Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	Democratic Backsliding in Eastern Europe	Mon, 20.04.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ludger Hagedorn Venelin Ganev	Democratic Backsliding in Eastern Europe Mon, 20.04.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Venelin Ganev Series: Seminars and Colloquia Back in the late 2000s, when all former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe acquired full membership of the European Union, it appeared as if these countries were on their way to democratic normality. What happened instead was that many of them underwent democratic backsliding. As the region transitioned from the accession to the post-accession era, the institutional, legal and political parameters of elite action were dramatically and swiftly reconfigured in ways that facilitated the rise of ambitious, illiberal projects. Read more
Democratic Backsliding in Eastern Europe Mon, 20.04.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Venelin Ganev Series: Seminars and Colloquia Back in the late 2000s, when all former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe acquired full membership of the European Union, it appeared as if these countries were on their way to democratic normality. What happened instead was that many of them underwent democratic backsliding. As the region transitioned from the accession to the post-accession era, the institutional, legal and political parameters of elite action were dramatically and swiftly reconfigured in ways that facilitated the rise of ambitious, illiberal projects. Read more
	Communism Never Happened	Tue, 14.04.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Jan Sowa Ludger Hagedorn	Communism Never Happened Tue, 14.04.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Jan Sowa Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Almost every time a public discussion deals with questions of redistribution or social justice, there is a person standing up and saying something like: “Yes, we know that experiments from history and they all end up in some kind of Gulags!” This can be observed e.g. in debates around Corbynism in the UK or Bernie Sanders in the US, when they are portrayed as vicious Marxists who want to reanimate ugly socialism. The proposition of this talk was to look at the historical experience of Eastern Europe and try to answer the question to what extent it was a communist experience, if matched with the vision and principles of communism as constructed in the 19th and 20th century. The goal was to show that however we evaluate that period, calling it “communist” makes no more sense than agreeing that the German Democratic Republic was “democratic”, because this was asserted by its propaganda and its official name. The talk tried to put forward an analytical framework that allows for a better conceptualization and a more accurate description of the actually existing “communism.” Read more
Communism Never Happened Tue, 14.04.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Jan Sowa Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Almost every time a public discussion deals with questions of redistribution or social justice, there is a person standing up and saying something like: “Yes, we know that experiments from history and they all end up in some kind of Gulags!” This can be observed e.g. in debates around Corbynism in the UK or Bernie Sanders in the US, when they are portrayed as vicious Marxists who want to reanimate ugly socialism. The proposition of this talk was to look at the historical experience of Eastern Europe and try to answer the question to what extent it was a communist experience, if matched with the vision and principles of communism as constructed in the 19th and 20th century. The goal was to show that however we evaluate that period, calling it “communist” makes no more sense than agreeing that the German Democratic Republic was “democratic”, because this was asserted by its propaganda and its official name. The talk tried to put forward an analytical framework that allows for a better conceptualization and a more accurate description of the actually existing “communism.” Read more
