Botstiber Visiting Professorship

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The UC Berkeley Austrian Studies Program welcomes applications for the 2024 Botstiber Visiting Professorship

The Austrian Studies Program at the UC Berkeley Institute of European Studies is pleased to welcome faculty applications for the position of Visiting Professor, to teach the newly created Botstiber Compact Seminar in Austrian Studies, established with the generous support of The Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies (BIAAS) as well as the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation and the OEAD.

The next Botstiber Compact Seminar in Austrian Studies at UC Berkeley will be offered at the beginning of the Spring 2024 semester (5 weeks, starting January 16, 2024, ending February 17, 2024).

We invite seminar topics related to Austrian literature, history, or culture, in the broadest sense. Interdisciplinary approaches and themes are encouraged.

Eligibility: Any associate or full professor with a permanent teaching position in the Humanities or Social Sciences.

Details: The compact seminar is an official UC Berkeley course, offered for credit (2 units) through the UC Berkeley Department of German, to advanced undergraduates from all UC Berkeley departments. The course will be taught in English, with all reading materials in English, and will take place over 5 weeks, with three hours of instruction per week, plus office hours for meeting with students. All classes are in person. Selected professors are expected to remain in Berkeley for the entire 5 week teaching period. 

UC Berkeley is a premier university, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Visiting Professor is required to be physically present in the Berkeley area for the duration of the course and may be asked to teach the compact seminar in the German language. The Visiting Professor will receive a salary of $12,000 to cover teaching, travel, and accommodation costs.  The salary will be subject to both California state and United States federal taxes, in accordance with the UC Berkeley employment and payroll practices. Visiting professors must organize their own travel, accommodation, and health insurance coverage during their stay at Berkeley. The visa application and hiring process will be coordinated by the UC Berkeley Department of German, where the visiting professor will be based.

During their stay, the selected Visiting Professor will also give a public lecture—the “Botstiber Lecture”—at the Institute of European Studies. In accordance with the mission of The Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies (BIAAS), the public lecture should refer to the historic relationship between the United States and Austria, including lands of the former Habsburg Empire.

Application Instructions: Applicants must submit the following materials (in English):

  • a CV (max 2 pages)
  • a course description and syllabus with weekly course content and bibliography (max 2 pages)
  • a brief description of up to three possible topics for the Botstiber Lecture (max 1 page)

Please submit application materials as a single PDF file to the Austrian Studies Program Director Jeroen Dewulf: jdewulf@berkeley.edu

Deadline: May 31, 2023

Proposals will be evaluated by a board composed of UC Berkeley faculty that will announce the selected candidate by June 30, 2023. The board will include a representative of The Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies (BIAAS) in the discussion on the topic to be chosen for the Botstiber lecture.

For further information, please contact Jeroen Dewulf at jdewulf@berkeley.edu

2023 Botstiber Visiting Professor Philipp Ther (Univ. of Vienna)

Philip TherThe Austrian Studies Program is pleased to announce that Prof. Philipp Ther (University of Vienna) has been selected as the 2023 Botstiber Visiting Professor. Prof. Ther will teach the Spring 2023 UC Berkeley Botstiber Compact Seminar in Austrian Studies, on the topic of "An Empire of Music: A Musical History of the Habsburg Empire (1780-1918)." This seminar will serve as an introduction to the rich musical history of the Habsburg Empire, which was essential for developing what we currently understand as “classical music”. Prof. Ther will introduce students to music in the era of enlightened reforms and aristocratic patronage (Haydn, Mozart), the crucial role of music and especially Beethoven for preserving and “Austrianizing” the empire during the Napoleonic wars, and music and politics during the times of Metternich's regime (Schubert) and the 1848/49 revolution (Johann Strauss father). In addition, the seminar will explore how music was crucial for nation building and shows the artistic productivity of liberal and democratic nationalism.

Philipp Ther (* 1967) is professor of Central European History at the University of Vienna. Previously he was professor of comparative European history at the EUI in Florence. His book Die neue Ordnung auf dem alten Kontinent. Eine Geschichte des neoliberalen Europa (Suhrkamp) was awarded with the non-fiction bookprize of the Leipzig bookfare in 2015. An English version titled Europe since 1989: A history was published by Princeton University Press. Earlier he published in English The Dark Side of Nation States: Ethnic Cleansing in Modern Europe, New York: Berghahn Press, 2014 (German 2011, Polish 2012, Czech 2017) and Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in 19th Century Central Europe, West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2014 (Czech 2008). He has co-edited twelve other books, his articles have been translated into fifteen European languages. His most recent books are a synthesis on the history of refugees in modern Europe: Die Außenseiter. Flucht, Flüchtlinge und Integration im modernen Europa, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2017 and Das andere Ende der Geschichte: Über die Große Transformation, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2019. An extended English version The Outsiders: Refugees in Europe since 1492 was published by Princeton UP in the fall of 2019. In 2019 he was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Research Fund. This award is endowed with 1.5 million Euros and is the highest recognition for scientists in Austria.