittage. Nachmittags stehen sie
für die Studierenden in zehn Seminaren zur Verfügung. Die Seminare werden zu Themen wie
z. B. „Transnationalismus und Migration“, „Medien, Gesellschaft und Kultur“, „Kulturelle
Identitäten“ und „Ethik, Religion und Leadership“ abgehalten. Das gemeinsame
Abendprogramm reicht von Präsentationen der Heimatländer über einen Karaoke-, einen
Film- bis hin zu einem „Serbien-Abend“ am 3. Juli. 2013 um 20.00Uhr. Die akademische
Leiterin der „Summer School“, Univ. Prof. Dr. Roberta Maierhofer, wird eine Diskussion
moderieren, an der unter anderen der neue Generalsekretär der Comece, Dr. Patrick Daly,
und der Dekan der Grazer Kath. Theol.-Fakultät, Univ. Prof. Dr. Hans-Ferdinand Angel,
teilnehmen.
Schwerpunkt Serbien
47
Serbien ist heuer ein besonderer Schwerpunkt gewidmet, da sich zum 1700. Mal die
Erklärung der Religionsfreiheit (313, Mailänder Vereinbarung) im römischen Reich durch den
aus dem heutigen Serbien stammenden Kaiser Konstantin jährt. Es gibt daher 2013
zahlreiche ökumenische Initiativen und auch der Besuch von Kardinal Dr. Kurt Koch, dem
Präsidenten des Päpstlichen Rates zur Förderung der Einheit der Christen, bei „Geist &
Gegenwart“ im vergangenen Mai stand unter diesem Gesichtspunkt. Die Diözese ermöglicht
auch zwei der Studierenden aus Serbien durch ein Stipendium die Teilnahme an der
„Summer School“. Auch die Europa-Informationsarbeit des Landes Steiermark steht 2013
ganz im Zeichen Serbiens, um Menschen und Land, Wirtschaft und Kultur den Steirerinnen
und Steirern näher zu bringen. Europalandesrat Dr. Christian Buchmann hat schon im Mai
am Europatag einen klaren Akzent auf Serbien gesetzt und auch im Herbst wird es weitere
Schwerpunkte mit Diskussionsveranstaltungen, Lesungen, Vorträgen und einer Belgradreise
geben.
Europa, Wissenschaft und Kultur
Seit Mai ist Bischofssekretär Mag. Peter Rosegger auch als Referent der Diözese für
Wissenschaft, Internationales und Kultur tätig. Gemeinsam mit der Universität Graz und der
Comece, ist er dabei wie bisher auch in Hinkunft mit der Organisation der „Summer School“,
von „Geist & Gegenwart“ und der „Seggauer Gespräche“ betraut.
Warum engagiert sich die Diözese mit der „Summer School“ oder auch mit dem Pfingstdialog
„Geist & Gegenwart“ für einen internationalen akademischen Austausch?
Rosegger: Die Diözese beteiligt sich an diesen Symposien, um ein Forum für einen
profilierten interdisziplinären und internationalen Austausch in Hinblick auf eine humane
und vitale Gesellschaft zu bieten. Als Christen sollen wir die Gesellschaft, in der wir leben,
positiv mit gestalten und solche Veranstaltungen sind ein wichtiger Beitrag dazu.
Wie lassen sich Diözese und Wissenschaft verbinden? Welche Kooperationsfelder gibt es,
bzw. welche sind denkbar?
Rosegger: Kirche und Wissenschaft befassen sich aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln mit dem
einen Menschen. Kooperationen sind immer dort möglich, wo es darum geht zu versuchen,
diesen Menschen und seine Welt besser zu verstehen. „Geist & Gegenwart“, die „Summer
School“ und die „Seggauer Gespräche“ sind sehr gute Beispiele für bewährte und
nachhaltige Kooperationen auch für die Zukunft.
Worauf kann man sich besonders bei der „Summer School“ freuen?
Rosegger: Auf beinahe 100 Studierende und viele Lehrende aus 35 Ländern, die nach Schloss
Seggau kommen, und dort einen internationalen Campus bilden.
Source:
http://www.katholische-kirche-steiermark.at/service/presse?d=europa-zu-gast
[30 July 2013]
48
Kathweb. Katholische Presseagentur Österreichs. 18 June 2013.
Graz: Seggauer "Summer School" nimmt Serbien in den Blick
Internationales Treffen für Austausch
zwischen Kirche und Wissenschaft -
Bischof Kapellari, Unirektorin Neuper,
Fakultätsdekan Angel und Comece-
Generalsekretär Daly erwartet
Graz, 18.06.2013 (KAP) Der EU-
Beitrittskandidat Serbien steht im
Mittelpunkt der internationalen "Summer School" im kirchlichen Bildungszentrum Schloss
Seggau (Steiermark) vom 30. Juni bis 14. Juli. Gewählt wurde dieser Schwerpunkt aus Anlass
der 1.700-Jahr-Feier der Mailänder Erklärung, durch die der aus dem heutigen Serbien
stammende Kaiser Konstantin die Religionsfreiheit erstmals im römischen Imperium
gesetzlich verankerte. Veranstalter des Campus, zu dem 100 Studierende und Lehrende aus
35 Ländern erwartet werden, sind die Diözese Graz-Seckau, die Kommission der
Bischofskonferenzen der EU-Länder (Comece) und die Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.
