On the Greek island of Samothrace, a team of researchers from Vienna have been investigating the interaction between human society and nature in order to prevent the collapse of the system. In this context, many local processes have been initiated to ensure a sustainable future for the island community. Continue reading “Waste, goats and a research project”
In the past, research on coalition governments in Central and Eastern Europe was limited to looking at how they begin and end. An international team of experts has now been the first to explore how they behave while in office. Instability and the strong influence of the party system are characteristic of Eastern European countries. Continue reading “How to form a coalition (and get it right)?”
The establishment of scientific knowledge is often associated with controversies. There is, however, little appreciation of the importance of emotions in this context. With the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the political scientist Anna Durnová has now analysed the role of emotions in various discourses starting with Semmelweis’s discovery till “post-truth”. Continue reading “Emotions are always part of the truth”
Constantinople in 1252 AD: an extremely learned theologian — a member of the newly founded Dominican Order, a talented linguist and a master of Eastern church studies — writes a voluminous Latin treatise Against the Greeks, a treasure trove of information about the Greek church and theology of his time not just for his local […] Continue reading “In the Silicon Valley of medieval research”
The minutes of the meetings of the Habsburg Monarchy’s Council of Ministers were largely decimated by the 1927 fire at the Palace of Justice in Vienna. Historians are piecing together step by step the records that did survive. Most recently their work focused on the years between 1914 and 1918. The issue of food shortages […] Continue reading “Welfare state born out of crisis”
In the context of a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, sound recordings of African prisoners of war made during the First World War were for the first time taken out of the archives and investigated. Neglected to date, these sources provide valuable audio testimony of the Great War, colonial policy of the […] Continue reading “The colonial echo of the First World War”
In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a research group led by psychologist Laura Bishop is investigating how people who play classical music together communicate with each other. To this end she is working on a computer system that can play music like a human being. Continue reading “Exploring communication in music ensembles”
A research team in Salzburg rewrites the origins of American theatre history. Their research reveals that theatrical life was more prestigious than previously assumed. Comedy in particular served as an important reflection of political circumstances, and it was also used by women as a medium for voicing their concerns. Continue reading “Women’s polemics and the American Revolution”
In antiquity, the Mediterranean area was a pre-global mega-region with a lively exchange system. Supported by the FWF, a research team from Innsbruck is reconstructing the influence that imports and innovations from coastal towns, where newly arrived Greek settlers lived, had on local power structures further inland at a cult site on Monte Iato in […] Continue reading “Looking for clues in the remnants of feasts”
With the advent of the postcard, written correspondence experienced a boost everywhere, including Lower Styria. A project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF now illustrates through postcards the coexistence and clashes between the German and Slovenian languages in the final decades of the Habsburg Monarchy. Continue reading ““Greetings” from Lower Styria”