Austrian-American Organizations
As a result of the 2018 BIAAS sponsored Summit on Austrian -American Organizations, BIAAS agreed to help facilitate the exchange of information by establishing a resource page. Click below to connect with more than a dozen participants of 2018 Summit.
Austrian-American Educational Commission/Fulbright Austria
Museumsplatz 1, Vienna 1070, Austria
Mission and History
The Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC) is a special binational commission based on the Fulbright Act of 1946 and established by a bilateral agreement between the US government and the Republic of Austria in 1950. It currently operates under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (1963-present), which provides for binational financing and governance of the Austrian-American Fulbright Program.
Fulbright Austria promotes mutual understanding, cooperation, and knowledge transfer between Austria and the United States by sponsoring educational and cultural exchange programs serving individuals and institutions. It fulfills this mission by managing the prestigious Fulbright scholarship program; coordinating a nationwide teaching assistantship program unilaterally funded by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) that places US college graduates in Austrian secondary schools; and counseling students and institutions of higher education on opportunities to study in the US or Austria as an EducationUSA advising center.
With over 380,000 alumni, the Fulbright Program was the largest exchange program in the world until the inception of the European Union Erasmus Program in the 1980s, and the Austrian-American Program is the largest bilateral exchange program between the two countries. More than 2,500 US citizens and 3,500 Austrian citizens have participated in exchanges under the auspices of the Fulbright Program since 1950. Furthermore, over 3,000 US college and university graduates have taught at Austrian secondary school in communities large and small in all nine Austrian provinces since the inception of the US Teaching Assistant Program in 1962.
For a brief history of the Fulbright Program, consult “Fulbright at Fifty” or view the documentary video “Fulbright at Sixty” on the Fulbright website.
Programs and Activities
| Grant Category | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
|---|---|---|
| Austrian Fulbright Foreign-Language Teaching Assistants at US colleges and universities | 14 | 12 |
| Austrian Fulbright Students enrolled in graduate programs at US institutions | 10 | 14 |
| Austrian Fulbright Scholars | 4 | 6 |
| US Fulbright Students enrolled at Austrian universities | 18 | 21 |
| US Fulbright Scholars (representing the fifth-largest US Fulbright Scholar cohort in the world) | 22 | 22 |
| Fulbright Specialists (two- to six-week stays) | 5 | 5 |
| Total Fulbright grantees | 75 | 75 |
| US teaching assistants at Austrian secondary schools (record highs) | 133 | 144 |
Fulbright Austria also serves as an educational advising center for Austrians interested in studying in the United States and Americans interested in studying in Austria.
Austrian Association for American Studies
University of Salzburg
Erzabt-Klotz-Strasse 1 (Unipark)
A-5020 Salzburg
ZVR-Number: 371718632
https://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/aaas/ and www.aaas.at.
Current president contact info:
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alexandra Ganser
University of Vienna
Department of English and American Studies
Spitalgasse 2-4 / Hof 8.3
A-1090 Vienna
E-Mail: alexandra.ganser@univie.ac.at
Mission and History
When the Austrian Association for American Studies was founded in 1975, its articles declared a four-fold purpose:
a) to stimulate the establishment, extension, and intensification of American Studies at Austrian universities and other academic institutions;
b) to promote the research activities and plans of Austrian scholars in the field of American Studies;
c) to allow for the exchange of ideas and information in the field of American Studies;
d) 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).