Das Symposium ist ein "wichtiger Beitrag zu einem Gespräch zwischen Verantwortlichen in
Kirche und Gesellschaft", heißt es in der Ankündigung der Summer School. Ebenso wie durch
den Pfingstdialog "Geist und Gegenwart" und die "Seggauer Gespräche" wolle man auf diese
Weise beitragen, dass Christen ihre Gesellschaft "positiv mitgestalten", so der diözesane
Wissenschaftsreferent, Bischofssekretär Peter Rosegger. Kooperationen zwischen Kirche und
Wissenschaft seien "immer dort möglich, wo es darum geht zu versuchen, den Menschen
und seine Welt besser zu verstehen".
Eröffnet wird die Summer School am 30. Juni vom Grazer Diözesanbischof Egon Kapellari und
Unirektorin Christa Neuper. Zu einer Diskussion werden auch Comece-Generalsekretär
Patrick Daly und der Dekan der Grazer katholisch-theologischen Fakultät, Hans-Ferdinand
Angel, erwartet. Der 14-tägige Austausch umfasst allgemeine Vorlesungen und vertiefende
Seminare, etwa zu "Transnationalismus und Migration", "Medien, Gesellschaft und Kultur",
"Kulturelle Identitäten" sowie "Ethik, Religion und Leadership". Die Abende stehen unter
dem Zeichen der interkulturellen Begegnung, ein "Serbien-Abend" ist am 3. Juli geplant.
Source:
http://www.kathpress.at/site/nachrichten/archiv/archive/55391.html?ts=0.7517110013752
61084
[30 July 2013]
49
Sonntagsblatt. Ausgabe 25. 23 June 2013.
Summer School in Seggau
Mehr als 90 Studierende aus 35 Ländern nehmen vom 30.
Juni bis 14. Juli an der „Graz International Summer School
Seggau“ teil, die Bischof Egon Kapellari und Uni-Rektorin
Christa Neuper am 30. Juni um 20 Uhr eröffnen. „Serbien“
ist heuer besonderer Schwerpunkt dieses Europäischen
Forums mit Vorlesungen und Seminaren. Bischofssekretär Mag. Peter Rosegger ist mit der
Organisation betraut.
Source:
Sonntagsblatt. Ausgabe 25. 23 June 2013. Page 5.
Kleine Zeitung. Wissen. Forschung aus der Steiermark. 27 June 2013.
Summer School in Seggau
UNI GRAZ. Rund 100 Studierende aus 35 Ländern
machen Schloss Seggau in der Südsteiermark vom
30. Juni bis 13. Juli zu einem Forum für
Wissensaustausch und Diskussion. Veranstaltet
wird das Treffen von der Karl-Franzens-Universität
Graz in Kooperation mit europäischen
Bischofskonferenzen und Diözesanbischof Egon
Kapellari. Die wissenschaftliche Leitung liegt bei
Professorin Roberta Maierhofer.
Source:
Kleine Zeitung. Wissen. Forschung aus der Steiermark. 27 June 2013. Page 27.
Kurier. 29 June 2013.
Nicht verpassen!
So, 30.6. Im Schloss Seggau in der Steiermark findet
die Eröffnung der Graz International Summer School
Seggau statt. Ab 20 Uhr. Infos: international.uni-
graz.at/gusegg
Source:
Kurier. 29 June 2013. Page 26.
50
Kathweb. Katholische Presseagentur Österreichs. 1 July 2013.
Kapellari: Europa braucht überzeugte Christen
Grazer Bischof eröffnete internationale "Summer
School" im kirchlichen Bildungszentrum Schloss
Seggau
Graz, 01.07.2013 (KAP) Europa braucht dringend
"überzeugte und überzeugende Christen, die ihre
Identität nicht verstecken". Das hat der Grazer
Diözesanbischof Egon Kapellari bei der Eröffnung
der internationalen "Summer School" im kirchlichen Bildungszentrum Schloss Seggau in der
Südsteiermark betont.
Bischof Kapellari plädierte in seiner Rede am Sonntagabend für "Allianzen mit anderen
Menschen und Gruppierungen guten Willens". Mit ihnen gemeinsam solle die Würde der
menschlichen Person, die Solidarität mit Notleidenden und die Frage der sozialen
Gerechtigkeit im öffentlichen Diskurs vertreten werden.
100 Studierende und Lehrende aus 35 Ländern beschäftigen sich in den kommenden zwei
Wochen mit gesamteuropäischen Fragenstellungen. Der internationale Austausch zwischen
Kirche und Wissenschaft umfasst allgemeine Vorlesungen und vertiefende Seminare, etwa
zu "Transnationalismus und Migration", "Medien, Gesellschaft und Kultur", "Kulturelle
Identitäten" sowie "Ethik, Religion und Leadership".
Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt zudem auf dem EU-Beitrittskandidaten Serbien. Anlass
dafür ist die 1.700-Jahr-Feier der Mailänder Erklärung, durch die der aus dem heutigen
Serbien - aus Naissus (Nis) - stammende Kaiser Konstantin die Religionsfreiheit erstmals im
römischen Imperium gesetzlich verankerte.
Die Identität des "Projekts Europa" werde heute angesichts zahlreicher Krisen, die nur
vordergründig wirtschaftlich sind, kritisch diskutiert, führte Bischof Kapellari in seiner
Eröffnungsrede aus. Besonders wichtig seien auch die Frage nach dem Verhältnis Europas zu
anderen Kontinenten und nach der je eigenen Identität und Zukunft dieser Kontinente.
Kapellari wörtlich: "Es ist daher sehr positiv, dass an der Summer School in diesem Jahr noch
mehr Studierende aus mehr Ländern, besonders auch aus Amerika, teilnehmen. Gerade
junge, couragierte Leute können Vieles zur Überwindung solcher Herausforderungen
beitragen, wenn sie bereit sind, sich für eine humanistische und vitale Gesellschaft zu
engagieren und in ihr Verantwortung zu übernehmen." Der Grazer Bischof ermutigte die
Studenten, ihre eigene und die gemeinsame kulturelle, soziale, politische und religiöse
Identität in eine plurale Zivilgesellschaft einzubringen und diese dadurch lebendiger zu
machen.
51
Veranstalter der Summer School sind die Diözese Graz-Seckau, die Kommission der
Bischofskonferenzen der EU-Länder (ComECE) und die Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.
Seitens der ComECE ermutigte Michael Kuhn, Vertreter der österreichischen
Bischofskonferenz bei der EU in Brüssel, die Studierenden zur offenen Begegnung und zum
intensiven intellektuellen Austausch.
Die akademische Leiterin der "Summer School", Prof. Roberta Maierhofer, betonte, dass nur
ein Transzendieren nationaler Identitäten zu einem erforderlichen europäischen
Bewusstsein führen könne.
Source:
http://www.kathpress.at/site/archive_detail_news.siteswift?ts=0.783929001375784502
[6 August 2013]
katholische-kirche-steiermark.at. 2 July 2013.
GUSEGG-Podiumsdiskussion zum Thema Serbien
Experten diskutieren am 3. Juli im
Rahmen der International Summer School
Seggau über Herausforderungen im
Kontext des EU-Beitritts.
Am Sonntagabend wurde die
International Summer School Seggau von
Bischof Egon Kapellari eröffnet. 100
Studierende und Lehrende aus 35
Ländern beschäftigen sich in den
kommenden zwei Wochen mit
gesamteuropäischen Fragenstellungen.
Der internationale Austausch zwischen
Kirche und Wissenschaft umfasst
allgemeine Vorlesungen und vertiefende
Seminare, etwa zu "Transnationalismus
und Migration", "Medien, Gesellschaft
und Kultur", "Kulturelle Identitäten"
sowie "Ethik, Religion und Leadership".
Bischof Kapellari plädierte in seiner Eröffnungsrede für "Allianzen mit anderen Menschen
und Gruppierungen guten Willens". Mit ihnen gemeinsam solle die Würde der menschlichen
Person, die Solidarität mit Notleidenden und die Frage der sozialen Gerechtigkeit im
öffentlichen Diskurs vertreten werden.
Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dieses Jahr auf Serbien. Gemeinsam mit 5 anderen
Ländern des westlichen Balkans wurde Serbien als möglicher Kandidat für eine EU-
52
Mitgliedschaft identifiziert. Am 22. April 2013 empfahl die Europäische Kommission dem
Europarat und den Mitgliedstaaten die EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen mit Serbien aufzunehmen.
Am Mittwoch wird zu diesem Thema ein hochrangiges Expertenpodium besetzt. Politische,
wirtschaftliche, soziale, historische und kulturelle Fragen in Bezug auf kollektive und
individuelle Identitäten, sowohl auf Seiten der EU als auch seitens Serbiens sollen diskutiert
werden. Mit dabei sind neben einem Repräsentanten der serbischen Botschaft unter
anderen Michael Kuhn, Referent der Österreichischen Bischofskonferenz für Europa und die
COMECE, Prof. Ferdinand Angel, Dekan der Katholischen-Theologischen Fakultät, Karl-
Franzens-Universität Graz und Prof. Pavle Sekerus, Vizerektor, Universität Novi Sad.
Source:
http://www.katholische-kirche-steiermark.at/?d=gusegg-podiumsdiskussion-zum-thema-
serbien
[6 August 2013]
OESTERREICH. Steiermark Heute. 30 June 2013.
35 Nationen tauschen in Seggau Wissen aus
Seggau. Von heute bis 13. Juli treffen 100 Studierende aus 35
Nationen zu einem umfangreichen Wissensaustausch auf Schloss
Seggau in der Südsteiermark zusammen. Veranstalter ist die Karl-
Franzens-Universität Graz und die Europäische Bischofskonferenz.
