PODCASTS
BIAAS actively promotes the work of our grantees, fellows and other Austrian-American Scholars through our podcast series.
The Botstiber Austrian-American Podcast
The Botstiber Austrian-American Podcast features interviews with scholars who specialize in the field of Austrian-American studies. Interviews cover topics relating to history, literature, politics, and cultural studies.
Visit our Soundcloud account to listen to more podcasts or visit our Apple Podcast account to listen to more podcasts.
The Crisis Specialist: Clemens von Pirquet
Clemens von Pirquet, an Austrian pediatrician and scientist, held a prominent role in the international post-WWI humanitarian relief efforts during Austria’s hunger crisis. Pirquet directed his unique, scientific-based system of nutrition (no cocoa here, please) with the support of the American Relief Administration. As a result of this transatlantic partnership, hundreds of thousands of Austrian children were saved from starvation.
Pirquet is primarily remembered today for his eponymous tuberculin skin test and for imparting the term “allergy” to represent the body’s heightened responses to a foreign substance. In this podcast with Dr. Michael Burri, we appreciate Pirquet’s significant achievements as an early global public health figure.
Resources/Links:
Vic Huber: A Life Promoting Music, Arts, and Cultural Ties
Vic Huber is an American Honorary Consul in Vienna and the Programme Director of the Austro-American Society in Vienna. He shares his own personal story about growing up in post-war Vienna and his lifelong journey with American culture with Jonathan Singerton.
Kurt Bednar: The Paper War between the United States and Austria-Hungary
In his book, The Paper War between the United States and Austria-Hungary, historian Kurt Bednar looks at the final years of the Habsburg Monarchy through an American lens. He discusses the research for his book, his findings, and his views on one of the most pivotal chapters in Austrian-American relations with Jonathan Singerton.
Marion Romberg: America in religious Allegories
Marion Romberg discusses how the image of America (with feather crowns, parrots, and crocodiles) was popularized in early modern times with Jonathan Singerton. Marion Romberg is a research associate at the Department of Habsburg and Balkan Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna, Austria), the network editor of the Habsburg Discussion Network, and a Member of the Board of Directors for the Austrian Society for 18th Century Studies.
Relevant links:
1) Marion Romberg: https://marionromberg.eu
2) Department of Habsburg and Balkan Studies: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/inz/
3) Habsburg Discussion Network: http://www.h-net.org/~habsweb/
4) Austrian Society for 18th Century Studies: https://oege18.org
William O’Reilly: Soul Sellers and Transatlantic Migration from Central Europe: 1700-1800
William O’Reilly, senior lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Cambridge and full-time fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Central European University, discusses his research for his forthcoming book, Selling Souls, with Jonathan Singerton. Early human traffickers, soul-sellers (Seelenverkäufer) were in the business of enlisting and conveying German-speaking migrants to North America and Central and Eastern Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Podcast 1 of 3, Wladimir Fischer-Nebmaier: From a Multiethnic Empire to a Nation of Nations: Austro-Hungarian Migrants in the US, 1870-1940
The first of three podcasts dedicated to exploring the history of the mass migration from Austria-Hungary to the United States.
In this three-part series on their book entitled From a Multiethnic Empire to a Nation of Nations: Austro-Hungarian Migrants in the US, 1870 to 1940, authors Wladimir Fischer-Nebmaier, James Oberly, and Annemarie Steidl discuss the unique findings of their collaborative, multi-disciplinary study in which they uncovered new information regarding the migration between the Habsburg Monarchy and the United States—among the most significant migrations in history. Their work challenges commonly held immigration theories regarding assimilation while documenting the diversity of ethnic and religious groups during the two waves of migration from Austro-Hungary.