History and Culture Course

What will you learn?

In this course we will read about milestones of Austrian and European history and discuss them from diverse angles. By consulting forgotten and repressed sources we will challenge the narrative of European history and the constructed and canonized image of “Western civilization”. We will visit landmarks and go on excursions that will help us rethink and reframe history. Through this approach we will explore how democracies rise and fall, why certain conflicts endure, and how literature, visual arts, architecture, and music can help us understand how the past shapes the present.

Why should you register?

This course is designed for IiVP students to create a truly immersive academic experience that will give you the chance to see Vienna in its most vibrant facets. The way the course is structured (most classes and sessions will take place in February) will give you more flexibility to schedule your courses at our partner universities (courses at Austrian universities start in March).

Finally, the great American novelist William Faulkner probably said it best: “The past is not dead. It’s not even past.”

A selection of topics we will cover:

• Unusual Succession: Maria Theresia and her enemies

• The Soundtrack of Enlightenment: Mozart, the Freemasons, and revolutions

• “A Spectre is Haunting Europe”: Congress of Vienna, 1848 and the roots of socialism

• From Sisi’s Death Drive to “Neue Frau”:  Constructions of Woman 1890-1930

• Urban Modernism: City Planning, Architecture and Politics

• Seeing the World Through Art: Radikal! – Women*Artists and Modernism

• Against Repression and Oblivion: Exile, Holocaust, and Jewish Vienna

• Breaking the Glass Ceiling: From “die Dohnal” to Leonore Gewessler – Women in Politics