Source:
OESTERREICH. 30 June 2013. Page 22.
Die Woche. 3 July 2013.
Schloss Seggau als Forschungshochburg
Rund 100 Studierende aus 35 Ländern machen Schloss Seggau in der
Südsteiermark vom 30. Juni bis 13. Juli 2013 wieder zu einem
interkulturellen Forum für Wissensaustausch. Im Mittelpunkt der bereits
achten Graz International Summer School Seggau (GUSEGG) steht das
Thema „Kollektive Identitäten. Nationalismus, Transnationalismus –
Europa und darüber hinaus“. Veranstaltet wird die GUSEGG von der Karl-
Franzens-Universität Graz in Kooperation mit der Kommission der
Bischofskonferenzen der Europäischen Gemeinschaft und Diözesanbischof
Egon Kapellari. Die Studierenden befassen sich mit Wissenschaftern aus 20 Ländern und
Experten des öffentlichen Lebens mit aktuellen europäischen Fragen.
Source:
Die Woche. 3 July 2013. Page 25.
53
Kathweb. Katholische Presseagentur Österreichs. 5 July 2013.
Grazer Summer School diskutiert europäische Zukunft Serbiens
Professoren und Studenten aus Novi Sad sehen
potenziellem EU-Beitritt des Landes als Chance für
mehr Mobilität und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung
Graz, 05.07.2013 (KAP) Die europäische Zukunft
Serbiens stand im Mittelpunkt eines "Serbien-
Abends" mit Podiumsdiskussion zu
Herausforderungen und Chancen eines EU-
Beitritts im Rahmen der Graz International
Summer School auf Schloss Seggau. Professoren und Studierende aus Serbien und Österreich
diskutierten am Mittwochabend über kollektive und individuelle Identitäten Serbiens im
Kontext eines potenziellen EU-Beitritts.
An der International Summer School vom 30. Juni bis 13. Juli nehmen 100 Studierende aus
35 Nationen die Gelegenheit wahr, auf Schloss Seggau mit internationalen Experten über
"Kollektive Identitäten - Nationalismus, Transnationalismus - Europa und darüber hinaus" zu
diskutieren. Träger ist die Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, die Diözese Graz-Seckau und die
Kommission der Europäischen Bischofskonferenzen (ComECE).
Eingeleitet wurde der Serbien-Abend durch die steirische Landtagsabgeordnete Barbara
Eibinger, die auf die wirtschaftlichen Chancen eines EU-Beitritts des Südosteuropa-Staates
für die Steiermark hinwies, durch die Repräsentantin der Serbischen Botschaft, Nada
Knezevic und dem Vizedirektor der Universität Novi Sad, Prof. Pavle Sekerus. Über den
Integrationsprozess Serbiens in Richtung Europäische Union diskutierten der Dekan der
Theologischen Fakultät in Graz, Ferdinand Angel, der Generaldirektor der Grazer
Wechselseitigen Versicherung (GRAWE) Serbien, Christoph Czettl mit Professoren und
Studierenden aus Serbien.
Als optimistisch sehen die Studenten der Universität Novi Sad den Eingliederungsprozess
ihres Landes in die EU und verbinden diesen vor allem mit der Hoffnung auf mehr Mobilität.
Sie erinnerten sich zugleich an Zeiten zurück, in denen sie vor der Botschaft "campieren"
mussten, um ein Visum zu erhalten.
Christoph Czettl bewertete die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung Serbiens trotz kultureller und
mentaler Spannungsverhältnisse als positiv. Auch er betonte, dass mehr Mobilität für den
Arbeitsmarkt förderlich sei.
Die mehrmals zur Sprache gekommene gesellschaftliche Heterogenität und die Differenzen
des Landes seien kein Entwicklungshindernis, so Prof. Ferdinand Angel: "Unterschiede, klar -
aber das ist gut so", weil nur so ein Lernen voneinander möglich sei. Serbien sei aufgrund
54
seiner Geschichte und Kultur durch zahlreiche Minderheiten geprägt.
Thematisiert wurden außerdem die Entwicklung Serbiens der letzten 20 Jahre, weg von
einem autoritären bzw. teilautoritären System in Richtung Demokratie sowie die
geografischen Veränderungen durch die Auflösung Jugoslawiens. Angesprochen wurde auch
der Normalisierungsprozess mit dem Kosovo als eine der Schlüsselfragen für den EU-Beitritt
und zentrale gesellschaftliche Probleme wie Kriminalität und die hohe Arbeitslosigkeit.
Source:
http://www.kathpress.at/site/nachrichten/archiv/archive/55748.html
[6 August 2013]
katholische-kirche-steiermark.at, 5 July 2013.
Optimistisch in die europäische Zukunft
Nachlese zum "Serbien-Abend" im Rahmen der
Graz International Summer School auf Schloss
Seggau.
