In 2021, the Austrian Studies Association marks the 60th anniversary of its founding. Such anniversaries present an opportunity to acquaint new audiences with an organization and to reintroduce it to old ones. In this spirit, and to quote its mission statement, the Austrian Studies Association (ASA) is a nonprofit membership organization that “promotes the teaching and research of all disciplines in their study of Austria, and it acknowledges the diverse historical, multiethnic, and multilingual character of Austria, the former Habsburg territories, and their legacies.”

A showcase of how Erasmus+ funding made the strong collaboration between Montclair State University and the University of Graz even stronger.

Austrian-born American theoretical chemist and Nobel Laureate Martin Karplus, 90, about the central role of education throughout his life.

“The Austrian government people have since World War II made a big pretence of being the first conquered country [by Nazi Germany]. That’s not true. They were very much in a ´Take me, I’m yours!’ mode. I can remember a lot of nasty things prior to the [“Anschluss”] ... you know…”

With this obviously frustrated reference to Austria, Felix Brown, a Holocaust survivor born in Vienna, started a TV interview in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.

For 70 years, Fulbright Austria has been promoting mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States of America and Austria. Since then, Fulbright Austria has provided unique opportunities for Austrian and U.S. citizens to pursue their personal, scientific, artistic, and professional development. The awards Fulbright Austria offers allow scholars to research and teach, students to pursue their academic and professional interests, and teaching assistants to share their native language and culture with students in their host country.

A very common term when discussing scientific exchange is the notion of brain drain. But one could also have another perspective on scientific exchange: the brain circulation perspective. This perspective takes into consideration that researchers move back and forth a lot between different countries and (work) areas. Often, they go to a foreign country for educational reasons but come back to their country of origin later.

The Royal Society coined the term “brain drain” in the late 1950s and early 1960s, referring to the phenomenon of researchers leaving the United Kingdom for the United States and Canada. Since then, researcher mobility and its implications have significantly changed. Demand and competition for human capital are still rising, but many countries no longer fear their bright minds going abroad.

It has been a year unlike any other at the Center for Austrian Studies (CAS). Though the first half of the year seemed like business as usual for our staff, faculty, and visitors, the second brought with it changes that none of us would have thought possible in the beginning of fall. The novel coronavirus upended our spring program and sent many of our visitors scurrying home. As we all adjusted to life in a time of pandemic and became used to its new rhythms, here in Minnesota we were rocked by another event that had repercussions across the globe.

In late February 2020, I flew from New Orleans via New York to Zurich to start a semester as a guest professor at the University of Innsbruck. Even though first scares about COVID-19 could be heard from Wuhan in China, it did not frighten travelers like me yet in the U.S. and in Europe, even though Mardi Gras had just ended when I left and later on turned out to be a “super spreader event.” I met my students during the first week of March and it looked like a normal semester. Then all hell broke loose.

Part of a global network extending from Vienna to Jerusalem and beyond, the Austria Centers of North America share a common mission to deepen knowledge of Austrian and Central European history, culture and society around the world.

The UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School, a six-week summer program organized by the University of New Orleans (UNO) in cooperation with the University of Innsbruck, Austria, celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Or would have celebrated it, had the program been held in the summer of 2020. For the first time in its existence since 1976, this large and renowned study abroad program, which enrolls approximately 250 students each summer and has an alumni base of well over 10,000 students, had to be cancelled due to COVID-19.

Hannes Richter spoke with Thomas Strasser about his 20-year teaching career in the Big Apple

The situation on the labor market is well known: programmers, those with degrees in computer science or in technical fields are in high demand. According to the Austrian Employment Service, persons with STEM degrees – science, technology, engineering and mathematics - on average find a job within three months and are facing excellent career prospects and income levels. At the same time, there are not enough graduates in these fields to satisfy demand, not just in Austria, but also internationally.

Connected with the rich Viennese musical tradition and renowned cultural institutions such as the Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts offers its talents the best support for a professional career.