BLOG
The BIAAS blog series features posts by junior and senior scholars in the field of Austrian-American studies. The views and opinions expressed in these blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BIAAS.
BIAAS Austrian-American Blog
Between Departure and Arrival: Reframing the Austrian Migrant Experience in Theodora Bauer’s Chikago
By Anita McChesney
2015 marked the culmination of the so-called “European immigration crisis,” which was, at that time, the largest increase of displaced persons seeking asylum in Europe since the end of World War II. (1) Located between two major refugee routes, Austria received around 90,000 asylum requests that year which was the third highest number of applications per capita. The continuing impact of these events have brought renewed focus on migration and with it an opportunity not only to highlight displaced people but also to engage with Austria’s longer and often untold history of migration.
Press Release: New Survey Reveals Changing Perpectives of U.S. Austrian Relationship
Results from a new survey focusing on Austria and the United States show changing attitudes about how the citizens of each country perceive the other. The survey is the first since the 1980s to poll perspectives of the relationship held by citizens of both countries. Excerpts from the survey, sponsored by the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies and prepared by the University of Salzburg, were released today.
2025 Annual Botstiber Lecture
Hannelore Veit delivered the 2025 Annual Botstiber Lecture on Austrian-American Affairs. Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Veit anchored the top-rated Austrian news program Zeit im Bild (1993-2012) and later served, from 2013 to 2020, as the Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for Austrian Public Broadcasting (ORF). Ms. Veit is a graduate of both Notre Dame University and the University of Vienna. She currently works as a journalist, media consultant, and author. Ms. Veit will speak on "Fake News - Hard Facts - True Lies? How News Media Influence Public Opinion in Austria and the United States.”
"Renewed Discrimination Against Mahler"? An Episode in Postwar Austrian Musical Politics
By Benjamin M. Korstvedt
The tremendous growth in popularity of the music of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) in performance and especially on record during the 1960s and 1970s has achieved almost mythical status. Not only did performances and recordings of Mahler’s symphonies begin to flourish as never before, but his image was radically transformed. He went from being widely regarded as a composer of sprawling, idiosyncratic, often self-indulgent symphonies that belonged only on the fringes of the repertoire, to being seen as a composer of urgent importance who brought the long tradition of the Germanic symphony to its great and tragic climax...
New Perspectives on the Spy Story behind "The Third Man"
By Thomas Riegler
In 1951 and 1955 Philby was investigated as ‘the third man’ after the defection of the first two members of the Cambridge Five. As journalist Gordon Corera puts it: ‘By a strange quirk of fate, the title of Graham Greene’s screenplay was now applied to the man, unbeknown to anyone, may have helped inspire it...
Cybernetic Emigres: Wartime Machines and the Problem of Life between Vienna and the United States
By Elizabeth O'Neil
During the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of scientists and intellectuals fled Austria. Some, especially those with Jewish heritage, left in the early 1930s when the threat of Nazi antisemitism became apparent. Others remained in Austria through the war years and left afterwards in search of financial security. This “intellectual migration,” as scholars often call it, had profound impacts both on Austria and the United States...