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Elizabeth Engelhardt, Chair Burdine 437, Mailcode B7100, Austin, TX 78712 • 512-471-7277

Overview

Study abroad in Vienna, Austria, during May and June 2013!

MaymesterGroupThis intensive, four-and-a-half week course is part of UT-Austin’s Maymester Program, beginning after the spring exam period and concluding prior to the second summer session. Drawing on the perspectives from history, geography, and urban studies, “Memory and the City” investigates the ways in which cultural memory has shaped, and continues to shape, urban life in one specific place: Vienna, Austria. With the city as our laboratory, students examine theoretical discussions of memory and the city in a provocative geographical setting. We will visit museums that house the artifacts and attend the cultural events so important to Vienna’s collective memory.

Students earn three semester credit hours for the course, but will receive much more. According to those who have previously taken the course, it can be a life-enriching experience. In addition to the study of urban history, the course readings, the instructor and guest lectures, the films, the class excursions, and the meetings with Austrian students and teachers, perhaps the most striking feature of the program is the personal development and intellectual growth it fosters.

Participants speak about their experiences in Vienna...

"With eyes aglow, I dove into Vienna hoping to gain a better understanding of the construction of historical memory, and of the city itself. That definitely happened in my course with Dr. Hoelscher, but something else occurred as well. My own personal and intellectual evolution progressed rapidly and was, in part, an unexpectedly rewarding product of my four-week stay at 18 Dürergasse—my apartment right in the middle of the city. Experiencing a city like Vienna from within, as an inhabitant of the city, I began to flirt with an idea that cannot be articulated from an external perspective. Professor Hoelscher’s Maymester in Vienna is unlike any other course I have taken. Through class discussions on the lawns of Vienna’s public green spaces, I re-conceptualized my idea of being a student, my view of the world, and my place in it. Aside from the gorgeous palace where we had daily German classes, the walls of the classroom dissolve, and the city itself becomes a stage in which the intellectual dialogue unfolds.  At some point in the journey, the Vienna course ceases to be merely a class, and becomes a lifestyle. It provides a pattern for thinking which transcends your stay in the city, and a catalyst to get lost in something multifaceted and dynamic."

Read more about student experiences or you can watch an amazing video about Maymester created by a alumn Joseph Lam

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Department of American Studies in The College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin
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