Call for Seminar Papers GSA 2020: "The Second Austrian Republic: Building the Nation, Shaping the State"

Call for Seminar Papers, German Studies Association Conference

October 1-4, 2020, Washington, D.C.

TOPIC: “THE SECOND AUSTRIAN REPUBLIC: BUILDING THE NATION, SHAPING THE STATE”

DESCRIPTION

Contemporary Second Republic Austria remains greatly shaped by early post-1945 efforts to re-establish the Austrian state and to retool an “Austrian” identity dissociated from the failures of the First Republic and the 1938-1945 period.

This seminar invites contributions that address the diversity of stakeholders and the multiplicity of practices engaged in these efforts. Such stakeholders include political, technical, and media elites, together with new and re-formed institutions, like the Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, and Forum Alpbach, as well as reinvigorated practices such as the expansionary creation of state prizes.

Seminar collaboration is designed to bring together a multi-disciplinary group of senior and early career scholars, and to strengthen the network of Austrian Studies and its research agenda. We seek proposals from scholars in all disciplines that engage Austrian Studies – from literature and cultural studies to history and political science, and to new fields that examine how the nation was literally (or materially) constructed through infrastructure and land use.

Discussions are in progress for selected seminar papers to appear in Contemporary Austrian Studies and the Journal of Austrian-American History.

SUBMITTING PROPOSALS

To participate in the seminar, prepare a 300-word abstract of your research project, together with a brief biographical sketch.  Visit the GSA website, at https://www.xcdsystem.com/gsa, and submit these documents electronically by January 27, 2020.  To submit, you must be a current GSA member. Participants will be notified regarding acceptance by February 3, 2020.

SEMINAR FORMAT

Seminar participants will be asked to submit a short paper of 3,000 – 4,000 words for pre-circulation by August 31. Each participant will be assigned as a respondent for one paper, with all participants expected to have read the larger group of pre-circulated seminar papers. During the seminar, the format will consist of a 10-minute presentation by the paper author, a 10-minute commentary by the designated respondent, followed by 25 minutes devoted to group discussion.

QUESTIONS

Please address questions to the seminar conveners:

Michael Burri: mburri@brynmawr.edu

Marc Landry II: mlandr1@uno.edu

Eva Pfanzelter: EvaPfanzelter@uibk.ac.at

Information about the 2020 German Studies Association Conference is available at https://www.thegsa.org/conference/current-conference