Bereits zum achten Mal findet dieses Jahr die Graz
International Summer School auf Schloss Seggau
in Leibnitz statt, die von der Karl-Franzens-
Universität Graz, der Diözese Graz-Seckau und der
Kommission der Europäischen
Bischofskonferenzen entwickelt und vom Land Steiermark/"europe direct" unterstützt wird.
100 Studierende aus 35 Nationen haben heuer wieder die Möglichkeit, mit Experten über die
Europäische Integration zu diskutieren, unter dem Thema „Kollektive Identitäten:
Nationalismus, Transnationalismus - Europa und darüber hinaus". Ganz im Zeichen Serbiens -
dem EU-Informationsschwerpunkt des Landes Steiermark - stand am Mittwochabend im
Schloss Seggau eine öffentliche Podiumsdiskussion unter dem Titel „Herausforderungen und
Chancen in Bezug auf kollektive und individuelle Identitäten im Kontext des EU-Beitritts:
Serbien als Fallstudie".
Podiumsdiskussion
Nach einleitenden Worten der Landtagsabgeordneten Barbara Eibinger, die auf die
wirtschaftlichen Chancen für die Steiermark hinwies, der Repräsentantin der Serbischen
Botschaft, Nada Knezevic und dem Vizedirektor der Universität Novi Sad, Prof. Pavle Sekerus
diskutierten - unter dem Vorsitz von Dr. Roberta Maierhofer von der Karl-Franzens-
Universität Graz und Seoren Keil von der Canterbury Christ Church University - Prof.
Ferdinand Angel, Dekan der Theologischen Fakultät in Graz, Christoph Czettl,
Generaldirektor der GRAWE Serbien, sowie weitere Professoren und Studenten aus Serbien
über wirtschaftliche, historische, politische, soziale und kulturelle Aspekte in Bezug auf den
55
Integrationsprozess Serbiens in die EU.
Im Fokus standen die maßgebenden Veränderungen Serbiens in den letzten 20 Jahren in
Hinblick auf die Eingliederung eines einst isolierten Landes in Europa, die Entwicklung eines
semiautoritären Systems zur Demokratie, sowie die geografischen Veränderungen durch die
Entwicklung vom Teilstaat Jugoslawiens zu einem unabhängigen Staat. Auch wurde der
Normalisierungsprozess mit dem Kosovo erörtert und Probleme wie Kriminalität und die
hohe Arbeitslosenrate angesprochen.
Optimistisch in eine mobilere Zukunft
Die Studenten der Universität Novi Sad blicken der Eingliederung in die EU jedoch sehr
optimistisch mit der Hoffnung entgegen, bald mehr Mobilität genießen zu können und
erinnern sich an eine Zeit, in der sie vor der Botschaft „campieren" mussten, um zu einem
Visum zu gelangen. Christoph Czettl von der GRAWE sprach von einer sehr positiven
wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung des Landes trotz kultureller und mentaler Kontraste und wies
darauf hin, dass mehr Mobilität auch am Arbeitsmarkt hilfreich sei. Prof. Ferdinand Angel
hielt ebenfalls fest, dass Serbien Differenzen aufweist, stellte jedoch klar: „Unterschiede, klar
- aber das ist gut so!", denn dadurch könne man voneinander lernen. Serbien hat aufgrund
seiner Geschichte, die durch viele Minderheiten geprägt ist, selbst viele Gesichter.
Durch die Integration in die EU soll nach dem Zerfall Jugoslawiens nicht mehr nur von einer
serbischen, kroatischen oder bosnischen Identität gesprochen werden, sondern hofft man
auch auf eine europäische Identität.
Source:
http://www.katholische-kirche-steiermark.at/?d=optimistisch-in-die-europaeische-zukunft
[6 August 2013]
europa.steiermark.at. July 2013.
Serbienabend auf Schloss Seggau
Bereits zum achten Mal findet 2013 die Graz
International Summer School auf Schloss Seggau in
Leibnitz statt, die von der Karl-Franzens-Universität
Graz, der Diözese Graz-Seckau und der Kommission
der Europäischen Bischofskonferenzen entwickelt und
vom Land Steiermark/"europe direct" unterstützt
wird.
100 Studierende aus 35 Nationen haben heuer wieder
die Möglichkeit, mit Experten über die Europäische
Integration zu diskutieren, unter dem Thema
„Kollektive Identitäten: Nationalismus, Transnationalismus - Europa und darüber hinaus".
Ganz im Zeichen Serbiens - dem EU-Informationsschwerpunkt des Landes Steiermark- stand
56
am Mittwochabend im Schloss Seggau eine öffentliche Podiumsdiskussion unter dem Titel
„Herausforderungen und Chancen in Bezug auf kollektive und individuelle Identitäten im
Kontext des EU-Beitritts: Serbien als Fallstudie".
Nach einleitenden Worten der Landtagsabgeordneten Barbara Eibinger, die auf die
wirtschaftlichen Chancen für die Steiermark hinwies, der Repräsentantin der Serbischen
Botschaft, Nada Knezevic und dem Vizedirektor der Universität Novi Sad, Prof. Pavle Sekerus
diskutierten - unter dem Vorsitz von Dr. Roberta Maierhofer von der Karl-Franzens-
Universität Graz und Seoren Keil von der Canterbury Christ Church University - Prof.
Ferdinand Angel, Dekan der Theologischen Fakultät in Graz, Christoph Czettl,
Generaldirektor der GRAWE Serbien, sowie weitere Professoren und Studenten aus Serbien
über wirtschaftliche, historische, politische, soziale und kulturelle Aspekte in Bezug auf den
Integrationsprozess Serbiens in die EU. Im Fokus standen die maßgebenden Veränderungen
Serbiens in den letzten 20 Jahren in Hinblick auf die Eingliederung eines einst isolierten
Landes in Europa, die Entwicklung eines semiautoritären Systems zur Demokratie, sowie die
geografischen Veränderungen durch die Entwicklung vom Teilstaat Jugoslawiens zu einem
unabhängigen Staat. Auch wurde der Normalisierungsprozess mit dem Kosovo erörtert und
Probleme wie Kriminalität und die hohe Arbeitslosenrate angesprochen. Die Studenten der
Universität Novi Sad blicken der Eingliederung in die EU jedoch sehr optimistisch mit der
Hoffnung entgegen, bald mehr Mobilität genießen zu können und erinnern sich an eine Zeit,
in der sie vor der Botschaft „campieren" mussten, um zu einem Visum zu gelangen.
Christoph Czettl von der GRAWE sprach von einer sehr positiven wirtschaftlichen
Entwicklung des Landes trotz kultureller und mentaler Kontraste und wies darauf hin, dass
mehr Mobilität auch am Arbeitsmarkt hilfreich sei. Prof. Ferdinand Angel hielt ebenfalls fest,
dass Serbien Differenzen aufweist, stellte jedoch klar: „Unterschiede, klar - aber das ist gut
so!", denn dadurch könne man voneinander lernen. Serbien hat aufgrund seiner Geschichte,
die durch viele Minderheiten geprägt ist, selbst viele Gesichter.
Durch die Integration in die EU soll nach dem Zerfall Jugoslawiens nicht mehr nur von einer
serbischen, kroatischen oder bosnischen Identität gesprochen werden, sondern hofft man
auch auf eine europäische Identität.
Source:
http://www.europa.steiermark.at/cms/beitrag/11882622/2950520/
[6 August 2013]
Sonntagsblatt. Ausgabe 27. 7 June 2013.
Studierende aus 35 Ländern zu Gast auf Schloss Seggau
Schwerpunkt Serbien. Sommerschule als Richtung für die Zukunft.
Vom 30. Juni bis zum 14. Juli ist Schloss Seggau bereits zum 8. Mail ein internationales
Forum. Die Diözese Graz-Seckau veranstaltet in diesem Jahr mit der Kommission der
Bischofskonferenzen der EU-Länder (COMECE) und der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz die
„Graz International Summer School Seggau“.
57
In seiner Eröffnungsansprache wies Diözesanbischof
Dr. Egon Kapellari darauf hin, dass Seggau seit 1989
mehr und mehr zur „europäischen Adresse“
geworden ist. Neben der Sommerschule sind die hier
alle zwei Jahre stattfindenden Dialogreihen
„Geist&Gegenwart“ und „Seggauer Gespräche zu
Kirche und Staat“ interdisziplinäre Foren von
Format, wo Studierende mit Lehrenden und mit
Trägern hoher Verantwortung in Politik, Wirtschaft
und Gesellschaft ins Gespräch kommen können.
Europa brauche dringend „überzeugte und
überzeugende Christen, die ihre Identität nicht
verstecken“.
Positiv sei, dass in diesem Jahr noch mehr Studierende aus mehr Ländern teilnehmen,
nämlich ungefähr 100, die sich mit gesamteuropäischen Fragestellungen beschäftigen. Diese
ermutigte der Bischof, ihre eigenen und die gemeinsame Identität in eine plurale
Zivilgesellschaft einzubringen.
Heuer ist ein Schwerpunkt Serbien gewidmet, zumal sich zum 1700. Mal die Erklärung der
Religionsfreiheit im Römischen Reich durch den aus dem heutigen Serbien stammenden
Kaiser Konstantin jährt. Er verankerte zum ersten Mal die christliche Religion und machte sie
zur Grundfeste für ein europäisches Bewusstsein.
Source:
Sonntagsblatt. Ausgabe 27. 7 July 2013. Page 11.
on.uni-graz.at. 22 July 2013.
Junges Europa
95 Studierende aus aller Welt diskutierten mit
ExpertInnen bei der Graz International Summer
School Seggau
Die 8. Graz International Summer School Seggau
versammelte Studierende aus 35 Ländern in der
Südsteiermark.
Bereits zum 8. Mal in Folge veranstaltete heuer die
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz gemeinsam mit der Kommission der Bischofskonferenzen der
Europäischen Gemeinschaft (COMECE) und dem Grazer Diözesanbischof Egon Kapellari die
„Graz International Summer School Seggau“ (GUSEGG).