	The Importance of Being Funny	Mon, 06.04.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ludger Hagedorn Mila Ganeva	The Importance of Being Funny Jewish Humor in Cabaret and Film Mon, 06.04.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Mila Ganeva Series: Seminars and Colloquia This talk was part of a book project on the cultural history of Jewish artistic presence in German-speaking cabaret and film in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. (During her fellowship at the IWM, Mila Ganeva was researching materials at the Austrian Exile Archive at ÖNB and the Österreichisches Kabarettarchiv in Graz.) In this presentation for the colloquium, she focused on a representative figure of cabaret and film, the German-Jewish comedian Siegfried Arno. Arno, who was labeled by contemporaries “our Buster Keaton”, was enormously successful on both the cabaret stage and the silver screen. In the 1920s, Arno and many of his colleagues were also at the centre of the so-called “cabaret wars”, as they were accused (and often sued) by the Centralverein of the German Citizens of the Jewish Faith of excessive use of Jewish jokes and fuelling antisemitism. The presentation reviewed Arno’s role in the very public debate about Jews in cabaret and film, and explored some of his actual performances in films as well as on the stage of the Kabarett der Komiker. Read more
The Importance of Being Funny Jewish Humor in Cabaret and Film Mon, 06.04.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Mila Ganeva Series: Seminars and Colloquia This talk was part of a book project on the cultural history of Jewish artistic presence in German-speaking cabaret and film in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. (During her fellowship at the IWM, Mila Ganeva was researching materials at the Austrian Exile Archive at ÖNB and the Österreichisches Kabarettarchiv in Graz.) In this presentation for the colloquium, she focused on a representative figure of cabaret and film, the German-Jewish comedian Siegfried Arno. Arno, who was labeled by contemporaries “our Buster Keaton”, was enormously successful on both the cabaret stage and the silver screen. In the 1920s, Arno and many of his colleagues were also at the centre of the so-called “cabaret wars”, as they were accused (and often sued) by the Centralverein of the German Citizens of the Jewish Faith of excessive use of Jewish jokes and fuelling antisemitism. The presentation reviewed Arno’s role in the very public debate about Jews in cabaret and film, and explored some of his actual performances in films as well as on the stage of the Kabarett der Komiker. Read more
	Berlin Hamlet. Gedichte	Tue, 10.03.2020, 19:00	Panels and Discussions	Heike FlemmingCornelius Hell	Berlin Hamlet. Gedichte Tue, 10.03.2020, 19:00 Speakers: Heike FlemmingCornelius Hell Series: Panels and Discussions Lesung und Diskussion zum Werk des ungarischen Schriftstellers Szilárd Borbély, der vor allem für seinen Roman „Die Mittellosen“ bekannt ist. Erstmals liegen nun in deutscher Sprache zwei Gedichtzyklen des 2014 verstorbenen Autors vor, der als bedeutendster ungarischer Lyriker seit 1989 gilt. 2013 war Borbély Paul Celan Visiting Fellow am IWM. Read more
Berlin Hamlet. Gedichte Tue, 10.03.2020, 19:00 Speakers: Heike FlemmingCornelius Hell Series: Panels and Discussions Lesung und Diskussion zum Werk des ungarischen Schriftstellers Szilárd Borbély, der vor allem für seinen Roman „Die Mittellosen“ bekannt ist. Erstmals liegen nun in deutscher Sprache zwei Gedichtzyklen des 2014 verstorbenen Autors vor, der als bedeutendster ungarischer Lyriker seit 1989 gilt. 2013 war Borbély Paul Celan Visiting Fellow am IWM. Read more
	Warum wir am Frauentag auch über Männer reden sollten…	Sun, 08.03.2020, 11:00	Panels and Discussions	Kathrin Röggla, Paul M. Zulehner, Kenan Güngör, Maria Windhager, Petra Stuiber	Warum wir am Frauentag auch über Männer reden sollten… Sun, 08.03.2020, 11:00 Speakers: Kathrin Röggla, Paul M. Zulehner, Kenan Güngör, Maria Windhager, Petra Stuiber Series: Panels and Discussions Der internationale Frauentag war eine gute Gelegenheit, um auch über Männer zu sprechen. Das lange gepflegte Ideal von Männlichkeit, das Stärke und Härte voraussetzt, ist längst nicht mehr gültig. Frauen wehren sich gegen die Ausprägungen dieser „toxischen Männlichkeit“ – mit immer mehr Erfolg. Das hilft auch den Männern. Read more
Warum wir am Frauentag auch über Männer reden sollten… Sun, 08.03.2020, 11:00 Speakers: Kathrin Röggla, Paul M. Zulehner, Kenan Güngör, Maria Windhager, Petra Stuiber Series: Panels and Discussions Der internationale Frauentag war eine gute Gelegenheit, um auch über Männer zu sprechen. Das lange gepflegte Ideal von Männlichkeit, das Stärke und Härte voraussetzt, ist längst nicht mehr gültig. Frauen wehren sich gegen die Ausprägungen dieser „toxischen Männlichkeit“ – mit immer mehr Erfolg. Das hilft auch den Männern. Read more
	In guter Verfassung?	Wed, 04.03.2020, 18:00	Panels and Discussions	Miloš Vec Elisabeth Holzleithner, Heinz Fischer, Clemens Jabloner, Christoph Grabenwarter	In guter Verfassung? 100 Jahre Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz Wed, 04.03.2020, 18:00 Speakers: Miloš Vec Elisabeth Holzleithner, Heinz Fischer, Clemens Jabloner, Christoph Grabenwarter Series: Panels and Discussions In diesem Jahr wird das österreichische Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz (B-VG) 100 Jahre alt. Es gründete auf Verfassungskämpfen von 1848, übernahm Grundrechte von 1867 und stellte 1920 die Weichen für einen Aufbruch der jungen ersten österreichischen Republik in eine ungewisse Zukunft. Seither wurde es vielfach diskutiert, reformiert – und zwischenzeitlich sogar demontiert. 1934 wurde das B-VG durch die autoritäre Maiverfassung ersetzt, die Nationalsozialisten verabschiedeten sich erst recht von jeder rechtsstaatlichen Verfassungsidee. 1945 trat das B-VG wieder in Kraft und gab die Spielregeln der Zweiten Republik zwischen Recht und Politik vor. Welche zentrale Rolle und Bedeutung der Verfassung zukommt, haben die Ereignisse des letzten Jahres einmal mehr unter Beweis gestellt. Der 100-jährige Geburtstag sollte Anlass sein, ausgewählte Aspekte des B-VG in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft zu diskutieren. Read more
In guter Verfassung? 100 Jahre Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz Wed, 04.03.2020, 18:00 Speakers: Miloš Vec Elisabeth Holzleithner, Heinz Fischer, Clemens Jabloner, Christoph Grabenwarter Series: Panels and Discussions In diesem Jahr wird das österreichische Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz (B-VG) 100 Jahre alt. Es gründete auf Verfassungskämpfen von 1848, übernahm Grundrechte von 1867 und stellte 1920 die Weichen für einen Aufbruch der jungen ersten österreichischen Republik in eine ungewisse Zukunft. Seither wurde es vielfach diskutiert, reformiert – und zwischenzeitlich sogar demontiert. 1934 wurde das B-VG durch die autoritäre Maiverfassung ersetzt, die Nationalsozialisten verabschiedeten sich erst recht von jeder rechtsstaatlichen Verfassungsidee. 1945 trat das B-VG wieder in Kraft und gab die Spielregeln der Zweiten Republik zwischen Recht und Politik vor. Welche zentrale Rolle und Bedeutung der Verfassung zukommt, haben die Ereignisse des letzten Jahres einmal mehr unter Beweis gestellt. Der 100-jährige Geburtstag sollte Anlass sein, ausgewählte Aspekte des B-VG in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft zu diskutieren. Read more
	Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams	Tue, 25.02.2020, 10:00	Panels and Discussions	Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova	Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams Tue, 25.02.2020, 10:00 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions In the past decade, many have spoken of the “crisis of democracy” due to the rise of populism in Europe, both in the East and the West, in the Union’s member states and in the aspiring member countries. But is democracy really what is at stake and in crisis nowadays, or is it a whole set of political-ideological values that are termed “liberal”? Can we argue that democracy is not a value system but an empty form of a political organization, a syntax that can be furnished with different semantics, including that of the illiberal world view as Viktor Orban has proposed years ago? Read more
Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams Tue, 25.02.2020, 10:00 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions In the past decade, many have spoken of the “crisis of democracy” due to the rise of populism in Europe, both in the East and the West, in the Union’s member states and in the aspiring member countries. But is democracy really what is at stake and in crisis nowadays, or is it a whole set of political-ideological values that are termed “liberal”? Can we argue that democracy is not a value system but an empty form of a political organization, a syntax that can be furnished with different semantics, including that of the illiberal world view as Viktor Orban has proposed years ago? Read more
