Gender
Friderike Zweig in American Exile: Cultural Networks and Intellectual Agency, 1940–1971 Although Friderike Maria Zweig (1882–1971) is best known as Stefan Zweig’s first wife, she was herself an accomplished writer, translator, literary agent, and cultural mediator whose work significantly shaped Austrian-American intellectual exchange after her exile to the United States. Drawing on archival materials held…
Gerda Lerner: Film, Politics and Activism. Gerda Lerner (1920–2013) is widely recognized as a pioneering feminist historian, yet her contributions to film remain largely understudied. This project addresses a critical gap by examining her involvement in independent filmmaking, political activism, and the intersection of Jewish and Black civil rights alliances during the McCarthy era and…
Vally Wieselthier: Sculpting Modernism, curated by Stephanie Buhmann at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, is the first comprehensive biographical exhibition in the United States dedicated to the Austrian-born ceramic artist Vally Wieselthier (1895–1945), a pioneering member of the Wiener Werkstätte and a transformative voice in modernist design. Tracing her full transatlantic trajectory—from her formative…
Gendered pay inequality continues today as a major issue in Austria (and the U.S., as well as the rest of the world). The immediate post-war period of the WWII era was a period in which the military governments had the power of law and force to eliminate or impose unequal pay against women and girls. “Answers to…
Rosika Schwimmer (Budapest, 1877-New York, 1948), one of the best-known women’s rights leaders in the Austro-Hungarian Empire became a celebrated peace activist in the U.S. She was awarded the World Peace Prize and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Schwimmer formed a crucial link between the Hungarian, Austrian and transnational women’s and peace movements…
The cult of child creativity taking root in postwar America—or notions that all children are inherently creative with unique access to expressive powers—remains ubiquitous in contemporary American society. But rarely are such discourses connected to their intellectual roots in Secessionist Vienna. My project spotlights the critical role of pedagogue, craftswoman and designer Emmy Zweybrück-Prochaska (1890-1956),…
Nancy Wingfield received a $5,013 BIAAS grant for her book project on everyday life in Allied-occupied Vienna from 1945 to 1955, focusing on gender relations. Her research offers fresh perspectives on the connections between sexual exchange and power relations by demonstrating that the Viennese experience of occupation varied by zone, age, class, familial structure, and…
Sina Hoche received a BIAAS grant for her project “VALIE EXPORT in Context: Transatlantic Affinities between Performance Art and the Women’s Liberation Movement in Austria and the U.S.” in which she will be examining sketches, drafts, recordings, and other works stored at the VALIE EXPORT Research Center in Linz, Austria and the MoMA in New…
Regina Range received a 2018 BIAAS grant for her project, “From Vienna to Hollywood: Uncovering the Forgotten Lives and Careers of Three Female Austrian-Jewish Exile Scriptwriters.” This research project, carried out a various Los Angeles film archives, explores the Hollywood screenwriting impact of three almost-forgotten female Austrian-Jewish exiles: Gina Kaus, Vicki Baum, and Salka Viertel.…
BIAAS granted $6,000 to Britta McEwen to perform a cultural study on the status of illegitimate children in Vienna from the 18th century to the 20th century.