Von 30. Juni bis 13. Juli 2013 beschäftigten sich 95 Studierende aus aller Welt mit dem
Thema „Collective Identities: Nationalism, Transnationalism – Europe and Beyond“.
Gemeinsam mit ExpertInnen aus Wissenschaft und öffentlichem Leben wurden einerseits
aktuelle europäische Themen und Angelegenheiten sowie andererseits globale
58
Entwicklungen und Herausforderungen beleuchtet und diskutiert – mit Blick auf individuelle,
soziale, politische, kulturelle, regionale, wirtschaftliche und nationale Identitäten. Der Fokus
lag auf den beiden Schwerpunktregionen der Uni Graz – Südosteuropa und den Amerikas.
Schloss Seggau bot einmal mehr das stimmige Ambiente für interkulturelle Begegnung und
lebendigen Austausch.
Der Termin für die nächste International Summer School Seggau steht bereits: Sie wird von
29. Juni bis 12. Juli 2014 stattfinden.
Links: international.uni-graz.at/gusegg/
Von: Ulrike Schönbacher & Gudrun Pichler
Source:
http://on.uni-graz.at/
[30 July 2013]
59
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG AUF DEUTSCH
Die Graz International Summer School Seggau 2013 befasste sich mit dem Thema Collective
Identities: Nationalism, Transnationalism – Europe and Beyond.
Ziele
Die vielfältigen Hintergründe von Teilnehmenden und Vortragenden bildeten die Basis für
interdisziplinäres Arbeiten. Die Atmosphäre am Schloss bot darüber hinaus den perfekten
Rahmen für informelle Treffen zwischen Vortragenden und Studierenden. Der Schwerpunkt
der Sommerschule lag auf den Amerikas und Ost- und Südosteuropa.
Die interdisziplinäre, interkulturelle und internationale Zusammenarbeit im Rahmen der
Sommerschule prägte die Kompetenzen von zukünftigen Entscheidungsträgern in
verschiedenen Bereichen wie Sozial-, Politik-, Wirtschafts- und den Geisteswissenschaften.
Die wichtigsten Stichwörter zur Graz International Summer School Seggau 2013:
� 98 Studierende und 21 Vortragende
� Plenarvorträge, Vorlesungen, 10 parallel laufende Seminarmodule, Exkursion nach
Graz
� Diskussionen mit Vortragenden und Gästen
� Anrechnung von ECTS-Credits (6 ECTS für Teilnahme und Seminararbeit)
Organisation
Die Sommerschule wurde von der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (Büro für Internationale
Beziehungen und Center for Inter-American Studies) in Zusammenarbeit mit der Diözese
Graz-Seckau und der Kommission der Bischofskonferenzen der Europäischen Gemeinschaft
(COMECE) organisiert und umgesetzt.
Die Steuerungsgruppe der Graz International Summer School Seggau 2013 bestand aus
folgenden Personen: Prof. Dr. Roberta Maierhofer (Akademische Leitung, Karl-Franzens-
Universität Graz), Mag. Peter Rosegger (Repräsentant, Diözese Graz-Seckau), Drs. Michael
Kuhn (Repräsentant, COMECE), Mag. Heidrun Moertl (Program Manager, Karl-Franzens-
Universität Graz), Mag. Daniela Murhammer (Rektorat, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz),
Mag. (FH) Ulrike Schoenbacher (Student Coordinator, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz)
Kosten und Finanzierung
Die Gesamtkosten (Unterkunft und Verpflegung für Lehrende und Studierende, Gehalt und
Reisekosten für Lehrende, technische Infrastruktur, Exkursionen und Abendprogramm) von
etwa € 142.920 wurden durch die Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, die Diözese Graz-Seckau,
die COMECE, Studiengebühren (€ 350/€ 600) sowie eingeworbene Drittmittel gedeckt.
60
Bereitgestellt wurden Drittmittel durch:
- ERASMUS Intensive Program LLP-AT/230/05/12
- Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS)
- European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS)
- David-Herzog-Fonds
- Das Land Steiermark: Abteilung Kultur, Europa und Außenbeziehungen
- The Embassy of the United States of America in Austria, Vienna
- The Embassy of Canada in Austria, Vienna
- The Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries (GKS)
- Renovabis
- Stichting Communicantes
Akademisches Programm
Die Studierenden besuchten Plenarvorträge am Vormittag und Abenddiskussionen. Folgende
Seminare fanden am Nachmittag in Kleingruppen statt:
Seminar 1 - Literature & Culture
Seminar 2 - Cultural Identities
Seminar 3 - Indigenous Identities
Seminar 4 - Urban & Regional Identities
Seminar 5 - Politics & Law
Seminar 6 - Media, Society & Culture
Seminar 7 - Economics & Power
Seminar 8 - Ethics, Religion & Leadership
Seminar 9 - Transnationalism & Migration
Seminar 10 - Cultural Narratives of Longevity
Auch dieses Jahr konnten wieder renommierte Vortragende für die Graz International
Summer School Seggau gewonnen werden. Die Keynote lecture hielt Prof. Manfred
Prisching, University of Graz. Weiters waren Dr. David Bates, Canterbury Christ Church
University, UK; Prof. Josef Raab, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany; Krešimir Krolo,
University of Zadar, Croatia, and University of Teramo, Italy; Prof. Marietta Messmer,
University of Groningen, The Netherlands; Prof. Guy Laforest, Laval University, Canada;
Daniela Larion, I.A. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania; Dr. Soeren Keil, Canterbury Christ
Church University, UK; Prof. Luis San Vicente Portes, Montclair State University, USA; Prof.
