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Judith Kohlenberger
Austria Summer School Participant 2010 | I had high expectations for the two weeks of the summer school, and they were surpassed with ease. From the inter-disciplinary plenary sessions in the morning to the individual seminars in the afternoon and thought-provoking movie screenings in the evening, the summer school turned out to be an inspirational experience in every aspect. Frequently, our discussions continued after class and, in a more relaxed environment and with a glass of Styrian wine, well into the night. The location, beautiful Seggau Castle in the South of Styria, provides all the luxuries of a five star vacation, and yet does not fail to live up to its repute as a modern ivory tower. All in all, the summer school was a marvellous opportunity to broaden my academic horizon, to establish international networks, and, possibly most important, to make friends for life. Without doubt, summer schools, and above all those which are as fabulously organised, academically sound and personally enriching as the C.SAS Summer School on the Americas, are one of the best ways to spend the summer. |
Luis San Vicente Portes
Professor at the Department of
International Business
Montclair State Unviersity, USA Summer School 2010, Economics, Politics & Society | The University of Graz summer school at Seggau seamlessly brings together students, faculty and a variety of disciplines into the same realm. From shared meals to shared lectures all participants benefited from a truly inter-disciplinary approach in the study of the Americas. By drawing together a diverse pool of students and lecturers from around the world, learning drifts from the classroom, to conversations, to films, to roundtables. |
Cristina-Georgiana Voicu (PhD student)
Romania Summer School Participant 2010 | The Summer School rich learning experience allowed me to follow up particular interests for my PhD research, in terms of American experience. I decided to undertake Summer School ‘Identities’ seminar to spread out my work with my students and to have a more balanced workload across all areas of my life. I have found the Summer School The Americas: When one is not enough to be challenging and stimulating and taught in a relaxed learning environment besides the flexibility to focus in a particular subject of interest. The intensive nature of study really helped me to understand the information. It was like a ‘Journey into Otherness on the Road to the Americas’. During my staying at Seggau Castle, I really developed strong friendships in the smaller classes, which offered more interaction and sharing of ideas that really made it a much more enjoyable process. I also appreciated the academic staff of the University of Graz for their professional organization of the program. I am planning to come to Seggau in 2011 as well and I recommend this Summer School to anyone wishing to complete their degree quicker, and especially if there is a subject on offer they feel passionately about. |
Gary Francisco Keller
Regents' Professor & Director, Hispanic Research Center,
Arizona State University, USA Summer School 2010, Identities | The University of Graz’s summer school is a unique experience. It is much more than a mere opportunity to take extremely interesting courses. Carefully considered by a very attentive host university in Graz with its genuinely caring faculty and staff, every detail is planned in advance and carried out with panache. The Graz experience is splendid in every way because not only does it impart knowledge in a variety of ways such as courses, plenaries, lectures and films, it provides exciting and creative opportunities for good fellowship among students and between students and faculty.
Despite my grueling responsibilities at my own institution, I found the Graz experience so gratifying that I took on as an advisor two and possibly more doctoral students beginning their dissertations as well as a variety of additional graduate and undergraduate students.
I’ve been a faculty member since 1967 and I must say that the Graz experience rates among the very best. |
Rolando Hinojosa-Smith
Department of English, Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor, The University of Texas at Austin Summer School 2010, Literature | Although not a stranger to foreign students, my experience at Seggau was enlightening in many respects. First, I was most impressed by the students' enthusiasm, with their fitting in with each other during the individual reports and with the team discussion sessions. Second, I was also favorably impressed with their seriousness of purpose; the choice by the Graz University professors must have been a difficult one to have selected this group among the many applicants. As a teacher, one also learns from one's students, and I did as well from this, added which, I found the plenary sessions to be instructive as well as entertaining; the students' questions, by and large, were on point and this is always a blessing. In brief, Graz spent its money wisely.
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Beatriz Tomsic Cerkez
Assistant Professor, Head of the Department of Art Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Summer School Faculty 2008, Environment, urban & regional development Seminar II 2009 guest lecturer II 2010 Sustainability Seminar | Having the opportunity to participate in the summer school devoted to the »Americas« has been an exiting experience for various reasons. From a personal point of view, because as far as I was born and raised in Latin America, my reflexions on that piece of the world involve me in a very particular way and I enjoy dealing them with my students.
From an academic perspective, it meant an enriching research, interchange of ideas, experiences and points of view trying to understand and reformulate established images of a special continent with a multicultural audience interested in different aspects of life in America from culture to economics, from art, architecture, literature, film to law or linguistics.
I highly recommend participating in the summer school not only to those engaged in American studies, but to any of you who wish to reflect on the new paradigms of our multicultural, globalized world.
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Tea Lovšin
Slovenia Summer School Participant 2009 | I have really nice memories of that summer school :))
I have gained new knowledge from the subject which I also study in Ljubljana and I think it was really important for me to get that new knowledge from foreign professors which means - from new perspective. The debates which evolved thorough our module also gave me some material for my work at home university. But what I liked most of all was that I met new friends from Europe and from the Americas :) and I am in touch with them even now. This was really fun for me and because of that great experience I am planning to go to some other summer school in future.
