LFU:online

After successfully completing the course, students are familiar with selected phases and areas of Austrian history and its entanglement with European and World History. They are familiar with interdisciplinary theoretical concepts like cultural transfer, hybridization and diversity, coloniality and decolonization in Austria and can apply them to empirical cases. They have gained a critical awareness of imagined communities and national and regional stereotypes and how Austria is imagined from the outside and the inside. Furthermore, students develop partial understanding of the complexity of constructing culture through history, politics, media and communication, economy, or beliefs, folklore and traditions. Students are furthermore able to question assumptions and identify relevant contexts and they can identify their own and others' assumptions and relevant contexts when presenting a position.

In dealing with these aspects, students have familiarized themselves in particular with the Tyrol region and its specific traditions, developments and challenges in relation to the “rest of Austria” and its European neighbor states, such as

·         the distinctive nature of historical political, economic and social development of Austrian and Tyrolean society  

·         the construction of regional identity through customs, traditions and folklore and its relation to social and economic transformations, e.g. the emergence of tourism in the late 19th century and the development towards mass tourism in the late 20th and early 21st century

·         the contemporary cultural scene (music, film, theater, art, literature etc.)

·         the role of Austria and Tyrol in the context of post-colonial migration;

·         the challenges of the region as a central transit route in the free Europe-wide movement of people and goods

The non-subject related learning outcomes have been formulated in accordance with the Aurora Competence Framework (LOUIS), which is based on the VALUE rubrics developed by the AAC&U.

Addressing incoming students and Innsbruck students from all disciplines alike, this course is conceived as an interdisciplinary introduction to various historical ideas, narratives and realities that constitute Austria as a nation and member state of the European Union, and of Tyrol as an alpine region with its specific geographies, traditions, developments and challenges. We will explore the role of Austria in Europe and the World by studying processes of Trans-European entanglements, co-operations, conflicts and integration from a historical and contemporary perspective and by analyzing political institutions, societal discourses and symbolic representations in law, media, film, literature, popular culture and arts.

The course is a blended learning course consisting of two parts: The first part takes place online and is intended as a general introduction to concepts of imagined communities and the construction of national identities with the example of Austria and its history, politics and culture. We will explore various symbolic representations of Austria and analyze how they contribute to different imaginations of the nation.

The second part takes place in October and will show the entanglement of national and regional culture on site with local excursions.

·         How history and folklore shape the region: TirolPanorama and Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum

·         Rural Austria and local customs: Carnival traditions with the Thaurer Muller

·         Habsburg Glamour: Visit to Ambras Castle

·         Transit, borders and the EU: Tunnel World / Brenner

·         Alpine tourism and climate challenges: Nordkette and the future of tourism

·         Postcolonial Innsbruck: Colonialism and memory politics in the city

The program on site also includes visits to the Tiroler Landestheater with the dance performance “Romeo and Juliet”. Other events might be included.

Blended learning, consisting of online lectures and a one-week intensive program on-site with introductory lectures, local excursions, group works, group discussions and poster presentation, reading assignments

·         Journey log (summarizing and reflecting statements on the excursions, engaging with secondary literature from reading assignments)

·         Poster on one of the topics explored during the excursions (group work)

Bischof, & Bischof, Günter. (1997). Austrian historical memory & national identity.

Benedik, Stefan & Sommer, Monika & Heidl, Antonia. (2024). Holidays in Austria. Reinventing a Tourist Destination.

Geary, Patrick J. “Austria, the Writing of History, and the Search for European Identity.” Austrian History Yearbook 47 (2016): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0067237816000047.

Graml, G. (2020). Revisiting Austria: tourism, space, and national identity, 1945 to the present. Berghahn: New York and London.

Graml, G. (2004). (Re)mapping the nation: Sound of Music tourism and national identity in Austria, ca 2000 CE. Tourist Studies, 4(2), 137–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797604054380

Horak, R., & Spitaler, G. (2003). Sport Space and National Identity: Soccer and Skiing as Formative Forces: On the Austrian Example. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(11), 1506-1518. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764203046011004

Karner (Eds.), Myths in Austrian History (Contemporary Austrian Studies, vol. 29): Construction and Deconstruction (Vol. 29, pp. 243–260). University of New Orleans Press.

https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1f8xc9w.15

Christian Karner (2005) The ‘HabsburgDilemma’ Today: Competing Discourses of National Identity in Contemporary Austria, National Identities, 7:4, 409-432, DOI: 10.1080/ 14608940500334382

Lamb-Faffelberger, M. (2003). Beyond "The Sound of Music": The Quest for Cultural Identity in Modern Austria. The German Quarterly, 76 (3), 289–299. https://doi.org/10.2307/3252083

Poole, Ralph. (2020). Rugged Rocks, GentleMen:  Hollywood’s Influence on the Austrian Heimatfilm. 10.1007/978-3-658-30263-4_7

Rathkolb, Oliver (2024). The Paradoxical Republic. Austria 1945 to 2020. Berghahn: New York and London.

Rest, Matthäus & Seiser, Gertraud. (2018). The Krampus in Austria: A Case of Booming Identity Politics. 20. 35-57.

Schnelzer, Judith & Hintermann, Christiane & Kern, Isabel. (2021). 'I Would Say I Am Austrian but …' - Multiple Spatial Belongings and Hybrid Identities among Young People in Vienna, Austria. European Journal of Geography. 12. 21-38. 10.48088/ejg.j.sch.12.3.21.38.

Thaler, Peter. (1997). How to measure identity: Austrian national consciousness in the mirror of public opinion. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 3. 69-93. 10.1080/13537119708428518.

Tschiggerl, Martin. (2020). Significant otherness nation‐building and identity in postwar Austria. Nations and Nationalism. 27.10.1111/nana.12677.

Rigele, G. (2020). “Land of Mountains…”: Austria’s Exceptional Environment and Its Myths. In G. Bischof, M. Landry, & C. Karner (Eds.), Myths in Austrian History (Contemporary Austrian Studies, vol. 29): Construction and Deconstruction (Vol. 29, pp. 225–242). University of New Orleans Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1f8xc9w.14

Please note: Students from Aurora partner universities must check with their home universities regarding mobility grants!

This course is an Aurora Alliance (AURORA – Universität Innsbruck (uibk.ac.at) event.

Furthermore this course is part of the micro-credential ‘Reading Austria in European and Global Context’. More here: https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/international/aurora/aurora-european-universities-alliance/micro-credentials/ 

All students of all Aurora universities are invited to apply for participation in this course from June 03 till July 12 at the following link. After this date, registration via LFU:online  is possible for Innsbruck and Erasmus students, given there are still places: https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/international/aurora/aurora-course-offerings/universitat-innsbruck/

Please note: Students from Aurora partner universities must check with their home universities regarding any mobility grants!

The course has an online and an on-site part. We will meet online on 17 October 2024 (10.15-11.45h), 7 November 2024 (10.15-11.45h) and 14 November 2024 (10.15-11.45h). Then we will have an intensive programme from 25-29 November 2024 in Innsbruck at various locations. Please see our syllabus for more information and meeting points, to be uploaded on Olat on 1 October 2024.