Johan Verstraeten, University of Leuven, Belgium; Dr. Peter Goggin, Arizona State University,
USA; Prof. Robert Austin, University of Toronto, Canada; Prof. Isabel Caldeira, University of
Coimbra, Portugal; Prof. Roberta Maierhofer, Ass.-Prof. Dr. Gerald Lamprecht und Ass.-Prof.
Dr. Ulla Kriebernegg, University of Graz; Mag. Heidrun Mörtl, University of Graz, Mag. Alexia
Schemien, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany; Dr. Simone Francescato, Ca'Foscari
University, Italy; Prof. Stephen Katz, Trent University, Canada; Dr. Lonnie Johnson, Fulbright
– Executive Director Austrian-American Educational Commission und Botschaftsrat Paul
Williams, Kanadische Botschaft in Wien, Vortragende bzw. Lehrende bei der Graz
International Summer School Seggau 2013.
61
Ausgewählte Vortragende eines Nachmittagsseminars hielten auch Plenarvorträge, die auf
ein breiteres Publikum ausgerichtet waren und von allen Studierenden besucht wurden.
Darüber hinaus schufen die Vorträge und auch abendliche Diskussionen den Raum für
ausführlichen Austausch.
Weitere Programmpunkte für die Studierenden
Neben dem akademischen Programm fand jeden Morgen vor den Plenarvorlesungen eine
Meditationsübung für interessierte Studierende unter der Leitung von Drs. Michael Kuhn
statt.
Darüber hinaus wurde neben den Vorlesungen und Seminaren eine eintägige Exkursion nach
Graz für die Studierenden organisiert. Diese umfasste einen Besuch der Karl-Franzens-
Universität Graz, eine Stadtführung sowie einen Empfang im Büro von Bürgermeister Mag.
Siegfried Nagl.
Weiters wurden verschiedene kulturelle Veranstaltungen wie beispielsweise eine Lesung von
US-Autor Rolando Hinojosa-Smith (The University of Texas at Austin) und Diskussionen mit
Persönlichkeiten aus Politik und Wirtschaft organisiert.
Ein besonderes Highlight der diesjährigen Graz International Summer School Seggau war die
hochkarätig besetzte Podiumsdiskussion unter dem Titel Challenges and Opportunities in
terms of Collective and Individual Identities within the Context of EU Accession: Serbia as a
Case Study.
Zu Beginn des Abends bereiteten MMag. Barbara Eibinger (Abgeordnete zum Landtag
Steiermark), D.I. Nada Knezevic (Serbische Botschaft in Wien) sowie Prof. Pavle Sekerus
(Vizerektor an der Universität von Novi Sad) durch einführende Statements den Boden für
eine angeregte Diskussion.
Im Rahmen der anschließenden Podiumsdiskussion thematisierten MMag. Barbara Eibinger,
D.I. Nada Knezevic, Prof. Pavle Sekerus, Prof. Ferdinand Angel (Dekan der katholisch
theologischen Fakultät an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz), Prof. Ivana Sekerus (Dekanin
der philosophischen Fakultät an der Universität von Novi Sad), Mag. Christoph Czettl
(GRAWE Serbien) sowie Dorde Durdevic und Oana Ursulesku (Studierende der Graz
International Summer School Seggau 2013) kulturelle, politische, ökonomische sowie soziale
Herausforderungen und Chancen im Kontext von Serbiens Annäherung an die EU.
Geleitet wurde das angeregte Gespräch von Prof. Roberta Maierhofer (Center for Inter-
American Studies, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz) und Dr. Soeren Keil (Canterbury Christ
Church University).
Über diese Aktivitäten hinausgehend fanden des Weiteren eine geführte
Schlossbesichtigung und eine Weinverkostung auf Schloss Seggau statt. Außerdem konnten
sich die Studierenden im Swimmingpool und bei Volleyball-, Fußball- und
Tischtennisturnieren sportlich betätigen.
62
IMPRESSUM
Published by Graz International Summer School Seggau
Report Coordination: Barbara Ratzenböck, Bakk.
Editing: Prof. Dr. Roberta Maierhofer, Mag. Heidrun Mörtl, Mag. (FH) Ulrike Schönbacher
Photo Credits: Kuzma Leshakov; GUSEGG Team
WEBSITE of the GUSEGG 2013
http://international.uni-graz.at/gusegg
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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