	Manufactured Alienation	Mon, 24.02.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda	Manufactured Alienation The Construction of Political Distrust and the Rise of Oligarch Power Mon, 24.02.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia Boris Johnson turned the recent UK election into a referendum on the character of politics, and won by making democracy miserable. Based on years of investigating the dark money funded institutions which drove Brexit in the UK, undercover reporting across Europe, and street interviews with voters from Hungary to Spain and Scotland to Italy, openDemocracy’s Adam Ramsay detailed how elite networks of the super-rich and ultra-conservatives are sewing discontent with (neo)liberal democracy, and argued that progressives must embrace radical democracy. Read more
Manufactured Alienation The Construction of Political Distrust and the Rise of Oligarch Power Mon, 24.02.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia Boris Johnson turned the recent UK election into a referendum on the character of politics, and won by making democracy miserable. Based on years of investigating the dark money funded institutions which drove Brexit in the UK, undercover reporting across Europe, and street interviews with voters from Hungary to Spain and Scotland to Italy, openDemocracy’s Adam Ramsay detailed how elite networks of the super-rich and ultra-conservatives are sewing discontent with (neo)liberal democracy, and argued that progressives must embrace radical democracy. Read more
	Freedom and Solidarity	Mon, 17.02.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Piotr Kubasiak Wojciech Bonowicz	Freedom and Solidarity Józef Tischner’s Life and Thinking Mon, 17.02.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Piotr Kubasiak Wojciech Bonowicz Series: Seminars and Colloquia In Poland he is remembered as an intriguing personality and a spiritual leader of the Solidarity movement. Abroad, mostly as co-founder of the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna. A boy from a Polish village who became a profound interpreter of Husserl, Heidegger and Levinas. A Catholic priest inspired by a Jewish philosophy of dialogue, trying to bridge different philosophical and religious traditions. What should we know about Józef Tischner? Can he still inspire those trying to understand what’s going on in Poland, in Europe, in the Catholic Church? Read more
Freedom and Solidarity Józef Tischner’s Life and Thinking Mon, 17.02.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Piotr Kubasiak Wojciech Bonowicz Series: Seminars and Colloquia In Poland he is remembered as an intriguing personality and a spiritual leader of the Solidarity movement. Abroad, mostly as co-founder of the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna. A boy from a Polish village who became a profound interpreter of Husserl, Heidegger and Levinas. A Catholic priest inspired by a Jewish philosophy of dialogue, trying to bridge different philosophical and religious traditions. What should we know about Józef Tischner? Can he still inspire those trying to understand what’s going on in Poland, in Europe, in the Catholic Church? Read more
	Award Ceremony for the Inaugural Emma Goldman Awards	Thu, 13.02.2020, 18:00	Visual and Performing Arts	Cornelia Klinger Mieke Verloo Shalini RanderiaFlorian Duijsens	Award Ceremony for the Inaugural Emma Goldman Awards Thu, 13.02.2020, 18:00 Speakers: Cornelia Klinger Mieke Verloo Shalini RanderiaFlorian Duijsens Series: Visual and Performing Arts The IWM is pleased to announce a collaboration with the FLAX Foundation, a newly founded independent foundation. Starting in 2020, the FLAX Foundation will issue awards to talented and engaged scholars of feminist and inequality issues in Europe, to support their research and development. The IWM will host two Emma Goldman Fellows each year, beginning in 2020, until 2025, funded by the FLAX Foundation. Read more
Award Ceremony for the Inaugural Emma Goldman Awards Thu, 13.02.2020, 18:00 Speakers: Cornelia Klinger Mieke Verloo Shalini RanderiaFlorian Duijsens Series: Visual and Performing Arts The IWM is pleased to announce a collaboration with the FLAX Foundation, a newly founded independent foundation. Starting in 2020, the FLAX Foundation will issue awards to talented and engaged scholars of feminist and inequality issues in Europe, to support their research and development. The IWM will host two Emma Goldman Fellows each year, beginning in 2020, until 2025, funded by the FLAX Foundation. Read more

Past Events

Current Fellows' research