A collaboration: University of Vienna (Austria) and Bradley University (Peoria, IL, U.S.A.)
new: 
An ongoing project
This site documents the results of an ongoing collaboration between the University of Vienna in Austria and Bradley University, Peoria, IL in the United States. Via the links on the left, you can find information on jointly organized excursions with students and faculty from both universities and on classes taught at the Department of English and American Studies in Vienna that have established links to Bradley University's Vienna Study Abroad program. The excursions and courses have focused on a variety of American/cultural studies topics, emphasizing the need for critical intercultural research and pedagogy as well as interaction inside and outside the classroom.
|
|
General objectives:
- To enable students to function as mediators between cultures
- To raise students’ awareness of the significance of historical contexts
- To raise students’ awareness of the significance of spatial contexts
- To increase and deepen students’ prior knowledge of significant concepts in contemporary cultural theories, esp. regarding popular and mass culture
- To enable students to use such concepts in critically reflected ways to effectively engage in contemporary cultural discourses and debates, esp. with regard to “Americanization” and anti-Americanisms (as dimensions of or in relation to globalization), the “clash of civilizations” and cultures, cultural transfer and cultural change
Theory:
|
‘Culture’ and difference: |
Identity, non-essentialism, contextualism |
|
‘Culture’ and boundedness: |
Territoriality vs. culture as ‘process’ |
|
'Culture’ and location: |
Space, place, nation, and region |
|
‘American’ culture: |
‘American’ as (performative) ascription |
|
Interdisciplinarity: |
‘Americanization,’ ‘globalization,’ ‘cultural imperialism,’ ‘homogenization,’ ‘localization,’ ‘interculturality,’ ‘cultural flows,’ ‘cultural contact,’ ‘contact zones,’ ‘borderlands,’ ‘thirdspace,’ ‘hybridity,’ etc. |
Method:
Students at Bradley University and the University of Vienna share:
- reading assignments
- e-learning platforms and exchanges
- lectures and team-teaching
- investigations and discussions—intercultural collaboration as conversation and dialogue
- auto-ethnographic writing assignments and classroom presentations
For more information, please go to the individual courses via the links on the left!
News: Excursion and course 2010
Live(s) on the Mississippi 2: The Mississippi Valley as a Transregional Space
Update (Jan 11):
New website with information on the trip now online:
Past
event:
Student information evening:
Dec. 14, 2009
Dept. of English and American Studies
Announcement:
