I realized there are a lot prejudices around when it comes to summer schools. The following is trying to get rid of these prejudices and paint a clear picture of what a summer school like the GUSS really is like.

Prejudice #01: Only Nerds apply for a summer school. Wrong. I believe I am fairly normal and it turned out all other GUSS participants are fairly normal too. In fact they are good people with a good portion of humour and a fondness for good entertainment. This of course applies for both students and teachers.

Prejudice #02: Summer Schools are just like university. Seminars are crowded, professors don't have much time, if you want to think about anything you are on your own. - Wrong. The GUSS is nothing like university. As a matter of fact, GUSS is as university should be. Teachers and students live together. They take their meals together, they have their seminars together, they meet on the hallways and share their thoughts, and eventually they spend their leisure time together. Which brings me to number 03.

Read Martin`s whole report >>here<<.

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Jana Hulova
Slovakia
Summer School Participant 2011

Before coming to the Seggau Castle I had great expectations. However, all of them were surpassed with ease! I have expected high academic level, full program and far-reaching experience and experiences. Already on the very first day I realised how wrong I was!

In Seggau Castle you get to know people from all over the world. You are dealing with the certain problems and tasks from different points of view and you are encouraged to express your opinion on certain questions.

Morning´s plenary sessions broaden your view and you realize that also, for instance, economics has its human face or that the identity problem on the Mexico-US border has wider background than just purely cultural.

Thanks to the afternoon´s seminars you gain deep insight into the chosen topic and the multicultural classes provide you with the perspectives you wouldn´t even dare to think of before.

And the days usually finish with glass of wine and talks with friends and professor-friends about the topics we dealt with during the day or simply about life in different countries, cultures or continents.

What I really liked about the Summer School was the fact that we are from different fields of study, different parts of the world, of different age and work/study position enriched each of us.  It is no purely work time. These two weeks were great FUN and free time in swimming pool, dinner in Bushenshank and KARAOKE NIGHT are unforgettable moments that make me laugh even now.

For me, Summer School was not only great experience of two weeks. It is continuing – for example in my thesis that I shaped with my lecturer on the Summer School.

The toughest side of the Summer School is saying good-byes to all the friends you made. But as all stories we know from the Castles, they do not end with one good-bye. We finished the Summer School upon the hill with – keep in touch and see you soon friends from all over the world.

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Sorina Chiper
Romania
Summer School Participant 2011

Whenever I feel good and happy, I invariably take a nostalgic leap to my childhood days. Communist times: 2 hours of television only, with the luxury of occasional TV series from sister countries. One of my delights was a Czechoslovakian film – Návštìvníci – and the scene that captivated me the most was lunch: the visitors, in that distant, apolitical future, would squeeze some paste from a magic tube on a pill, and the two would mix, flip and turn with the speed of lightning, taking the shape and taste of numberless foods: meat, broth, bread, cheese, cookies, sausages, sauces, pickles and paprika, you name it! They had all been tamed and concealed, concentrated and miniaturized in a futurist paste that, once released on the plate, displayed, in quick succession, all its flavors.

Looking back on my two weeks in Seggau, I find myself staring, in amazement, as I would when watching Návštìvníci: it feels as if, unawares, by joining the summer-school I … squeezed out some paste from the “GUSS tube”, and I set myself for a wonder-full experience: food for thought, food for the soul, food for the heart, food for karaoke, tennis and volleyball, food for memories and new friendships, food for new projects and collaborations, food as inspiration, food as a privilege, food as commonality, food as the basis for community, food as harmony, food as excess, food for the printing press, food as culture, food from the nature, food for dreams and it seems... for unpredictably and creatively more.

My post-Seggau siesta is happy, indeed, and not yet complete; I feel enriched by all the people that I met, the films that we saw, the lectures and the seminars that we attended, the games that we played and the laughs that we shared. Compliments to the (organizing) Chefs, the teaching team and all the fellow students – now friends –, who have made the summer school a feast to remember and to wish to partake again!

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Katharina Golitschek Edle von Elbwart
Germany
Summer School Participant 2011

To me, GUSS 2011 was an overall great experience which I can only recommend. Meeting international students, listening to professors from all over the world, and being engaged in Inter-American studies during the whole stay is a possibility one should never disregard.

Before I came to Seggau Castle, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from two weeks of intense lectures, classes, and readings. I was positively overwhelmed by all the insights I could gain. I chose the “Identities” seminar which helped me a lot in understanding both political and social differences within the Americas. The different perspectives due to a variety of personal backgrounds from all over the world allowed different conclusions and further discussions even after class.  But it’s not all about studying; it’s also about meeting international students and professors over a glass of wine, and being engaged in a cultural exchange which not only widens your academic horizon but offers you an international network of colleagues who all share similar interests: The Americas: When one is not enough.

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Gillian Armstrong
South Africa
Summer School Participant 2011

The most important thing I can say about my trip to Seggau Castle was that it was FUN! I learned so many things; both about the Americas and European cultures, but also about myself. I have made solid friends and I have widened my network of international academics. I would strongly encourage anyone considering an exchange or summer school experience to go for it and give it your all!

..., the summer school gives you back what you put in. The best advice I can give is to grab the bull by the horns and give it your all. Ask questions. Speak to the lecturers. Made an effort to speak to each one of your fellow students. Ask about their country, their language. Ask about words. You will not be sorry with what you receive back and the experience will be a lasting and gratifying one.

Read Gillian's whole report >>here<<.

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Cristina-Georgiana Voicu (PhD student)
Romania
Summer School Participant 2010 & 2011

Statement 2011:
I really enjoyed my stay for the second time at Seggau Castle for the 2011 edition of International Summer School on the Americas. It was a great opportunity to meet new people from other countries. We come from different backgrounds, but really share so many of the same interests in the Inter-American Studies. In this way issues were raised which related not only to an Inter-American cultural identity, but also to a Latin-American alterity (in terms of Other: America as Other, Pan-Americanism, Interculturalism, The Chicano Movement) in the context of transcending cultural limits. I also liked the activities, because there was always something going on and something fun to do. The presentations and lectures were extremely relevant in providing material for practical group work and they were a natural source of academic discussion. I also enjoyed the free-form approach and the intensive style of the learning experience. The fact that everything happened right then and there made it challenging yet rewarding, because you always got feedback from the lecturers and other students. It was demanding, but thoroughly enjoyable, all of the participants being engaged and encouraged to exchange Inter-American ideas and experiences. Consequently, we had the opportunity to prove that the Inter-American identity necessarily becomes a hybrid between several cultures (the North-American, the Caribbean and the Latin-American one). Moreover, the Uni-Graz staff was brilliant, always there, always smiling, always pleasant. They seemed to take real pride in their work!”

Statement 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.

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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.

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Luis San Vicente Portes
Associate Professor at the Department of International Business, Montclair State Unviersity, USA
Summer School 2010 & 2011 -  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.

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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.

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Rolando Hinojosa-Smith
Department of English, Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor, The University of Texas at Austin
Summer School 2010 - Literature
Summer School 2011 - Creative Writing

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
Summer School 2009 guest lecturer
Summer School 2010 & 2011 Sustainability

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
Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, University of Iceland, Iceland
Summer School Faculty 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011 - Film & Society

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 & 2011 - Literature

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!

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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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