Austrian Association for American Studies

The Austrian Association for American Studies is an academic non-profit organization that sets out to support American Studies in Austria at academic institutions and to promote transatlantic understanding.

Currently, the Austrian Association for American Studies has more than 110 active members. They represent the Association at practically all Austrian universities and academic institutions with departments focusing on American Studies. The Association is a member of the European Association for American Studies (EAAS).

Mission and History

When the Austrian Association for American Studies was founded in 1975, its articles declared a four-fold purpose:

1. To stimulate the establishment, extension, and intensification of American Studies at Austrian universities and other academic institutions;
2. To promote the research activities and plans of Austrian scholars in the field of American Studies;
3. To allow for the exchange of ideas and information in the field of American Studies;
4. To establish contacts with organizations of the same kind in Europe, America, and elsewhere.

The Austrian Association for American Studies (AAAS) is an academic non-profit organization that currently has more than 100 active members. They represent the Association at practically all Austrian universities and academic institutions with departments focusing on American Studies. The AAAS also has a sizable number of international members. The AAAS is a member association of the European Association for American Studies (EAAS).

Programs and Activities

The AAAS organizes an annual international conference with a thematic focus at an Austrian university. In addition, and in collaboration with other organizations and institutions such as Fulbright Austria, the AAAS supports promising projects and young researchers through grants and scholarly awards. The AAAS has supported a book series (monographs and edited collections) for the last two decades (American Studies in Austria at LIT Verlag) and is currently in the process of inaugurating a peer-reviewed open access online journal JAAAS (Journal of the Austrian Association of American Studies).

The research of most AAAS members comes from literary and cultural studies, but the association also has members coming from disciplines such as history, political science, or film studies. AAAS members study a wide variety of subjects, and rely on a broad range of (inter)disciplinary approaches and methodologies, which the association does not circumscribe in any way. The conference topics of the last years give a rough idea of recent thematic interests of AAAS members: “American Im/Mobilities” (2018), “The Changing Nature of American Studies” (2017) “America Through the Small Screen” (2016), “Soundscapes as Sonic Cultures” (2015), “American Identity, Urbanity, and Cultural Exchange” (2014), or “American Utopias” (2013).