41st AAAS Conference Graz 2014
We are delighted to welcome you to Graz for what promises to be a wonderful few days of discussion, reflection, and debate in an academic environment with a long history of scholarship: Our conference venue, the University of Graz, was founded in 1585 and currently has over 30,000 students. The conference “Space Oddities” offers a forum for about 60 speakers from Europe and the Americas, which shows how much interest there is in the topics and questions of urbanity, American identity, and cultural exchange.One of the aims of the conference is to bring together different branches of this vibrant field and explore interconnections and potential for cooperation. We hope you will find opportunities to network with people from different areas of specialization and will have the chance to make some new contacts for future projects.Naturally, organizing an event of this size means that there are many people who need to be thanked. In particular, we wish to thank all our sponsors for their generous support of the conference. We also want to express gratitude to all the plenary speakers, and the many panel participants for having taken the time and trouble to join us here in Graz. A special thanks goes to the wonderful team of staff and student helpers (Eva Bock, Thomas Hadley, Elisabeth Knittelfelder, Marilyn Sook Yuen Lim, Manuela Neuwirth, Sabrina Palan, Sonja Schmeh, Sarah Lahm, Walter Wenegger, Nora Wenzl) and all the other helping hands who have sacrificed much of their weekend to assist us! We very much hope that you will enjoy your time here at the conference. Please do not hesitate to contact any of the staff should you have questions or feel we can be of help. Have a wonderful conference!
Best wishes,The “Space Oddities” Organizing Committee
Stefan Brandt, Elisa Edwards, Leopold Lippert