The annual Austrian Studies Association Conference starts today and continues through Sunday at Bowling
Green State University, with several events open to the public.
This is the final act of a year-long celebration of the 50-year partnership between BGSU and the
University of Salzburg.
The conference at BGSU will bring 100 Austrian Studies scholars from six countries to the BGSU campus.
This interdisciplinary conference will explore a broad range of issues related to migration in relation
to Austria, Europe and North America. The presentations will highlight artistic, cultural, economic and
political developments related to migration from contemporary and historical perspectives.
The celebrations were launched in June when BGSU President Rodney Rogers and others from BGSU gathered
with 80 Austrian and American alumni and the faculty at the University of Salzburg to acknowledge the
partnership.
Even before the celebration, Christina Guenther and German faculty members at BGSU began working together
with the University of Salzburg’s Vice Rector Sylvia Hahn, professor of history specialized in migration
studies, and her assistants on the next Annual Austrian Association Conference.
A special feature of the German, history and political science programs at BGSU continues to be the
emphasis on Austrian studies.
BGSU was the first university to establish an exchange with the University of Salzburg, which re-opened
its doors to students in the early 1960s after an almost 150-year hiatus. The joint-exchange study
program is 51 years old and includes several thousand alumni from both sides of the Atlantic.
Three faculty members in the German program have published extensively in the field, and all faculty
members in German and one in political science have served as directors of the singular study-abroad
program at the University of Salzburg.
Free and open to the public on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in 228 Bowen-Thompson Student Union is the rap
concert by slam-poet and singer Yasmin Hafedh aka Yasmo from Vienna.
Also free and open to the public is a documentary film viewing with producer Robert Dassanowsky. “Der
Bauer zu Nathal: Kein Film über Thomas Bernhard” (2018) will be shown tonight at 7:30 in 206
Bowen-Thompson Student Union.
Another film will be shown on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Djordje Cenice will discuss “Unten (2016). Documenting
and Mediating Migration in Salzburg: The Migration Archive of the City of Salzburg,” along with Andreas
Praher, University of Salzburg, in 206 Bowen-Thompson Student Union.
The public is also welcome to hear a reading by Clemens Berger, who is the Max Kade Writer in Residence,
on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. in 206 Bowen-Thompson Student Union.