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Hólmfríður Garðarsdóttir
Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, University of Iceland, Iceland Summer School Faculty 2008, 2009 and 2010, Film & Society module | Participating in the summer school on „the Americas“ for the last three years has been an extremely rewarding experience. Having the opportunity every summer to meet with countless people –staff, students and other professors - interested in the reformulation of ideas, concepts and terminology has been an interesting challenge. To promote the deconstruction of stereotypical images of life and living in the Americas, amongst the multi-nationally composed student population at the summer school, has been an exciting process of discovery. I truly look forward to the next summer school of 2011.
Now it‘s your turn, - hope to see you there!
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Bojana Rauker
Slovenia Summer School Participant 2009 | What I can say about Summer School 2009 is: ''I would do it all over again''. From the beginning till the end the whole experience was worth every single day. It wasn't only the Seggau Castle, where the Summer School took place, that gave beautiful atmosphere to the whole event, but it was more then this. Meeting participants from all over the world, hearing lecturers from various professors and opening a discussion with them, an amazing staff, relaxing evening events, movies All of this made the experience worth remembering. Different people from different countries and with different cultures were brought together in this 2 week period where we worked as a team - as we did while making a movie. Summer School is amazing opportunity to learn something more, to open yourself to new people and to go home richer for one big experience!
Don’t think, just apply. You won’t regret. I don’t.
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Ivan Grycuk
Brazil Summer School Participant 2009 | The 2009 "Nuestra America" Summer School was an amazing experience for me, from the summer school itself to the teachers, staff, and other participants. The place was also very well chosen, the Seggau Castle was the perfect venue for the event.
For me, personally, the Summer School experience was a turning point in the way I see the world. There were people from all over the globe and the mixing of all those people, cultures and lines of thinking in only one place, getting to know each other, making comments about the lectures, talking to the teachers and finding enough time to party and watch great movies is something you don't usually see. I highly recommend it!! It was great!!
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Emron Esplin
Assistant Professor of English and American Studies, Kennesaw State University, USA Summer School Faculty 2009, Literature module | C.SAS's summer school on the Americas offers students and faculty a unique opportunity to break down the equation "America = USA." I try to do this in my scholarship and in my typical classroom setting, but the summer school provides an ideal venue for re-approaching the Americas since scholars and students from throughout Europe and the Americas gather together in one place and spend two weeks dedicating their time and thought to this effort. I highly recommend C.SAS's international summer school on the Americas to anyone who is invested in inter-American studies, in American studies broadly defined, and to scholars and students in Canadian, Latin American, or U.S. studies who would like to enrich their work by placing it within an international context.
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Matteo Fiorio
Italy Summer School Participant 2008 | Two years ago, I was selected from the University of Bologna (Italy) and the University of Graz (Austria) to attend the Summer School program ran by the Center for the Study of the Americas of the University of Graz studying the topic "Under Deconstruction: How American are the Americas?" which took place from July 13th-27th, 2008.
The summer program has allowed me to explore from a different perspective the politics, law and history of this continent, that in our globalised society have lost many of its typical elements of distinctions. The focus of the theme on America's identity was also an opportunity to understand the effect of the recent "war on terror" and if it still reflects the view of the American society. Another interesting part of the program was the opportunity to experience directly on the grounds of a multinational environment, the approaching such program in a broad international and interethnic point of view.
This summer school program has been a multicultural and multiethnic laboratory of remarkable academic relevance where I had the chance to discuss and comment on a specific social, cultural and political reality typical of the Amerias. Gaining knowledge through analysis and evaluation of skills, which are of immense importance in the current political scene.
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Diana Stiuliuc
Romania Summer School Participant 2008 | The Summer School experience from 2008 was for me a unique, fruitful experience, since I generally enjoy working and sharing my ideas with students and professors from all over the world, in multicultural environments. I really appreciated the academic staff of the University of Graz for their professional organization of the program, for the friendly and welcoming atmosphere of the whole event and for the various activities which made my staying in Seggau very enjoyable. Moreover, the "melting-pot" -like laboratory of working minds during the lectures and seminars gave me interesting material and new ideas of research for my future Ph. D. thesis. It was an experience I would never forget and, therefore, I'm planning to come to Seggau in 2010 as well.´
Note from the organizers: AND SHE DID COME in 2010! |
Maria P. Waclawik
Poland Summer School Participant 2008 | In 2008 I attended the Summer School "Under Deconstruction: How American are the Americas?" under the Utrecht Network Scholarship which I received as a Jagiellonian University student. The opportunity to participate in the Summer School extended my knowledge on the subject of my academic studies and provided me with the new perspectives on different issues and concerns affecting the Americas.The excellent organization of the Summer School, the friendly atmosphere and the stimulating international environment as well as the natural beauty of the area are particularly worth mentioning.I am very grateful to the organization staff, the professors and my co-participants, who all made this event such an interesting experience. Looking back at those days now, I must say the Summer School was a real journey of discovery. |
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